If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

If you've had small children in the last 20 years you'll be familiar with this book by Laura Numeroff. It chronicles the adventures of a mouse and boy and how one thing leads to another. If you are a homeowner with a less than new home you are, unfortunately, aware of this phenomenon. 


We recently installed a new roof since ours was 30 years old and every time the Santa Ana winds blew shake shingles would fly off with abandon landing all over our yard, front and back. In places the felt was visible and it was only a matter of time before the little rain we get here dripped into the house. So we got a new roof, not the one we wanted because Katrina and the Japanese tsunami have forced the cost of lumber and roofing materials to soar. Good thing too that we chose one of less expensive materials because for the last 20 years termites have been eating away at us. Replacing the damaged wood nearly doubled the cost. Sh**!


The new roof looks ok and the new fascia is primered and ready for paint. So now we need to get the entire house painted.  But first we need to replace all the other damaged trim around the exterior and in 1982 they nailed up a lot of trim. Then if we get the house repainted we have to tear down the patio cover which is also termite ridden and replace it. (I threw a tennis ball for the Big Dog and it hit the corner of the patio cover and knocked a big chunk of wood off!) You know how this works.


We drove around the neighborhood looking at paint colors and decided they're all ugly, especially ours. One or two homes had re-stuccoed their homes eliminating the 1980's termite fodder. This seems like the best idea since it makes homes look more modern AND reduces the need for lots of paint. But if we're going to re-stucco we need to put in new windows. Our dated, once bronze, aluminum windows will look like crap with new stucco.


So here's the list: if we get a new roof we're going to need new paint/stucco and if we repaint or re-stucco we're going to want to replace the patio cover and if we get a new roof, new stucco, and new patio cover we're going to want new windows.  And once we get new windows we're going to want to move because that's the way we are, fix 'em up, move 'em out.


Homeownership - ain't it grand!