Keep Bleeding, Keep Keep Bleeding

...money. Not love. Is that song stuck in your head now? It's certainly stuck in mine. ;)

Let's have a little chat. I started this blog to document our home adventures. I try to keep it sunny over here on the blog, but life isn't sunshine and roses all the time, right? So, let's chat about the not so pretty side of our home adventures, shall we?

Back when we first looked at our home mere hours after it went on the market, we fell for it hard. I mean, you really can't beat the curb appeal and natural light this house offers and the location is stellar. There were, of course, some cons like the fact that the house has small bedrooms, a small-ish kitchen with no pantry, and a hill for a backyard. But, the pros far outweighed the cons and we put in an offer while we were still touring the house.

One thing we noticed while touring the house, though, was that while it was not ancient, it was hitting the age where the major systems needed to be replaced. The windows, roof, water heaters, and most of the AC units/furnaces were original to the home circa 1998. We knew that these things would likely start breaking in the next 5 years, so we braced ourselves for the inevitable storm of expenses. And that's where we are today... In the storm of expenses with a tornado sucking the money right out of our wallet.

So, here's the not so glamorous home projects we've been doing the past several months. I haven't blogged them in real-time because they are a total snooze fest! But, this is part of the journey, so I'm giving them to you today!

First, two windows rotted. They were wood and were not looking too hot when we first bought the house. We held off as long as we could, but finally had to buckle down and replace them with new vinyl windows. Holy cow, windows are SO expensive!

Funny story... I may have chased down the window installer in the driveway as she was hauling out the old windows and asked her to keep them. Thankfully, she understood my crazy and handed them over, even offering ideas for what to do with them. Ha, love it!

Cute, right? And "free"! 

Next thing to go was the main hot water heater. It was so bad that even turned on the hottest setting, we couldn't make it through a shower without running out of hot water. We also noticed that the gas pipe was corroding, so we went ahead and got it replaced. Warm showers abound! Yay!

Our dishwasher has given us trouble for a couple years now, but thankfully it was operational enough to use. The top rack brackets broke 2 years ago and the repair man saved us major bucks by securing the rack with heavy duty zip ties. Now why didn't we think of that?! Then the rinse aid compartment broke shortly after that, so we constantly had cups drying on the counter since they weren't drying in the dishwasher. Drying dishes by hand? Ain't nobody got time for that.

But, then a few weeks ago, the dishwasher started stalling out in the middle of the cycle. The repairman was out THREE times and changed three parts to no avail. It was decided that the control panel was bad ($$$$), so we finally put a stop to the madness and bought a new dishwasher. Cha-ching. That one hurt, because the dishwasher was not old at all and should not have had so many troubles! Do yourself a favor and don't buy a Samsung! Our new Whirlpool dishwasher came today and after a month of hand washing dishes, I kissed it and declared it my new best friend. ;)

And you thought I was kidding... 

Think I'm done? I wish! In the midst of the dishwasher troubles, our downstairs AC unit started making loud noises and working really hard. Then, it started working so hard that the floor was vibrating when it was on. Yeah, not good. Turns out, the blower fan went out and needed to be replaced. Our AC and furnace share the same blower fan and it happened to be located inside the furnace. The furnace was original to the home in and was already 5+ years past what they normally last. Instead of dumping hundreds of dollars into fixing it just for it to die soon, we replaced the furnace. It felt very strange to be replacing a furnace in 100 degree heat! But, now our AC works like a dream and is so quiet!

Oh yes, and our garage door opener went out. We've just lived without it for a while, but as soon as we can find time, we are going to try to tackle replacing that ourselves. Wish us luck!

Whew, that's a long, depressing list, huh? In a way, it's relieving to get some of this stuff done. We've been living with the knowledge that these things would break soon, so it's nice to get some of it off our minds. BUT, I'm just praying nothing else goes out for a while! Enough is enough!

I'll be back next week with more fun posts than pictures of water heaters and furnaces. Ha! Happy weekend!

Blog Beginnings

Welcome to my new blog! I'm excited to have a place to record our latest projects! My hubby and I just purchased a new home, so we have a blank slate to work with and lots of projects up our sleeves. Our first house was a foreclosure that we fixed up and made home. We loved that house, but a new job on the other end of town warranted a move to avoid the hour commute that was bogging us down and robbing us of precious family time with our little one. There are so many times I bemoan the fact that we didn't take before/after photos of our first house. This blog is my attempt to record the projects that we do to our new home...and maybe toss in a few recipes and randomness here and there. :)

And for your viewing pleasure... 

Here's a picture of our first home I snapped on our last family walk around the neighborhood before moving...sniff! It was newer than our current house, but needed a lot of cosmetic work when we first moved in. I'm sure I'll be sharing many stories about that. ;) I still really miss this house and the familiarity and hominess of it--and my neighbor! 

And our new house! It was move in ready, which was great during this season of life considering we have a toddler and my hubby is trying to write his dissertation. The previous owners took good care of the house and made a lot of tasteful improvements to the house which we are enjoying! 

The houses are so different, but I love them both and am thankful for them! I can't wait to make our new house feel more like home!