So we purchased a place in Austin at the beginning of the fall. That, by the way, is where we’re staying on this trip. In our new home, aka, The Money Pit.
It probably appears I have abandoned not only my own blog, but reading all of yours. I swear that’s not the case, it’s just that all my time has been spent trying to work out problem after problem with our place. I wrote a little last week about discovering the refrigerator was about to blow, and then realizing two hours later the dishwasher is also broken. Those two things are only the tip of the iceberg. And please, don’t ask me whether or not we checked the appliances before buying. No, we didn’t. It never occurred to me to run the dishwasher when we checked it out over the summer. But you damn well better believe that the next place we buy, I will check every damn switch and plug.
Needless to say, we are more than a little stressed. Yes, we planned to make a few changes and knew we would have one significant remodel. Hell to the no did we know we’d start bleeding money from the get go. We figured we’d be able to do things slowly over the course of time, but suddenly there are all sorts of issues that must be addressed right away. I have cursed the assholes we bought the place from on an almost hourly basis since our arrival. There’s a special place in hell for people like them. We spent two solid days cleaning, and that was just to make it habitable. It would seem that the moment we put on offer on the place, they stopped cleaning. Crumbs, pubic hair, puke, you fucking name it, it was somewhere in this joint. We took photos of everything when we looked at it in August, and so we are absolutely certain the carpet was in pristine condition then, now, ugh, I won’t even go into details. It’s, like, bio-hazard disgusting. The mere thought of it makes me angry all over again. For anyone it would have been horrible, for a germaphobe, it was like a death sentence. I raged for days, not only because they were such revolting pigs, but also because we willingly handed them money to take over the home.
And, to make things even more interesting, we hired a contractor to do some work which was supposed to be complete two weeks ago, and still isn’t done. So tomorrow we will have two different people here working on two projects, just in time for one of my in-laws to show up. Awesome.
As you can imagine, my husband and I are bickering. We spent a couple of hours at Lowe’s today looking at shit, and while I didn’t count, I’d say there were at least a half dozen snide comments per person. After having a little food, we’ve called a truce and decided to not spend the remainder of the trip at each other’s throats over stupid stuff like what kind of dishwasher to get.
On a positive note, we did have a lovely Christmas. Yesterday my dad and I made the drive to visit my grandparents, which was wonderful, and tomorrow my father-in-law gets into town. In spite of all the drama, seeing our family has been fantastic.
We have another week before we return to California, so I wouldn’t be surprised if my posts continue to be sporadic until we get home. I hope all of you had a happy and stress-free holiday!
