Just after Thanksgiving we made a discovered a waterfall, not on safari, but in our dining room. This sort of thing happens to people who have 90year old houses. Iron pipes can build up blockages worse than a fat guy’s arteries.
Let me tell you something, it is impossible to overestimate how big a home project will be or how long it will take. Home improvement is like a California wildfire, it rapidly spreads from room to room and eats up everything in its path, costing untold fortunes.
As a teacher I’m always hearing about the 3 R’s, “Readin, wRitin, and aRithmetic”. When I used to teach History and I’d get to FDR’s program during the Great Depression, it was “Relief, Recovery, and Reform.” Anybody who’s ever owned a house understands that it’s neither of those. The real 3R’s are Repair, Remodel, and Refinance.”
They couldn’t get at the upstairs bathroom without tearing up the kitchen ceiling and one wall… as long as the kitchen is tore up, we may as well fix it up, it will never be so easy and it would just cost more to do it later… may as well deal with the downstairs bathroom, it’s given us so much trouble too… as long as we’re working on this other bathroom, why not put in a shower downstairs…knock this wall out… widen that, redo this.
Come to find out, our antique “knob and tube” wiring combined with our antique shredded paper insulation were a recipe for disaster. It’s a wonder that it hadn’t burned down years ago. And of course, when it rains it pours; no sooner had we decided to make the first floor bathroom into a bath/laundry room then both our washer and dryer went out. The appliance paramedics declared one dead on the scene and the other in critical yet stable condition.
Needless to say, with no bathrooms or a kitchen our house became temporarily unlivable. We started out taking the kids to the farm every other night for baths, then stayed for supper. One weekend the folks went down to see my brother-in-law’s family in Kansas and came back to find we’d taken over.
It’s certainly been a challenge for everyone to adjust to each other’s “UFOM.” That’s family counselor speak for Unified Family Operating Model (UFOM).
For example; one family may place knives and forks sharp-side-up to insure that the utensils get clean in the dishwasher, whereas another family unit may be used to placing them sharp-side-down so as to prevent severe injury when reaching to empty silver wear from the dishwasher. I’m not complaining, honest.
Empty-nesters only do dishes about once a week, once the dishwasher finally gets filled with dirty dishes. Young families sometimes run their dishwasher more than once a day. The same goes for washers and driers, which may explain the lack of longevity of ours.
Recently retired, I’m sure Marge and Allan would love to sleep in till at least eight and enjoy the paper with some coffee and get reacquainted. Instead, their houseguests are all up at six and frantically getting their hair and teeth brushed and clothes on just in time for some Captain Crunch before going off to school.
Retired people never really eat. When they do, they enjoy delicacies like lettuce and oatmeal. Whereas young families eat things like Catsup casserole garnished with Ketchup and carbohydrates.
It’s been quite an adjustment for all of us, although I have to say that it’s been easiest on those of us who are eight and under. For Beth and I, it’s been a traumatic ordeal. For the folks I’m sure it’s been an inconvenient sacrifice. For the girls it’s been a month-long pajama party and Grandma and Grandpa’s.
When we started, we thought we’d be able to move back in by the end of the month. That was February. For a while, we held out hope that we’d be done in time for Easter. At this rate, we’re planning on using our summer vacation to finish up.
I already promised my in-laws that once all the work is done and we’re back in our own house, they’re welcome to come stay with us for at least a month.
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