Mom: What's with the crazy weather?
A.: Today was actually warmer. But it was iced over in the morning so there was a delayed opening at work.
Mom: It was that icy?
A.: I don't know how icy it actually was--I didn't go outside until later in the morning--but it was supposed to be icy enough that they decided on the delay.
Mom: What did you do?
A.: I did my taxes.
Mom: How much did you owe?
A.: I broke even on federal and got some of the state taxes back.
Mom: Enough to cover the roof?
A.: No. The roof is going to be $9,000.
Mom: Ha! Do you know how much our house cost?
A.: I know how much your house cost in 1981.
Mom: The point is, that's a lot of money.
A.: I know it's a lot of money. What would you have me do?
Mom: I'm just saying, it's a lot.
A.: What's your point?
Mom: My point is, it's a lot of money.
***
I've been handling the roof thing remarkably well, mostly because it's pointless to get upset about it. It is what it is, and when you buy a house you accept that you can potentially end up spending ridiculous amounts of money on unpleasant surprises. The latest surprise: in the course of getting a leak fixed (for several thousand dollars), it was found that I don't actually have a roof; the membrane was laid directly over the rafters, with no insulation or anything else. So the whole roof--including the newly fixed membrane that I just paid for--will have to be replaced. Are there other things I'd much rather spend the money on? Of course. Can I handle this, because I have an emergency fund? Of course. Is stressing about it going to make it any less expensive? Is dwelling on just how much money it is--especially in proportion to how much whole houses cost in the early 1980s--going to make the situation any better, in any way? No? Then shut the f* up. Except I would never say that out loud to my mother.
The whole conversation reminds me of when mom first visited a few years ago. At the grocery store, she grabbed a real estate magazine and proceeded to flip through it and point out how much less all those houses cost, for how much more space. That they were out in the exurbs was not important to her--she just found perverse pleasure in rubbing in how much I had paid and would be paying to live where I live. To which I can only shrug; it's worth every penny.
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i kindly call our home our personal money pit. i think we drained most of our savings last year and maybe year before due to unexpected home repairs, spaced nicely throughout the year. i refer to 2012 as the year of the home repair. didn't make me happy at all. it ran the range of septic system repair, to leaky pipes b/c our bathroom reno wasn't done properly in some spots to mold in the crawl space and spending the money for a long term fix for that. now, if everything goes well, we're going to purchase a new home in the next month and a half and rent this one out. i'll have to work on rebuilding our savings after we close.
also, i have become a tattle tail. i cannot stand when that visitor comes to our work area. 3 hrs today on his second visit. and they talk about the injustice of the work they should be doing and how it could be done better/different....but it's not like they do work anyway. i have found leaving the work area the best way to deal.
also, i don't use my yahoo email anymore, the prefix is still the same but it's at gmail
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