The Money Pit of My Life
Did you ever have one of those years in your life where you felt like ever dollar you have ever made was just slipping out of your hands?
Yes. Right. Well, this is one of those years for us.
We knew that the house budget would run 3x the original estimates people gave us. We planned for that. That's why we figured that the entire project would take us a little less than a decade.
We did NOT budget for EVERYTHING breaking in the FIRST year. I mean, BEYOND house. Like, car. Pets. Health. Family stuff.
It's as if everything that would cost money over the span of 10 years decided to give up the ghost in the FIRST year. Bam! Fall apart.
I am anxious. And I feel like sniffling. And I feel like laughing hysterically. The key quailfier being "hysterically." Actually, if my head rotated on my neck like the chick from The Exorcist, I would not feel at all surprised.
So, that giant slurpy sound you hear? Either it is our money being sucked into a black hole or my morale being sucked out of my body. Or both. Probably both.
So, now we have had to divert house funds to buy the following things to replace those things which have recently died...surprise.:
A NEW (used) Subaru Outback. I can't fix on whether I feel like a soccer mom or a really tough chick on the way to the lumber company. Anyway, a car with a rear end larger than mine...I can handle that.
Our old laptop (from my old job) died. I wish Tonka would make laptops for folks working in the trades and home improvement. Which means, the REALLY REALLY old desktop in the backroom is what we have right now. The VPR Brand was Best Buy's Own brand...I loved this thing. Maybe a little too much.
My prescription drug coverage copays go up! And UP! Whoo hoo! $200/per month for normalcy...do they work though? Heck yeah. 'Nuff said. Many folks don't have that.
The water heater you already know about.
Ah! Here's something new! I had unhinged the storm in the guest room so we could divert the exhaust from doing the bathroom outside. Totally forgot to refasten it. I've discovered that you can move pretty quickly at 5:00 am when a big crash of glass happens outside.
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Comments
My gosh, the money we spent making the 2nd floor habitable, trying to upgrade from the 70's, cars, pets, computers, teenagers!, and now unemployment, and college expenses. So much BM paint and runs to Home Depot/Menards... After having multiple cats for 30 years we learned something new - cats have to eat or their liver will fail. For some unknown reason one of ours stopped eating and now we have $$ vet bills and feeding with a srynge multiple times per day to see if we can keep him alive until his liver possibly regenerates. If you haven't already, try giving yours additional litter boxes and maybe additional dry food/water locations. If you changed his litter, change back or to something less deordorized? Once we found out that our cat was misbehaving because DH was using lysol to clean & spraying around the boxes with lysol regularly. The smell upset him. Which is kindof ironic. Anyway, we know what you mean about the money stress.
Posted by: Lauren | March 12, 2004 5:16 AM
We've been living in our '46 bungalow now for two weeks and I'm beginning to have a sense of what you just described. We have this weird electrical phenomenon that affects our light switches. If you don't flick them just the right way, either the switch shorts itself or it just refuses to work. Unless it's the one in our bedroom which will turn on for you, but then turn off and on whenever it chooses. Just last night I said to my husband... Looks like we'll be getting our electrical taken care of sooner than we thought. In our house, there is NO QUESTION where the money goes. Into the black hole...
Posted by: Beth Ann | March 12, 2004 7:38 AM
I had to take a loan from the bank of dad, which I HATE to do, to replace an aging car and was hoping to have some extra for house projects. Instead it unwittingly became a debt consolidation loan. It's almost gone, I have to start paying it back and I still have projects undone. I like the Outback! Of course, this from someone who traded a Honda for my friends' Jeep Cherokee (they bought another, just newer, and this one has carried SO much stuff from lumber yards since they gutted their house!) Meanwhile, I'm thankful for only $80 in med co-pays (but skyrocketing premiums and visit co-pays) and two cats who have not yet "done a Dave." Hang in there.
Posted by: Kristen | March 12, 2004 8:00 AM
I feel your pain. We moved into our cute circa 1920 bungalow in January 2003 and had one of our cars totaled a month later due to water damage. Oddly enough, the PO's somehow neglected to mention that there is a naturally occuring spring on the hill directly behind our house and it runs copiously even in below zero weather and forms a glacier - the car ended up encased in over 18" of ice, which reached into the engine block. Of course our garage is structurally damaged, but we were lucky the house foundation was spared (even with the 12" of ice that was built up). It wasn't quite so bad this year, although the ice was over 6" in the garage and ruined the sensors for the garage door opener, but then we did know enough to sandbag this year. So this is the year of the landscape architect and "sweaquity" for drainage in the backyard.
We had to replace our furnace this year (included asbestos abatement), and we'd hoped to have gotten at least a couple of years off the old one.
Posted by: Marie | March 12, 2004 9:26 AM
Hang in there! Things will get better. I know, easy for me to say ;) but they always do. I'm sorry to hear about your kitty's problems. My friend's cat is doing the same thing only...ugh...her dog is...uh...ingesting the products. I'll say no more.
Once part of our apartment ceiling fell down on our dog at 5 a.m. We don't live there anymore
Posted by: Sandra | March 12, 2004 11:21 AM
We've been there...the week before we moved in, a pipe blew in our basement...soon after we discovered a leak from the upstairs bathroom into our dining room ceiling - UGH - launching us immediately into expensive and uncosmetic (no wow factor) renovations. Our dear old kitty passed away from kidney failure as we were closing on the house. (The 6 mo before that were spent in numerous trips to the vet...)
Once we had dealt with the plumbing issues,our tenant moved out and we realized that space would need to be gutted and upgraded before we felt ok about renting it again.That took 6 months!
Repeat to yourself "I have faith in a future I cannot see..." Take deep breaths...you will get through this. After 5 years we still have unexpected expenses and detours...but now we look at each other and say what else can POSSIBLY go wrong with this house?! Hang in there, you are not alone...you have a great house and it will still be there when your bank account recovers.
Posted by: sharonk | March 13, 2004 2:19 PM
Hang in there! You've got plenty of company! We've been in our 1932 bungalow two weeks and had to replace the hot water heater and fix the bath to shower lever in the tub within the first three days. Also, the previous owners pointed out a small crack in the basement that leaks a few times of year when we get freakish rain. Well, it hasn't leaked, but we've found several more!! Did I mention I'm due with our first child in 9 weeks, my hubby's unemployed and is going full time at DePaul (super high tuition bills). Luckily our PO's took all their stuff, but they had SO much of it, that we missed a lot of flaws on the walk throughs. And on and on...
It will get better.
m.
Posted by: Margot | March 13, 2004 8:46 PM