The House That Keeps Falling Apart (!!!)

You know that saying “when it rains, it pours?” Well, it looks like we’re getting all kinds of drenched over here for yet a 3rd time this month, ugh… First we had our water heater debacle where we needed to replace the whole dang thing, then our main bathroom needed to be gutted of its mold and redone (pictures coming soon!), and NOW bathroom #2 is acting like a fool up in here :(

I feel like someone is trying to tell us something?  Like, “GET OUT NOW!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING???” Jeez… right when I started thinking maybe I could do this home ownership thing…

And you know what the sad part is?? This “new” problem has probably been masked for years and years and years!  Only we had never known about it because we rarely take showers in our own guest bathroom (and rarely have any overnight visitors for that matter too, sad face :().  So when we started using it while our main bathroom was getting its entire makeover, you can imagine our surprise when we realized it was leaking puddles all over our downstairs floor!!  I couldn’t believe it.  Two bathrooms broken at the exact same time, what a mess…

What makes it even worse was that my very first thought was – as always – that Mr. Bob was acting up again :(  Which only re-lived memories of his passing all over again in my state of deflatedness. I wasn’t a happy person that day.

But at the same time, what are you gonna do right??  You can wallow all day and night for as long as you want, but it never ever changes the circumstances at all (which of course, obviously sucks), and at some point you just have to suck it all up and deal with it.  So after a few hours of mumbling curse words to myself and taking long, sun-soaked, walks to help clear my head, we called back up our handyman and asked for (yet) another bathroom estimate.  This time to the tune of about $700 (the pipes AND drywall needs to be fixed).

We have yet to schedule it all in as yet, but I reckon in a few days we’ll just rip the bandaid off and hopefully be done with it all once and for all.  And maybe we’ll sneak in another estimate or two this time around as well – which we didn’t do much of last time.

In the meantime, I’m staying away from all other showers in this house :(  We’ve got one more left on the “un-broken” list in my blogger basement (although maybe I should check up on that one too while I’m at it?) and if that one went to $hit I think I’d just about lose it over here…  Which wouldn’t be good as our baby’s coming in 5 weeks! Can you imagine how miserable it could have gotten if it was all happening at the same time?  Ouch.

But how awesome is that?!! Our baby boy comes out in 5 more weeks!! Yayyyy!!!!! This house can crumble down as long as it wants, but it’ll never take away the joy of our soon to come newborn. Just gotta keep focusing on that :)  And I have a feeling that little booger’s gonna put a lot more things in perspective too – I’m ready for it.

—————
(Sad clown by Mel B)

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21 Comments

  1. Call Me What You Want Even Cheap May 30, 2012 at 8:53 AM

    It sucks when you are constantly dishing out money to fix things. But like you said on the brighter side, you’re little one is on his way.

  2. Michelle May 30, 2012 at 9:27 AM

    That really stinks! We had something similar happen with our kitchen pipes. Hopefully your house repairs end with this one!

  3. Money Beagle May 30, 2012 at 9:29 AM

    All those worries will fall away (at least for a little while) when you see him for the first time! Keep it in perspective.

  4. Brian May 30, 2012 at 10:14 AM

    Only 5 weeks! Do you have the baby’s room all ready?

    We are pretty close. We painted the bassinet over the weekend (it was my dad’s; pretty cool my grandmother kept it). We have everything major done, now it is the “boring” stuff to get ready!

    5 weeks will come really quick! Go see a movie or something before doing that will be much harder

  5. From Shopping to Saving May 30, 2012 at 10:18 AM

    Awww sorry J$! I know it’s stressful but hang in there! Baby boy is coming soon and you will forget about everything once you see your son’s face :) Who needs to shower these days anyway??

  6. J. Money May 30, 2012 at 11:23 AM

    Thanks guys :) I hate to always be putting out negative stuff out there, but man – what a crazy last few weeks… thanks for always trying to cheer me up and put things in perspective! It def. helps.

    @Brian – YUP! We’re getting there! All we have left is some decorations to put up, and I think we’re set… probably missing a lot of stuff, but we’ll manage ;) Hope you get to sneak in some downtime too, my friend! We’re about to go on the adventure of our lives! Woo!

  7. Joe @ Retire By 40 May 30, 2012 at 11:27 AM

    Sorry to hear that! Hope this one will be the end of your plumbing problems.
    5 weeks to go. Are your bags packed? It’ll be such a crazy memorable time. I’m sure you will have a great time with your son. My kid’s last day at daycare is tomorrow and we’ll see how I survive with him at home after that. :)

  8. DebtsnTaxes May 30, 2012 at 11:44 AM

    If it makes you feel any better we are going to have to replace our hot water heater soon. Although I will probably do the work myself to save a little bit of money, plus I’ll get help from my brother-in-law who works for a heating/cooling/plumbing company. Hopefully it’s not that expensive. Hopefully this is the last thing that you have to deal with before your baby is born, you will have your hands full after that.

  9. Chris May 30, 2012 at 12:51 PM

    Did you check with your insurance company on this one? If a plumber determines it is a burst pipe rather than a leak your insurance might cover the repairs and any damage.

  10. Craig @Daddysbroke May 30, 2012 at 12:54 PM

    I feel the same about my car quite a bit. There are the good times and the bad times. Just keep paying down that mortgage so it isn’t that big of a deal! Keep it up man!

  11. Mac May 30, 2012 at 1:43 PM

    These kinds of things do tend to happen all at the same time. I laughed when I read about “ripping the bandaid off.” Unavoidable (and painful) expenses can feel that way, but likewise are only a temporary setback with good planning and time to heal.

