Homeownership, pt.2

Today I changed another bathroom faucet. It's not like it's brain surgery, and it's not like it's serious heavy labor, but it leaves a definite pain in my ass. Actually, it left a definite pain in my hands. I think I injured my hands in just about every way that it's possible with a wrench (torture excluded). I'm not what you'd call extremely mechanically inclined. I can read instructions, and I can even improvise a few things, but no plumber is ever going to concern himself with competing against my work. I guess at least when you turn on the faucet, water comes out. It even gets down the drain without puddling somewhere it's not supposed to, but truly I hate this kind of shit. I've become quite good at furniture repair (courtesy of five years working at an auction house/antiques shop), and I can now install light fixtures like a pro, but put me in position under some pipes or wiring, or give me a drywall patch to do, and I become about as useful and cranky as a six year old who hasn't eaten in the last ten hours. I'm not sure what the next project will be. It's either going to be kitchen renovation or tearing out our deck and building a new one. Of course, we still need to replace the ceiling in the other bathroom (see the Homeownership blog) which will also necessarily include tearing down the wallpaper and splashing some paint on the walls, and probably putting down new flooring. That's assuming that my piece of shit Volvo doesn't completely break down before I get to any of those things. (My next blog: My Piece Of Shit Volvo)
Talk to ya later.

Homeownership...

My companion, Alex, and I have been living in our house for about nine years(?) now. We decided to go ahead and buy the place this year, mostly because we could get a mortgage for about the same price as our rent. I'll leave out the boring details, but financially it was a good move. We did this just a couple of months ago. In fact, we haven't even made our second payment yet! One of the first things we decided to do was to get cable hookup. We needed to have the internet on our home computer, so we just bought the bundle. The house has never had cable put in it, so the installer had to do the whole shebang. While doing it, he put one of his legs through the ceiling in our office. The company he works for promptly sent someone out to repair the ceiling, and they did a good job with it, so really besides the cleanup after the initial break, it wasn't a big deal. Well, about a week and a half ago, I noticed water dripping from our a/c vent in the bathroom. Before two days had past, a good portion of the ceiling in there was wet, dripping, and stained. To make a long story short, we had to have our a/c unit replaced this past week. The bathroom ceiling now needs to be replaced too. Now, it's been a long time since last I was a homeowner, and I remember the cost and work that can be involved with it, but two months/two ceilings is getting a bit ridiculous. This certainly has the potential to be a cumbersome adventure. I feel like the warranty just ran out on my car!