Happy House-iversary!

Four years in, another year, another handful of cash gone. Or maybe four handfuls. This year we were plagued with a variety of issues. Some due to the age of the house, some due to the stupidity of the builders and former owners, some due to lapses in our luck.

I had mentioned in the recap post last year that Adam had started on a bathroom in the basement. Here's the finished product:







Nothing too fancy, but useful for sudden bathroom urges Adam may get while working in his shop. Or when we're stuck in the basement for the ten millionth time because of tornadoes.

We also got a steam cleaner this year. With four cats, accidents are a part of life. It was much easier to clean the carpets with this thing every once in a while. It works great.



We were forced to buy a new vacuum cleaner as well. For some unexplainable reason the power cord of the one we had just fell off one day. Uncool...



Toward the end of the season last year our lawn mower crapped out. The engine seized or something. Of course it was past any warranty period and to fix it would have cost almost as much as just buying a new one. So we bought a new one:



At some point our programmable thermostat died too. Not sure what happened there, but one day it just didn't work. So we had to replace that.

A trip to Door County necessitated a wine fridge purchase:



My love of buying in bulk necessitated getting a vacuum sealer:



(PS - it's awesome!)

More random electrical activity resulted in a new light fixture in the hall bathroom:



and a new ceiling fan in the dining room:



Unfortunate gravity issues resulted in a new exhaust fan (with a light!) for the master bath (the old one literally fell out of the ceiling):



and a new sump pump. Again.

We invested in a sleeper sofa to replace the guest bed that we disposed of a while back.



Adam built me a new desk since the one I had was precariously leaning:



We got new screens for the bay window and the big window in the master bedroom. Pet proof screening and hopefully bug deterrent as well.

After someone stole the top half of our mailbox on Easter Sunday we replaced it with one that's bolted down.



And that's the big stuff. We did other minor things - put a new showerhead in the hall bathroom, replaced the curtains in the living room with vertical blinds, moved the dryer vent after it blew open and exploded lint everywhere, replaced the ice maker hose, tore down part of the shop wall to waterproof a leak. It's neverending.

Coming up: Thanks to a freak hail storm in April and a particularly generous insurance adjuster, our entire roof, siding, and gutters will be replaced in the next month or so. Our blue house will soon be a green house.



Nothing else planned, but you never know what will break next.