And Not a Drop to Drink

It has occurred to me on more than one occasion that if you own an old house, you had better enjoy fixing things.  That can mean replacing, rebuilding or redesigning; but if you choose to do nothing, you can be assured that the house will fall apart around you.  Things are going to break or wear out. Sure - this happens with all houses, but around here it seems that for every thing we fix, at least one more breaks.

Sometimes it feels like it is impossible to keep up with the flood of constant care required to keep an old house in shape.

Speaking of floods, last November Ms. Huis said to me one morning, "Mr. Kluges you need to come to the basement." She had that tone. We all know that tone. One that portends bad news. I didn't ask on the way down. Sometimes it's just better to get the experience first hand. This is what I saw.

It really wasn't a surprise. We've been in the house now for 13 years, and the water heater was not new when we moved in so I knew it was going to go at some time. But 13 years of experience has also taught me that sometimes when a picture is crooked, we end up deciding to remodel a bathroom.  Okay, so maybe that exact example didn't happen, but one thing always seems to lead to another.

The good news was that we still had hot water, and that the water was only leaking, not gushing. I mean, at least the bottom hadn't fallen out. After so many years of dealing with leaky roofs and gutters, 90 year old knob and tube electrical wiring, clogged pipes, tornado damage, collapsed sewer lines, and numerous non-domesticated mammals, a minor leak on an unfinished basement floor was a "meh" event. We'll get it fixed.

We're on the back side of this now, but just like every other project in this house it was not as easy as it could have been.