Home repairs.

I’ve been up to my eyeballs in home repairs. So little by little I’ve been chipping away at it. Last year I was too sick to work on things physically but I went out onto the internet and put in an application here and there for some neighborhood home improvement programs. I’ve been slowly finding out some repairs are better done by someone else. I have a tendency toward my father’s blanket statements, “If you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself.” I’ve also inherited his opinions about what is a job well done. Cover-ups are never a job well done. So those bathrooms that are custom fit and go over the top of your old bathroom—absolutely no!

I didn’t think those programs would ever amount to anything. But this year, they’ve come through and I have a new roof and some electrical problems fixed in my home and some plumbing. It’s awesome to come home and it’s done and I didn’t have to scratch my head and do a bunch of research and groan and sigh before putting in a brute effort to cross the item off of my list.

Angie’s List has helped a lot. I’ve also learned a bit about being writing tasteful reviews. I thought I would never join but did just recently. I’ve learned I’m a hard grader. I didn’t like how one guy decided to fix the plumbing. In my idea of things done right, I would never have Jerry-rigged a pvc pipe between two pieces of 100 year old lead pipe and then strapped the top-heavy contraption to the studs so it won’t fall apart. Obviously, somebody’s gotta go in and fix that again some day. So, I mentioned this odd fix as the only drawback to a job well done and gave the guy a B. I was shocked to learn that he wants to come back and redo it, in the event that I give him an A.

Wow! Angie’s List has already paid off.