Duct Tape

We had our house built when we got married in 99 and as with most construction they were behind schedule and we closed about a month after the wedding. So in September the house will be 8 years old. We never planned on staying in this house for 8 years and we long ago outgrew it, but things happen and plans change. Our mortgage is cheap, REAL cheap, and as much as we would LOVE a bigger, newer, nicer, did I say BIGGER house, it's hard to face tripling our note… especially with all the IVF debt. We figure we can get a few more years out of this one, pay off the kids (well, pay off the conceiving of the kids), and then look at something bigger and better.

When we had this house built it was nightmare. Long story short we ended up in a lawsuit with the builder that lasted three long years before finally getting the things fixed that needed fixed. Since then it's been much better and after accepting the fact that we were not going anywhere anytime soon, we've been doing little things here and there to help make our stay more comfortable. We FINALLY added grass to the backyard, we're painting the outside (fortunately it's about 95% brick!), added some stepping stones in the front, slowing replacing faucets (I hope) and most importantly we're getting new carpet... which leads me to our newest adventure in homeownership.

Our carpet is scheduled to be installed Tuesday, as in three days from now. While I have given up all hope of keeping our current carpet in any kind of decent condition, I no doubt will be like a mother bear protecting her cub when it comes to the new stuff. Just simple things like no ding dongs in the living room, no Koolaid in the living room, no, well you get the picture. Last night as I walked from the living room to the kitchen I stepped in a nice round puddle. As I did my double take to make sure that our bulldog, Molly, had not made an oopsie on the carpet, I quickly noticed that it was dark. Definitely not an oopsie. So the next thing that popped into my head was the can of Dr. Pepper that my sweet son had gone tottling off with just mere minutes before. As I snapped at Jeff and the fact that he had just walked over this spot and why didn’t HE clean it up (let’s just say the hormones have invaded me) I realized that it indeed was not an oopsie or Dr. Pepper, just water and dirt (did I mention our carpet is really bad?). Now the question was, where was this water coming from? As we quickly searched for the culprit a horrible thought came creeping into my head. Yep, the a/c. Figures. Sure enough the a/c guy is here and our bill is up to $750ish and rising by the moment. Why is it always something? I would love to just say, put some duct tape on there and get it over with, but with the new carpet being installed in three days I can’t use that as my solution unless I want to risk ruining $2200 in carpet next week. I swear it is always something. One step forward, two steps back. And they said duct tape could fix anything!