The Brochure on Home Repair Nightmares

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Homeownership can feel like navigating uncharted waters without a compass. That sinking feeling when you hear an unfamiliar noise in your house? It happened to me recently, and what followed was both educational and let's face it, expensive.  

When I moved into my parents' home, I quickly discovered that years of deferred maintenance meant something broke literally every day. It became a running joke – what would give up the ghost today? Eventually, things settled down, and I thought I'd conquered the major issues. Then came the mysterious sound from the kitchen that only occurred when running hot water.

My investigation led me outside to the water heater, where I discovered not just a malfunctioning appliance but a dangerous situation – carbon monoxide was leaking, and the entire setup wasn't properly ventilated or up to code. The solution? A complete replacement with a tankless system that required additional electrical work. As I watched the numbers add up, I couldn't help but wonder: when did everything get so expensive?

This experience highlighted how unprepared many of us feel for the realities of maintaining a home. There's no comprehensive manual (though "Home Maintenance for Dummies" does exist!), and the learning curve is steep when you're making expensive decisions about systems you barely understand. While apartment living offers the simplicity of calling maintenance for repairs, homeownership demands you become the project manager for every problem.

The most valuable lesson I've learned? A house repair that you delay is like postponing car maintenance – it only gets worse with time. Despite the stress, expense, and constant worry about what might break next, I'm gradually building the knowledge I need to be a more confident homeowner. Join me as we navigate the ups and downs of adulting together – because sometimes the best way to learn is through sharing our stories.

Have you experienced a home maintenance emergency that caught you completely off guard? Share your story or follow the Only Child Diaries podcast to join our community of fellow adulting adventurers!

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Episode Transcript

Tracy (00:01):
So I walked outside.
Well, I actually ran.
Welcome to the Only ChildDiaries podcast.
I'm your host, Tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?

(00:22):
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.

(00:50):
Today I'm going to talk abouthomeownership Again.
I'm pretty sure I've talkedabout this before.
I know when we first moved backhere to my parents' house wait,
my house, our house it takessome getting used to sometimes,

(01:14):
when we first were living here,everything, well, every day
something broke, it's true,every day something broke, it's
true, every day something broke.
And I equate that to the factthat my parents, as they aged,
didn't really keep up with themaintenance of the house and

(01:36):
they didn't use a lot of thingsin the house.
Maybe the caregivers did.
Everybody kind of kept tocertain areas, right, and so,
yes, every day something broke.
It became quite comical.
I mean, that was really theonly for now.

(02:07):
Recently, that issue has notbeen an issue.
It's been a non-issue becausethings have not been breaking
every day.
Obviously, that would be prettydiscouraging if it were true,
but there are times when thingsdo break, and what I found, as

(02:29):
we've lived here, is that thingshappen in a house and you don't
always know that somethinghappened.
It takes sometimes someintuition or some discovery work
to figure out what is reallygoing on.
Let me explain.

(02:50):
I was in the kitchen last weekand sometimes I'd be at the sink
washing dishes.
We don't have a dishwasher.
We don't have the space for adishwasher, unfortunately,
because the counters are so well, they're not deep enough,
they're very narrow, and so Iwas washing dishes and I heard a

(03:15):
noise from outside and Ithought, wow, what is that noise
?
And the neighbors sometimesthey have kids, maybe they're
having a party or they're doingsomething and I thought, well,
okay, it must be that Went aboutmy business.
The noise stopped and then, afew days later, I was back in

(03:40):
the kitchen and the noisestarted up again, and I didn't
notice it when I was walkinginto the kitchen.
It only started after I hadbeen in the kitchen for a while
and I started to think.
And it wasn't a loud, obtrusivenoise, it was just a new noise

(04:01):
and so I started to think, runthrough ideas in my head and I
thought, uh-oh, because I wasrunning the hot water out of the
faucet.
I thought I wonder if that'sthe water heater, because the
water heater is just outside ofthe kitchen.
So I walked outside.

(04:25):
Well, I actually ran.
I ran outside and, yes, Idiscovered that the noise was
coming from the water heater.
Now I'm very familiar with thenoises that the water heater
makes.
This was a new noise and whatI've learned is that when you
hear a new noise, a differentnoise, it's not a good thing.