    Even with the bit of financial hurt and teeth-gritting, at least you’re not completely stopped in your tracks. The budget will swallow up those expenses over time and you have the joy of your new baby boy ahead. This was a good personal perspective for me.

  12. Shannon-ReadyForZero May 30, 2012 at 5:17 PM

    Way to focus on the positive! Hopefully everything will be taken care of by the time your new addition arrives so you can just focus on that!

  13. Christa May 30, 2012 at 7:05 PM

    How terrible! I don’t know how I’d react if in my very-pregnant-can’t wait-to-deliver state I had 2 bathroom reno projects going on. Just gettin the nursery ready was stressful enought for me. Good luck with the renos and with your baby boy!!

  14. Sense May 30, 2012 at 8:21 PM

    Oh no! It sounds financially AND emotionally draining, what with the dear pet reminder and everything. Those are the worst, it just all piles on top of one another in a (momentarily) unbearable heap. But I guess that is what EFs and virtual hugs are for?

    I wouldn’t worry about putting the negative stuff out there if it is very sporadic like this, plus it’s YOUR blog. And honestly, it is sometimes good to hear that even the seemingly most together and popular PF bloggers can relate to other peoples’ woes. I’m glad you were honest about the house troubles AND your state of mind.

    Congrats on the dwindling countdown…5 weeks, holy smokes, where did the time go?! I’m very excited to see the posts afterward, although I’m sure none of us would fault you if you took some time off. ;)

  15. Lance@MoneyLife&More May 30, 2012 at 8:48 PM

    Good news is you can’t have too many more bathrooms to fix up. Hopefully the basement one is fine. Home ownership definitely comes with a lot of problems that renting didn’t. Luckily mine were mostly things I wanted to change not things I had to change so far.

  16. Serena@ThriftDiving May 31, 2012 at 4:27 AM

    You may have mentioned this before but WHY OH WHY do you not have a home warranty?!?!?!? Seriously, I know some people think they are wastes of money, but how can you debate the relief you feel to know that something’s gone awry in your home and all you have to do is call the home warranty company and pay a $60 copy for someone to come fix it?? It’s a no brainier to me, honestly, because things WILL break…. They WILL leak…. And it makes sense to pay a yearly cost of about $450 to cover ANY of those repairs: plumbing, electrical, stove, dish washer, disposal, AC, heater… Need I go on? We’ve had our butts covered on more than one occasion from something that’s broken and we just call them to replace or fix it. Bottom line: piece of mind.

  17. Serena@ThriftDiving May 31, 2012 at 4:28 AM

    That’s *co-pay, not “copy”…. Damn auto correct….

  18. Serena@ThriftDiving May 31, 2012 at 4:30 AM

    Peace, not piece. Ugh!!!! Lol I am really a better speller than this………

  19. J. Money May 31, 2012 at 9:44 AM

    @Joe @ Retire By 40 – Woah! You’re gonna have loads of fun! haha… my wife thinks I’ll end up being best friends with my boy, and will never want to do work again ;) That would certainly be an interesting thing if it happened, but we’ll see! All I know is I’m ready for him to finally make an entrance into this world – it’s taking forever!
    @DebtsnTaxes – Well that’s awesome you have so much help over there to keep costs down – good thinking for sure :) I hope we both stay away from more things breaking!
    @Chris – We have not checked witn insurance yet, but I know our duductible is around $400-$500 if I recall correctly, and if the repairs will be around the same anyways, figured better to not even mess with it so it stays away from insurance raising later too – ya know? I hate thinking like that, but it’s sad when you do cuz you’re afraid of then needing to pay mor down the road… oh well, such is life I guess.
    @Craig @Daddysbroke – I’m trying to! Haven’t given up yet! :)
    @Mac – Thanks my friend – always gotta do our best to stay positive even though this $hit sucks sometimes ;) We’re gonna have a lot of ups and downs in these lives!
    @Shannon-ReadyForZero – I hope so! The timing of it all is the only thing that makes me smile here, so thank goodness for that :)
    @Christa – Thanks Christa!! I’m doing my best to keep my wife calm and collected, that’s for sure :) Really glad we got our nursury all set up too before most of this started happening – whew!
    @Sense – Thanks so much :) I love your virtual hugs! hehe… and appreciate the honest feedback too w/ this blog and everything… the old me starting out would just gush out whatever it is that was in my head – the good, the bad, and the ugly – but nowadays I try to stick w/ the positive cuz there’s so much junk out there in the world right now… so when I get in these types of moods it’s always hard for me to put it out there on the site :( But as you said, I do like letting people know that we ALL go through tough spots no matter what our backgrounds or budgets are at/etc. We really are all in this thing together, ya know? So thanks again for putting me at ease :)
    @Lance@MoneyLife&More – That’s def. nice :) I remember once I needed a new muffler system for my car, and then someone rearended me and ended up paying for the whole back side – including muffler – to get it all back to normal. That was perfect! Haha…
    @Serena@ThriftDiving – Haha… you’re funny ;) And I agree with you actually – just not sure if you can pick one up after you’ve lived in a home for so long? I can def. check on that – we used to have one and I loved it! – but I alaways assumed it was for when you first moved into a home only? Def. a good idea though, thx for the reminder :)

  20. Miriam June 1, 2012 at 12:11 PM

    You have three showers in your house! Then you don’t get to complain. I have 1 shower plus two additional half bathrooms and there are TWELVE people living here! (yes I have a whole lot of kids.) I wish I had even two showers!

  21. J. Money June 2, 2012 at 2:27 PM

    Wowwwww, that’s a lot of people sharing! You guys must have a great rhythm down :) But don’t wish for things unless you want the bigger mortgage payments too! haha… we def. bought too much house than we should have back then… lesson learned.