It is absolutely mind boggling how much it costs to "fix up" your house. It's a fee here, a labor cost there, throw in a bit of tax, and their cut, next thing you know, you've just payed a company well over a grand just for some carpeting. "Oh, it looks great", that's what almost everyone says, but I'm thinking maybe I'll start charging an admission fee to see my carpet if it looks so great to everyone else, because it cost us up the wazoo.
So, we said to ourselves "We'll just do this part ourselves", as we approached the task of painting the whole house. Not too bad of a job, a bit tiring but it "looks great", and it's cheaper than paying a painter. Well, at least cheaper in the labor department. We arrive at the local Lowe's and suddenly that D-I-Y job is costing us another couple hundred in paint, primer, brushes(and you'll need every different kind of these, those corners just aren't going to work with a roller), etc.
Now, we've pulled the trim off and, WHAM!!!, we're wondering how in the heck they even got the trim on with all those gaps in the drywall. Off on another wonderful journey to Lowe's, couple hundred more later on new trim, drywall putty, and some drywall to patch the bigger holes, and wow you have something else that "looks great".
Standing back I'm like "Wow, we did it, it looks....", but I'm interrupted by my fiancee saying "Not yet, we've still got this, this, this and that to do". And, I feel my shoulders slumping, my heart fall down to my knees, and the urge to just go to sleep for a couple days.
It's a never ending struggle to "work on" your house, and there is no short supply of men and women willing to swindle you out of what little money you have, after paying all the bills that also go with a house, for a half ass job.
And, that's just the inside of the house that I've been ranting about, you've still got a lawn to make nice enough for the city not to give you a ticket(they'll ticket you for just about anything, make sure your trash cans are out of site), a roof to check for leaks, make sure those gutters are cleaned out, and, Oh no, those darn weeds are sprouting up again.
Yep, this is the life, owning a home is the greatest thing in the whole wide world. Tsk, Tsk, if only everyone knew the joy of this, uh huh.
Though I must admit, I've lived in a lot of apartments and the strange noise at 2am, the drug deal going on next door, and the tiny little side lawn( 4 kids and a tiny lawn, if you want any sanity left, this is near impossible), nope don't miss any of those things.
The yin and the yang I guess, grass is always greener on everyone else's side(yeah right, take a closer look at that grass, is that spray paint ?).
Well, I am off, off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of..... Sorry about that, we've had the kids all summer(time for school to start again, thank you God), I'm off to continue the wonderful, exciting, sometimes overwhelming, very expensive task of taking care of our house.
JoJo, i know exactly what you mean, but it's more overwhelming when you're alone doing most of it. hmm, if only i could train my dog. hmmmmmmmm, then we'd be rich and i could pay others to do my work around the house! come here Vader, come here. Mommy has a treat for you. lol
ReplyDeleteLove, Moo