Home Repairs

I didn't know until a friend told me that the "personal profile" sections of these blogs automatically link your profile to other people of like interest. For example, I put as one of my interests "working with children." If you click on that phrase, it will show you other bloggers with that same interest.

Curious as to whether anyone else shared my deep love for home repairs (pipe down, I was just curious), I clicked on that link. Wouldn't you know it, not one single name came up.

This past weekend, I decided, was going to be a home repairs weekend. My Uncle Jeff was coming down from Greenville to put in a much needed hot water heater, so it was a good time for me to devote some time and attention to things in the house needing time and attention.

So...I went to Lowe's (mistake number one) and bought some light fixtures to replace the bare bulbs and wires that are currently hanging out of my ceiling. While I was there, I found that they had carts of wall paper border on sale for $.50 cents a roll. Well, the price was right, anyway.

The only problem was that they didn't have enough of any of the borders I liked. So, I had to drive to another Lowes, (where they were not on sale for $.50 cents a roll) in order to get enough.

While I was in that Lowes, I found some light fixtures that I liked better than the ones I had bought at the first Lowes, so I bought those and planned to take the others back. I also bought a new mailbox, because mine is falling apart.

But when I went to fix the mailbox, I discovered that I needed more than just a new mailbox, I needed to some items to fix the post as well because it was also falling a part. That was fine, because I needed to go back to Lowes anyway to take the light fixtures back. I had borrowed a truck for the water heater, so I decided this would be a good time to go ahead and also get some other large items I needed. And while I was there, I started looking through the wall paper border bins again...Anyway, you get the idea.

Saturday I went out to rake my front yard and between my cousin, Chris, and I, we raked up 18 bags of leaves from my overgrown trees out front. It felt good to finally get those leaves out of the way. Except that the raking reminded me that I need to have a few of those trees taken out. Once I get the trees taken out, I need to re-seed the yard. Of course, if I actually had real grass out front, I'd need a mower, and edger...maybe a lawn service.

Just as all this is going through my head, my neighbor across the street come over and asked me if I wanted to borrow his mower to mow my lawn. A neighbor offering you a lawn mower, I figured, is kinda like a friend offering you a breath mint. The right answer is yes.

Turns out, he is a professional landscaper and he had a riding lawn mower that I could borrow for my tiny little front lawn full of trees. I was afraid I'd do something to the mower. "Don't worry," He said. "Just keep it out of the draining ditch and you'll be fine."

I'm sure I provided plenty of entertainment as I started, stopped, and lurched around. I went over an ant hill. Then he told me it would be a good idea to stay away from ant hills. I mowed while he watched from across the street. Then he came over and suggested I empty the bag.

I did not drive the mower into the drainage ditch, however, I also did not mow the grass around the ditch. So between the ant hills and the grass around the ditch, it still looks a little ghetto.

The water heater did get replaced on Saturday. Twice. The first one had some kind of a leak that got in the electrical system and probably would have blown me up. Then Uncle Jeff went to replace one of the light fixtures and when he removed the previous light, the charred remains of the box that was in the ceiling came down on my while tile floor. I now have a hole in my ceiling instead of a light. My uncle is a trooper and he has offered to come again soon and replace the box...and possibly my garage door...which is another story...

Then Monday, Anita came over to help me hang wall paper border. Unfortunately, the stuff I bought for the kitchen from the second a Lowes was a close, but not exact, match to the stuff I got from the first Lowes. We didn't discover that until we had started hanging it. Now I need to find a third Lowes.

But it's all for a good cause. Yesterday I had some company over and they said the house was nice. Very "homey" I think they said..."Not at all like a fixer upper."

It made me think about how much work has gone into that place and how little of it was mine. So many people have pitched in to help me paint, and fix, add, and repair...it's humbling to think about how many people have given of their time and energy for my place.

Like me, you may have found that the general rule of thumb with home projects is "twice as long, twice as much." But there's something to be said for home repairs...after they're done, anyway.

The moral of the story is, stay away from Lowes, unless of course, you plan on at least three trips.