This post is full of whining, complaining, and is quite frankly, bitchy. If you're not in mood for such things, please read no further.
Murphy's Law states: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And it has. At the moment, I am regretting buying a house while my husband is still in the military. Often, I'm here alone and as all military wives know, Mr. Murphy and his stupid law come in to play as soon as the ship leaves or the boots leave the immediate area. It is in full swing here and the white flag is up and waving in hopes that it will leave me and go bother someone else. When my husband is home and something breaks, I deal with it until he gets home and then 9 times out of 10, he knows how to fix it. Me on the other hand...I've been spoiled all my life with my dad or Navy housing fixing things. I know how to fix SOME things, but plumbing is one of things I know nothing about.
The house we bought was built in 1993, so while not brand new, it's not crazy old either. But EVERYTHING IS BREAKING. If it's not something breaking, it's me not knowing how to work things. Like our heat, it's forced air, I had never heard of it until we bought this house. It took DAYS, phone calls/texts, and my parents coming to visit for me/us to figure it out. Attic unit...turn it on...open 2 valves on the water heater. Done. I wish our inspector had told us how to turn it on because I was incredibly frustrated. Lowe's is coming out to give us an estimate on a new AC unit soon, and I'm going to ask about changing our heating up as well. I want a heat pump on our AC unit, like every other home I've ever lived in has.
We had a flood in the upstairs bathroom.
The tub faucets in said bathroom are shot, we couldn't even run a bath, only a shower. Then the drain plug wouldn't work. (Thanks Daddy for fixing that!)
In our kitchen sink, the sprayer nozzle started leaking. Then it eventually became stuck open and then slowly the pressure left our main faucet. It's only in the spray nozzle now. I've been told by a friend that we need to change our valves and I've been told by my dad that it could be a clog in our line/faucet. I don't know. I'm so freaking afraid of plumbing stuff that I'll deal with it until my husband gets home. I just know I'll break something off and won't be able to use my sink at all. At least now I can wash dishes with some difficulty via the spray hose.
Our fireplace is a death trap apparently. Somehow, our inspector, who is paid to tell you the things wrong with a home you want to buy, missed it. He said it needed to be cleaned, that there was damage to the flue, and when I asked him if we could use it before cleaning, in case an emergency arose, he said, "Absolutely." Turns out that if we had built a fire in our fireplace, we'd have died or the house would've burnt down.
See those cracks in there? Our chimney sweepers said carbon monoxide or one tiny ember could've gotten trapped in those cracks (there are more than this one) and more than likely would've caused my family to die of CO2 poisoning. We contacted our realtor to let him know about this "mistake" the inspector made, because for God's sake, this is dangerous, someone could die. He was kind enough to send another company out to get a second opinion and they agreed, our fireplace is totally worthless. However, they said it would cost $1,800 to repair instead of the $4,000 the first company quoted us, but still. This was something we were told worked properly and doesn't, we were not expecting to spend money on it. And further more...I was looking forward to building a fire in our fireplace and snuggling damnit. There goes my winter!
Everything just keeps coming and coming and I'm ready to see the light at the end of the tunnel on home repairs. We'll always want to fix stuff, or upgrade, but we JUST bought this house and it seems that we've had problem after problem. One thing I do know for sure though is our next realtor will probably hate us. We were so blinded by the thought of owning a home that we missed so many little things when we looked at this house. Our next home will be newer (I'm actually hoping to be able to build) and we'll be checking so many little things that we overlooked here. Tub faucets. Screens. HEATING. PLUMBING. It will have a newer roof and a damn good AC unit. Newer appliances. Weather stripping. I know even newer homes have issues, but maybe not as many as this one is having. Not to mention, the next time we buy, my husband will be out of the Navy and home every night to help if something does go wrong.
I am going to do some research, maybe see if Lowe's or *gulp* Home Depot offers classes on home repair because this is getting old. I got really down on myself yesterday, I just feel stupid because I don't know the first thing about fixing some issues here, and those who know me best know I hate feeling this way.
Now that I've had time to reflect on things, I do not regret buying a house. I regret that we didn't further our search. We wanted our kids to stay in their school district, and here we are. We have a great house, it just needs some work. Unfortunately, at the moment, it's work I know nothing about, but hopefully I can change that soon.
