The One With Our New House

I know I have been horrible. There has just been so much going on. So much to attend to.

Getting the house ready. Entertaining some guests. Struggling to figure out how in world to pay for $4000 in medical bills.

Yes, Charming's bills for his hospital excursion came. And because the hospital we went to is not covered by his insurance we have to pay half. We are working with Charming's brother to see if we can do something about this since we were not told his insurance didn't cover his emergency room visit, even though we carefully checked their website before going and found the name of his insurance listed. Little did we know the large name at the top of the card was not in fact the name of Charming's insurance, but rather the small type in the lower right hand corner. So we are pleading with the hospital and the insurance to help us out. Because we just don't have $4000 to pay those bills. And then my car needed new rotors and a battery. And Charming's motorcycle is leaking from the front forks. Like our bank account, hemorrhaging money faster than we can make it.

The only thing we need now is for me to get pregnant and the tableau will be complete.

Our new house has been a struggle to get together as well. We have hit a couple of roadblocks we were not expecting. The main concern was when Charming went to replace the kitchen faucet and discovered the valves under the sink wouldn't turn off. So he went to turn off the main water valve. That one wouldn't turn off either. And the valve in the street was real loose. So we called a plumber. He replaced the kitchen valves (and replaced the faucet since he had everything undone any way) and has plans to come back and fix the main valve. Until then I can fret about a pipe bursting and not being able to turn off the water and the whole house flooding.

Because that is how my brain works.

Other issues are as follows:
~The other faucets are hard to turn on and off and the shower feels like you're pulling the pipes right out of the wall when you turn it on. Combination of shoddy workmanship and lack of use. Since this house was a vacation home and the previous owners only used it maybe half a dozen times in the past fifteen years everything is in pristine condition but also disintegrating from lack of use.
~All of the curtains I have are just short enough to not work in ANY of our windows. And we have A LOT of windows. I haven't decided if I am going to put up any curtains or not because it would be a huge expense.
~This house is much bigger so the electricity and gas bills are a bit of a concern. Therefore we have the A/C set higher than usual which makes me hot. But at least the ceiling fans help.
~There was only cable in the family room and the master bedroom and phone only in the kitchen and the master bedroom. We wanted cable in the guest bedroom. So in order to do that Charming had to go up in to the attic, run cable across the house, cut holes in the guest bedroom and fish the cable out from the attic. It was not a fun process in 100 degree heat.
~In putting away my Christmas dishes in the extra cabinet next to the fridge I discovered the shelves were cut a good inch too short and were barely resting on the shelf pegs. They came crashing down when I went to put some bowls on them. Shoddy workmanship again. So Charming had to cut me new shelves.
~The master bedroom doors scraped against the carpet something fierce. We could tell it would start to wear the carpet before long. So Charming shaved off the bottom of the doors.
~And since he had his power tools already out I had him cut the end of a cutlery tray off since it wouldn't fit in any of the drawers in the kitchen.

Slowly put surely we have gotten all the little quirks figured out. Like how we can't change the faucets in the bathroom because the fixtures underneath would have to be changed too to match up since they are too old. So we will live with the faucets that a bit hard to turn on and off. And the carpet is like a comb for the cats, I am constantly picking up fur balls every day. But we have adjusted and everything has found its place and we love it.

It's home.