The Year of Living Expensively

This has been a costly year for us here on the old homestead.  In addition to the normal expenditures associated with feeding these bottomless pits we call pets, the exorbitant vet bills that come along with horses and dogs the size of horses, and the usual wear and tear expected from a 165-year-old house, we’ve had these lovely, exciting, expensive events:

1)      Rats in the car:  yes, that’s what I said.  Not in the interior of the car, thank goodness, but in the engine.  Rats ate my car.  Or, more specifically, a wire.  Not just any wire, mind you, but the one that controls the diagnostic system.  No system workee, no car startee…  Cost? An arm.

2)      Flat tire: After 33 years of driving, I had my first flat tire while driving.  On the Interstate.  Luckily, I was close to an exit and managed to get off safely.  However, since the tires were nearing their life expectancy anyway, we had all four replaced.   Cost?  A leg.

3)      Broken air-conditioning units 1 AND 2:  Our house is equipped with two HVAC systems – one for each floor.  Being the overachievers we are, we managed to have both of them quit at the same time!  Yay, us!!  In our defense, we had the upper one replaced last year, but because we went through our home warranty company, the proper sized unit was not installed.  So we had to replace it again.  So…brand new unit for downstairs and replacement unit for upstairs.  Cost?  .All four limbs.

4)      Rats in the dishwasher:  Ahhh…the lovely rodents.  This time, they made it into the house.  Yay…  When we pulled out the dishwasher, we found a lovely, pleasant-smelling mouse nest.  (I might be sarcastic here.)  Once again, they had chewed through a wire.  My wonderful hubby, with all his electrical and welding experience, was able to make a quick repair.  Until they chewed through it again two days ago.  Cost?  We don’t know yet.  I’m just going to hand-wash dishes for a while.  Madge?  Where’s the Palmolive?

5)      The laptop: After a few years of plugging and unplugging the charger, the thing-a-ma-jig that it plugs into broke, leaving us unable to charge the laptop.  Fortunately, I found a stand-alone charger that will charge the battery outside of the laptop.  Cost: Just a finger…for now.  Eventually we’ll have to spend another arm to replace the machine all together.

On top of all this, we still need to replace the roof, the guttering, and the dryer.  It. Never. Ends.

OK, I know these are first-world problems.  We have more than a whole lot of people.  And this place is always beautiful and calming.  Which is a good thing, because our next 15 vacations will be spent here in order to pay for all these fixes.

The million dollar view...

(or at least an arm and a leg)