Friday, June 6, 2008

Contractors R Us

Ahhh, the joys of home ownership...

The romantic ideas you have when moving into a historic house.... quiet nights by the fire, sipping tea on the porch, having friends and family over for a cook out...lovely! And then reality sets in. Gee, this is a lot of work! Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our place, but let me tell you it is a LOT of work. We did many renovations and repairs over the last 7 years and thought we were pretty much done. Well, evidently, you are NEVER done with an old house.

Over the last month we replaced one old carpet, a second one that needs replaced soon thanks to a finicky cat, got a new oil tank, got the 50 year old one dug out from the ground, and had (what seemed like) ten tons of mulch delivered for the flower beds. Now there's a fun job for ya... hauling stinky heavy black mulch around and spreading it out in every bed. Feels great on the back. Okay, I have to admit it looks really good, though.

This week the air conditioning broke and the regular guy that services it decided he didn't want to service it anymore. He actually told me to try to find someone else. Thanks, buddy! Of course, we have a 300 year old farmhouse and the previous owners thought it a great idea to put the ac unit in the teeny tiny crawl space we call an attic. Not exactly a dream gig for anyone. Luckily, I did find someone who would do it and they are coming on Monday. I told them to send their thinnest and most agile worker! Two years ago squirrels got into the attic, chewed threw the floater balls, and the condenser or something overflowed and flooded the bedroom below it. The AC was acting funny a couple days ago and shut off in the middle of the night so I ran upstairs to inspect. Yep...wet spots on the ceiling. Thank God I noticed it before it got worse!

So in addition to the fun going on at the top of the house, the bottom has been a joy as well. Heavy rains produced a fair amount of flooding in the basement so now I have yet ANOTHER contractor coming Monday to dig out the base of the gutters and pipe and replace to get the water to run away from the house. Thought that problem was taken care of long ago. Fun, stuff, I tell you. A ball of laughs.

Hey, at least all this has gotten my mind off the adoption now and then. And I still have my sense of humor! Last night I went for a well deserved, much needed massage and bought a cute pair of red Fit Flops. Feel like a new woman today. Ready to tackle whatever else life has in store for me. I think. Okay, within reason, please God!

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