The Joys Of Homeownership

Let's talk about my house. In the midst of all the philosophizing or theologizing is reality. I've always felt this is complaining and just a problem that needs solved but I think also this helps put me in touch with the real world where people, not just ideas, live. Perhaps someone will relate, find inspiration or be helped as this unfolds. 

We've lived in our little two-bedroom home since 2000. It's been a great home, has housed my wife and I along with our daughter (and dogs), including our two grandbabies for the first two years of their life. 

We haven't done a whole lot to it aside from a new roof (had to cash in some 401(k) money to do that), ripping out the carpet in the living and dining room and refinishing the wood floors thanks to YouTube and painting the dining/living room.

It's got a cottage like feel but after nearly 20 years we've reached a critical point. The basement. Oh, the basement. When it rains, our backyard doesn't really drain anywhere and it moves toward the house. We've got a French drain and an inside sump but my guess is that the clay pipes are either clogged or busted up and the water just sits. 

And it is starting to show through the concrete blocks in the basement. It has been for years but the cracks are getting worse. Apparently we've hit Stage 2 (out of 4) wall failure. 

Here's the backyard after a rain. The bare patch was last year's grub invasion. Ah, the joys of home ownership. It is not a good investment, it requires an investment. 

Fights with neighbors, complaints to the city, the police called several times because my car is parked in the street (along with it being egged, written on in mustard, having notes left on it and having bags of trash thrown on it), the joys of the suburbs.

The porch was built several years ago after the original collapsed during a snow storm. The concrete slab was left in place and the porch built over top of it. Not sure if that was the best move or not.

I'll follow up with the basement photos soon. Tough to really see but the problem is water.

We've had many contractors and basements people come out and give estimates and it ranges from $5 to $20K depending on the goal, from cover up to something more akin to fixing the issue.

We're at the point now that we either decide to stay and fix, fix and sell, sell at a loss or hope and pray for a miracle of some kind (the nature of miracles is that we have no idea what that would even look like).

I post this only because we are sort of at that point where we've thrown our hands up in the air. We'll keep going but it's a bit of surreality we've not invested in fixing it up as we should have as many of our funds have been diverted elsewhere (which are stories that will be unfolded in the future) in this adventure called life.