Little House of Horrors

Ok, I'm cancelling HGTV and DIY Network from my satellite company, not renewing This Old House magazine (a gift from my parents) and throwing away all my tools.

Victor has made me hate home improvement, contractors and all things change related.

We are hoping to stay in our next home for 20 years. This one we had hoped for five-to-seven, but that didn't work out now, did it? I'm sure that during that time we will again embark on home improvement projects. However, this time we will be smarter, and willing to pay more. The workmanship on the laminate floors that have been laid is great, the work on the drywall plastering isn't. I am hoping for good things with the refinishing of the hardwood floors.

Yesterday we had to leave work early and come home and box things up because Victor is a bully. He tells you one thing on the phone and then tells my mother-in-law something entirely different. I don't know if he thinks we won't talk to each other. But he also hides behind the language barrier, speaking really unclear and broken English and has a really awful headset on his phone that makes him even harder to understand.

Then when the carpets were pulled up, there was a big section in the middle where you could not have done a worse job patching a hardwood floor if you had tried, as well as a bunch of stuff stuck to the flooring. They're sure it will all come up and that they can successfully repair the damaged area(s), but I'm wondering if someone was killed here. Probably just too much CSI, but just weird looking at the marks on the floor.

I'm also struggling with the feeling of inconvenience, stress and loss of freedom. Basically I feel like it's a whine but I am also suffering from really poor sleep. All the moving meant that I had Burger King for lunch and Taco Bell for dinner. Lots of soda. We're (3 humans and 4 cats) now living in a 250 square foot room with boxes towering around us while another 250 square foot room is filled to the brim with boxes. The dog also lives in there. As does a fully decorated Christmas tree, now hidden behind a bunch of boxes. Lori's gonna have my head if we're not able to put everything back in its rightful place before Christmas.

Those feelings are a struggle because I know that there are lots of people who don't have houses. I don't just mean someone in a foriegn country, or even a homeless person, but even people we know who want to buy a house but can't. We have an extreme luxury... we have a house. Add to that good enough credit to be able to pay people to make it even better so we can sell it for even more money. It just makes me whining feel petty and stupid.

I guess I'm going to need to resolve today to fight through the sleepiness, maintain a great attitude and be grateful for all that we have, but really not think about the house, because even without the house, we have our health, good weather, each other and if it all comes down to it, I could sleep on the couch in the garage, the other couch in the carport, or either of the two cars.