Home owners manual

Well, not really. But sometimes I wish I had one or had written one after we bought our house. There is so much that goes along with owning your house. For instance, everything is YOUR problem. E V E R Y T H I N G. Dead cat (and you don't own a cat) at the end of your drive way, your problem. Water leaking in the basement, your problem. Depth of water in the basement threatening your whole heating system, your problem. Rodents coming in and out freely, your problem. No water flowing from the tap nine days after you move in, your problem. Pieces of your roof laying on the ground, your problem. Grass too long, your problem. Grass dying, your problem. Moles tunnelling through what is left of dead lawn, your problem.

Our house is small, on purpose. It is perfect, although it was a dump when we got it. We did a significant amount of work prior to moving in. But we did not do much work after we moved in. I was pregnant and King Daddy was working his second job. No time to deal. So we did nothing of note. We seem to be driven by entertaining deadlines. We always get things done right before Thanksgiving. I use the term "we" loosely. King Daddy is the implementation specialist and I, the project manager. And this year it is no different.

I re-painted the living room weeks ago. Only after two failed attempts. The first color looked like a bad diaper and the second color looked like a circus peanut. I tried hard to convince myself that the color was fine and it was just the light. But my self convincing was not long lived. Oldest came in and said, "Oh, mom I love the orange walls." NNNNNnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I knew I would have to repaint it. And I did, the color is fantastic! King Daddy installed all the new trim today.

Too bad the dead lawn with it's anastomosing tunnels will take all the attention due my fabulously redone living room.