Thursday, July 28, 2022

Stressed Out

I’m stressed. I don’t get stressed very often, but it’s happening right now. I tend to get stressed when I’m concerned about money and home projects/repairs, and those two are often related. We had a leak in our kitchen a few years ago any time there was a heavy rain and thought it was fixed. As you can see, it was not.


While the leak is now fixed and we confirmed that there is no mold, we now need to remove part of the ceiling, put up drywall, and repaint the ceiling. And by we, I mean someone that we pay to do this.


We also had a separate leak coming from our dishwasher. It turned out that the gasket needed replaced. We got it repaired a week or two ago, but the guy didn’t seem to do a good job attaching the new gasket. We opened the dishwasher yesterday to this.


The guy came back today and fixed it, but I have little confidence in him.

What else?

* The washing machine seems to be off balance thanks to an apparent broken leg.

* The Moose just left for 3 weeks to an overnight summer camp, and while I think he’s going to have a fantastic time, he doesn’t know anyone, and this is a brand-new experience for him. I worry a little about him.

* I’m starting a new project at work and constantly questioning myself about if I’m doing everything correctly.

* I received my retirement statement in the mail. Although I’m not going to retire for many years, my account lost a lot of money over the last six months. Like A LOT, A LOT.

* I haven’t watched this season’s Better Call Saul yet this season, but I saved the episodes on my DVR. I finally sat down to watch the first episode, and it was gone. Episodes 2 and 3 aren’t there either. It turns out that my DVR was set to keep only 10 Better Call Saul episodes. I guess I figured that I would always watch them immediately, though that clearly didn’t happen this season. I have episodes 4-10, but the first three episodes were replaced with some 2-minute “Stories from Set” specials and a Talking Saul show. Now, it seems like the only way to see the first three episodes is to buy them on Google Play, YouTube, or Amazon Prime. We have Prime but still must pay for them. Why pay for Prime if we can’t get these episodes?


* We just got a new kitchen faucet and had to get that installed.

* The lease on our minivan is up in several months, and I don’t want to deal with car shopping again.

* I received our county car tax bill in the mail. Ugh!

While some of these things are first world problems, many are not. I have no skills whatsoever in doing home repairs, so any project costs much more money than it probably should since we’re paying for labor in addition to the equipment and materials. Now would be the perfect time to make some money from this blog! Meanwhile, can I just go away to a summer camp for a few weeks and not have any responsibilities? (This might be the theme of Grown Ups, but I never saw the movie.)

3 comments:

Melissa F. said...

I'm with you, Sean. Our house is 40 years old or so and needs all kinds of work and updates. We are not handy people either. Whenever anything goes wrong, it's a major stressor -- from finding a reliable, honest person to fix whatever to getting them to show up on time, not to mention the expense. We always think every repair is going to be in the thousands of dollars.

Ngewo said...

I have not looked at my retirement, I am terrified to see how much it lost.

I have minimal skills with home repairs and sometimes it is worth watching a video and giving it a try. Then if you fail, pay someone to do it. But that is just what I do...(the washing machine leg should be an easy fix, message me if you want)

Also, as you have told me before...I am here if you ever need to rant.

Sean said...

Thanks Melissa. I'm glad that I'm not alone! You're right that it's not just the money (which is a big deal), but finding the right person who will do the job well. Then, you often have to figure out a schedule which can be difficult based on work and kids!

Ngewo - I appreciate the offer about ranting. I may also contact you about the washing machine.