House problems

So much for not having anything to write. The house was evidently feeling neglected in this space and wanted to do something blog-worthy. Within the course of about twelve hours, we had...

1. Our sliding back door, which is really the main door we use to go in and out has always been sticky. (Okay, more than sticky. It will mean that no one will need to ever go lift weights in a gym.) It is so difficult to open and close that the bolts holding on the handle sheer off from the force every so often. Well, a couple of days ago, the handle completely gave way and broke. You can't really use it. So now we have a big 'X' in painter's tape over the handle with a sign reminding people to use another door. It's not the end of the world, but it is annoying and a tiny bit inconvenient. Replacing the door is really not in the budget. Have you priced sliding doors? I'm not sure when it will be in the budget. 

2. Yesterday morning, as is my daily routine, I went downstairs to the laundry room to feed Nefertiti and start the first load of laundry for the day. A child had started a load previously so the washer wasn't empty. I emptied the dryer and blithely opened the washer door to move the wet laundry. Imagine my surprise when I suddenly had water pouring out of the washer door onto my feet. I quickly shut the washer door and yelled for help. There was music playing (because we are soon to be a household with only teenagers) and no one heard me. This did not improve my mood. I eventually managed to get towels to sop up the water and a barn bucket from outside so I could hold it under the flow of water when I reopened the door. I then had to bail the rest of the tub.

I couldn't just turn on the machine and have it drain because nothing happened when I turned it on. A car with a dead battery has more life than the washer does. J. has been investigating what to do about it. I would really rather not have to buy a new washer. 

And of course, all of this happens less than a day after J. and I make the decision to use some of our savings to rent a vacation house near Yellowstone for a few days in the fall. (While this option feels more expensive than just getting hotel rooms it also means we can cook all of our meals and not have to go to restaurants. Feeding this many people at restaurants adds up extremely quickly and we'd actually be spending more money in the long run.) We've always wanted to take children there and we were realizing that if we waited much longer there would be no children around to take. So, we took a deep breath and hit 'confirm' on the rental, because at that point everything was working well. 

I know it will all work out, but I may have to take L. to a laundromat in the next day or two because she is not feeling terribly flexible about waiting to do her laundry until J. can see if he can figure out what is going on with the washer. Because that was on my to-do list...