Thursday, February 27, 2014

It's Always Something

Being a homeowner can really suck. Sure, being homeless would suck much more, but it's always something when you are a homeowner. Today, it's the motor on the water pump for the pool. Which is currently being replaced. For which I am going to have to write a check for $1350.00.

It's raining, FINALLY, in CA. So, after my workout, while I was drinking my coffee and relaxing, I heard a very loud noise. It was either the printer in the office doing its weird adjustment thing where it randomly turns on, cranks out a noise and goes off again, or it was pounding rain. I looked in the office first because it did sound like it was coming from that end of the house more so than on the roof from rain. Okay, not the printer, but hmmm, that noise is louder in the far corner of the office, near the window. Pull up the blind and OH MY GOD water is gushing -- GUSHING -- out of something in the pool pump area. GUSHING. Like a crazy woman, I dial my husband's cell phone scrambling to find my sneakers. I put on my sneakers while practically yelling into his voicemail, "Call me emergency pool pump." (Just like that, no commas, no pausing, no sense!). Then I dial his office number (which of course I have to look up because I never call him on that) and get the damn voicemail again. Same crazy-lady message. Then I text "Call me emergency." Thankfully he called right away as I was opening the back slider to try to figure out what to do. He calmly talked me through turning off some switches. Phew. Thank God that worked.

Not only was it raining, I was standing in water that was just about covering the tops of my sneakers and in order to turn the power off, I had to stand in front of where the water was coming out of the motor and basically got about as wet as I would have had I just jumped in the pool.

Because CA has been in a 100+ day drought, we are supposed to be rationing our water -- don't water your lawn so much, don't do too many loads of laundry. Thankfully they haven't asked us not to flush. Anyway, should the water company be keeping track in a future effort to fine offenders, well, oh boy, we are gonna be on their list after today! I can't even imagine how many gallons of water spewed out of our backyard today. And I kept thinking, what if I hadn't been home?? Wow, that would have been AWFUL. I guess it could have potentially flooded the house. Yikes.

(I'm thinking there's something to use here when I get attitude from the "What do you do all day?" haters that can't handle the fact that I don't work. I take care of things, bitches)

Well, the pool guy is here now, replacing the motor/pump whatever-it-is. I'm certainly glad he could take care of it right away and that the rain stopped so he could do it today. I'm just not looking forward to writing out that check. Bye bye tax return money that was going to go toward a vacation.

Dare I say that this "American Dream" of being a home owner is really a nightmare?

Sigh. It's always something….


5 comments:

  1. Yup! It is always something. I had plumbing problems last spring. After many phone calls and plumber visits, the problem turned out to be the city's. I received a considerable refund on my bill but no apology or friendliness. Still, I would rather own my home than rent. My son rents. He fixes up a house and after a while he moves and the landlord gets back a much nicer house.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Yeah, ultimately, I'd rather own than rent. I just hate putting "unplanned" money into the house. Same with cars. And to add insult to injury, we had massive winds on Friday night/Saturday morning and two sections of our fence blew apart. One big gaping hole and and lots of about-to-fall-down pieces. Sigh. More money out the door, less tax return to spend on something fun.

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  2. Was the pool guy cute?

    Our water meter is leaking all my carpeted bedroom floor. It took me two days to figure it out. A city guy is going to replace it for free tomorrow at 8 am. That never happens, but I guess the water meter belongs to the city.

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    1. Nope, pool guy is not cute. He also thinks I'm an idiot -- one of those "do you need to ask your husband first" types. I'm not an idiot, I'm just not really interested in how the pool runs. Just get it up and running and my husband will take over from there. My husband is much more interested in the mechanical stuff. I am not. Again, doesn't make me a dumb blonde, just a disinterested one. Sigh. Oh, and as I just replied to Janie, part of our fence blew over in a wind storm on Friday night. Ka-ching -- more money to be spent. Granted I could be in 10 feet of snow and ice and be without heat; I know this hardly compares. But, still, it's just so all-at-once. Can't enjoy getting a tax refund in the mail. :(

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  3. pretty nice blog, following :)

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