Householding

Around about Good Friday, Lone Star Pa was climbing around under our house trying to fix a plumbing issue when he noticed something bad.  Real bad.  A couple of our beams (as in - "pier and beam foundation") were rotted almost through and the whole house was sagging down precariously.  Visions of the thousands of dollars we don't have swam through my head.  I had no idea what sort of professional I should even call about this, so I called my next door neighbor, a man who is knowledgeable in all the things in which a householder should be knowledgeable - kind of the opposite of us.  He was out of town but answered his phone and heard my story.  He told me that the professional I was looking for was a foundation company but that he and Lone Star Pa could probably fix it themselves as he fixes stuff like  that on his house and has a house jack.  He told me not to panic and that he would look at it when he got back.  

He and Lone Star Pa crawled under the house again on Tuesday and took stock and they fixed it yesterday.  House does not feel like its familiar boat self anymore -  it feels high.  And Lone Star Pa also fixed the plumbing issue today.  And our neighbor told me that our long rotting out bathtub (in our only bathroom - the tub we are hanging onto with caulk and duct tape) was not a structural issue but merely a cosmetic and we-need-a-place-to-bathe issue and could wait without damaging the house and that he and my husband could fix it some summer for no more than a grand in supplies - three to ten times less than it would cost to hire someone to do it. 

I made him brownies.  I love my neighbor so much.

In many ways (such as knowledge and finances), my husband and I have zero business being homeowners, but with the kindness and tutelage of good neighbors, I think we are going to be just fine, even as our 61-year-old home gets older and older.