Home Ownership

I think there is some stranger American mystique about home ownership. It has been called the American dream. For the life of me, I wonder why. Is owning a home really all it's cracked up to be? I really wonder some days.

We moved last summer into another house. It's only slightly larger than where we used to live, but sits on a much larger lot, near a creek. We have a large diving pool and spa, and a very interesting koi pond with a magical looking waterfall. The house is a little older and needed some updating, but concluded that it was "just what we've been searching for." So we moved in, during July, the hottest month of the year. I swear, some days when we were moving it hit 109 degrees. Did I mention that north Texas was in the worst drought we've had in over 50 years? Well, maybe the moving experience wasn't so positive, but living there would surely be great.

Shortly after we moved in, we concluded that the rock and gravel "patio" that the former owner had laid was unsuitable for human use. We hired a contractor to dig it all out, put down flagstones and build a pavilion in that space. Of course there would be the running of electrical lines for the lights and ceiling fan in the pavilion. That's when we discovered that the electrical system for the house was "not to code." We had to have the whole electrical panel and several switches and plugs replaced throughout the house. I don't know, but it may have been one of the electricians who noticed that the pool decking seals were bad and needed to be replaced. So we had to hire the pool company to come out and get that project underway. Then there was the strange smell in one of the downstairs bathrooms --- the one that required the toilet to be removed completely.

Are you getting the picture here? All these workmen were banging and schlepping through our house. One day I was trying to work from home and there were no less than eight (8) workmen doing various things. I had an afternoon appointment and jumped into the shower. I realized it had escalated to the ridiculous point when one of the Hispanic workmen came into the bathroom while I was showering to talk to me about the electrical panel!

Well we managed to live through all that mess. We put in a new fence while we were at it. Then came the kitchen project. We ripped out all the old kitchen cabinets, moved some things around and put in a whole new kitchen, granite counters and all. This time I have to confess that the experience wasn't as dreadful as I had expected. We'd put in a new kitchen at our other house and it was a miserable experience with a general contractor. What was different? We "outsourced" this job to Home Depot. I imagine that we probably paid a little more. But Home Depot did a splendid job of managing the project and minimizing the disruption to our lives.

Now you have to keep in mind that we haven't lived in this house very long; less than a year really. The landscape people are coming tomorrow to bid on restoring the drought ravaged landscape (which had been largely neglected by the former owners for decades). I may have mentioned the squirrel problem in the attic that started after Thanksgiving. The "wild animal control" contractor was out yesterday to give us a proposal for getting rid of the squirrel playground in our attic. (They have a 10 year guarantee --- you can't go wrong with that!) The koi pond hasn't exactly been a picnic either. We've had two pumps go out on it (the waterfall runs 24 hours a day). Then there was the leak that sprung in the koi pond. We kept putting water in, and finally realized it couldn't be evaporating that fast. We had a general contractor to "get in there and find out where the water is going." I didn't even know that koi ponds could leak!

So the money continues to flow as we live the "American dream." It's a lovely home. Don't get me wrong. We are very, very blessed to have it and live there. God has been good to us. However, setting aside God's blessings, I still have to wonder about the true merit of home ownership. Can it really be worth the expense and the hassle? I read somewhere that there are very few American cities where the appreciation one gets from their home actually outweighs the expense of owning and maintaining the home. Unfortunately, Dallas was not one of them.

Now you ask, what would make me wax on so poetically today, of all days? Well, I have confess, yet another perplexing dilemma has developed on the home front. We recently saw what appeared to be a prehistoric pterodactyl bird in our back yard by the pool. Standing erect, this beast was nearly five feet tall! When it took flight and flew off, it looked like a small airplane.

Yesterday, my wife noticed that one of the small black fish in the pond was "missing." I didn't think he'd just slipped out for some worms. Today, "Goldie," the nicest fish in the pond, was found lying on the pool decking on her side. My wife sent our 9 year old son out to throw her back in, thinking that she'd just somehow jumped out of the pond. Instead, he instinctively began to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Goldie! That was when my wife noticed that one side of Goldie was bloody ... she had been impaled by something. So there was a sad funeral for Goldie.

It is now day two since we've seen the gray heron and we are down two fish. I don't know if you're a fan of koi fish, but they are not cheap. We now have taken the cushions out of the patio furniture and stacked it around the koi pond to make it harder for the darned heron to get in there. We're discussing putting chicken wire over top of the koi pond to try and protect the poor fish from this viscious, prehistoric beast.

Whilst outside looking at the koi pond, I looked up and realized the house needs painting, and the air conditioners are probably going to need to be replaced in the spring. Do you suppose apartment dwellers have to think about such things? I think not. Yet we press on for "the American dream."