(04:48):
It's never a good thing.
It's not like your house hasdecided to do something
different.
That's good, it's that off thehot water and stopped doing the
dishes and decided to call theplumber the next day.

(05:13):
Usually it takes him a day ortwo to come out and see us.
It wasn't really necessarily anemergency.
I did take a short shower thatday because I had to go off to a
site for work and he said, oh,I'll be right there, and I was
like, oh no, because I have togo, I have to leave, right.
But anyway, it worked out.

(05:35):
He came over and he said, yes,not only is your water heater
not working properly because itwas spewing out carbon monoxide,
which was bad, it was also notproperly ventilated.
The way that the little waterheater closet was made it was

(05:58):
not in compliance anymore, whichis a bad thing anymore, which
is a bad thing.
So heavy sigh.
Great, it's great news.
It's great.
It's what you want to hear.
So we went over the options andhe said he would get me some
prices, and the only thing I cansay to that is when did things

(06:21):
get so expensive?
Don't you just ask yourselfthat question all the time now,
how did things get so much moreexpensive?
And there's a whole bunch ofreasons why things are more
expensive.
But that's the way it is, andif you want to get things done

(06:41):
or have things done, that's whatyou have to deal with.
So luckily, I guess, he wasready to come the next day and
put in the new water heater.
We decided to go from a tank toa tankless.
I guess I'm lucky I know I'mlucky to be able to say that I'm
able to do that, even to have atank.

(07:05):
It wasn't cheap.
It was nowhere near being cheapor cost effective in my mind,
but we're able to financially doit.
I still felt bad because it wasso hot and the water heater
area it's was fully in the sunmost of the day and it was 100

(07:29):
degrees against a lot ofreflective concrete surfaces
Very, very hot there.
Anyway, got the old unit out,got the new unit in and then we
had to put in some electricalwork to make it work properly.
But we have hot water again andfor that I'm grateful.

(07:51):
But there's a whole bunch ofthings that happen to a house
and you never know what is,unless you're a plumber or an
electrician and you also do allthese other things yourself.
You don't really know what'sgoing on, what's right, what's

(08:11):
wrong, what it really costs,it's all just.
It's kind of faith right, and Ifelt like I should have been
given a homeowner's manual, likehome ownership for dummies.
Well, actually I looked it upand there are books home
maintenance for dummies, and notthat I feel like a dummy, but I

(08:36):
kind of do, because I feel likethere's so much that I don't
understand about keeping up witha house and I think back to
when we lived in the apartmentand there's a lot to be said for
picking up the phone andcalling somebody and saying, hey
, this is broken, fix it please.
Even though you don't have,maybe, your privacy as much and

(09:00):
you can't make decisions aboutwho comes in and fixes the
bathroom, let's say, or whofixes the lock, or who is
cooking underneath you or who'swalking above you.
There's still a lot to be saidfor living in a community.
There's also a lot to be saidfor living in a house.

(09:23):
I get it, but I'm constantlyterrified that we're going to
have to put a new roof on,because I know how exorbitantly
expensive that would be.
But for now cross my fingersthe roof is okay.
So that's my story.
I'm sticking to it.
Home maintenance that's what I'mtrying to learn about, and

(09:50):
learn about all these systems,because I love geeking out on
stuff.
Hardware, I've always lovedcars.
I love to know how things work.
I get it.
It.
But in a house, a house repairthat you delay is like a car

(10:11):
repair that you delay it's onlygoing to get worse, it's not
going to get better.
So the sooner you realize thatsomething's wrong, the easier it
is for you.
That's all I have to say aboutthat.
Again, lucky to have a house,I'll agree with that.
I know I'm lucky, but gosh, itcan be a lot of work, a lot of

(10:38):
worry and a lot of money, so nowI have to go out and check the
sprinklers.
Next week we'll tackle anothertopic together.
Stay cool and I hope you'lljoin me.
If you like this episode,please follow the Only Child

(10:59):
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might listen on and considerrating Only Child Diaries and
writing a review.
It helps others to find us.
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
Visit my Instagram page OnlyChild Diaries or Facebook Only

(11:21):
Child Diaries Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Tracy Wallace and these arethe Only Child Diaries.