old house

"What's wrong with your sink?" asked my mother-in-law as she poured out the dregs of her coffee. If only I had an answer. What's wrong with my sink? Well probably the same thing that was wrong with our toilet and bathroom sink and roof and front steps etc. Old house. Ah yes, home ownership, what a grand concept. Yes, owning a home is better than renting, so they tell you. It's an investment others say, well maybe when one was actually able to sell their home and make a little profit. Now owning a home just seems like another job and I'll tell ya, I've had plenty of those, jobs that is. Buying your first home, never a prouder moment. Realizing that all the important stuff was already rigged by the previous owners, irritating. The cheap shower install that covered up the bathroom window, nice. The leak in the pipe that became a torrential downpour of, how do I put this eloquently, pisswater all over our kitchen counter, again, nice. The unintentional skylights in our garage roof while I was pregnant, lovely. The faux marble formica and "oak" laminate bathroom vanity that I lived with until our more recent bathroom redo. Ugh, the list goes on. So far in the oh, 9 years we've lived in this house we added a new furnace to replace the harvest gold monstrosity. New garage roof as well as one for the house. Luckily that one was due to hail damage and came courtesy of the insurance company. Eighteen hundred dollars of bathroom plumbing to fix those issues only to be left with a running toilet that hissed at us day after day only to find out it was a "flapper" causing the problem. Thanks dad for fixing that one. The bathroom renovation that lasted the summer I was pregnant. Worrying and barking orders at my poor husband and father as they tried to turn the 1980's country look into my white subway tile dream before the baby arrived. We also added a low deck, stone courtyard, pergola and pond to the back yard as well as extensive perrenials to the front. So nice that the roofers destroyed part of that. Oh big sigh. Now the city where I reside has a big issue with some peeling paint trim and unpainted front steps. We have lined up the painter, agreed to the estimate yet somehow we are not moving fast enough for these folks. After that is finished, we redo the kitchen because the lovely bathroom leak has caused my old cabinets to warp a bit along with the slightly crumbling wall made soft by my now dead 200 lb dog's slobbery splashy water drinking. Not to mention the myriad of interior paint colors and 4 different dining room tables until I found just the right one. Lord, I think I may have to yoga breathe as I write this, so tense that it makes me. Thankfully I love my home. Despite it's issues this home has been good to us. I have been able to use what I know to make it cute and charming and this is where we brought home our son.  Painting the exterior and one more major redo this spring to bring my kitchen into the 21st century and than the For Sale sign goes up. It's a cruel joke, home ownership. You work hard to turn your house into a home and than you sell it. Now, where is that plunger? Good night world.