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Slowly but surely
The moral of the story is, home ownership is hard.
I am on vacation, and have actually managed to do a cursory cleanup of the main floor. Eventually, if this nice new cool weather holds, I will clean out the basement too, and try to set up the shelving I have been promising myself I would do for months now.
The garden is in so-so shape. I haven't planted anything except the raspberry bushes that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
karine gave me, which did well for a while and then promptly keeled over and died. Otherwise, I've been making do with the plants that were already there (peonies and a few small rosebushes), and fighting a losing battle with the powdery mildew that's growing on half of them.
My main problem, these days, is that I am flat broke. Or, rather, I am house poor. I have a lovely house which I adore, but it feels like every damned penny I earn is going either to my mortgage, to my insurance, or to my car payments. I am also not going to get any kind of respite from the handful of teeny-tiny loans I have here and there for at least another 18 months, which makes me want to cry. I haven't lived pay check to pay check in years, and it is stressing me the f*ck out, because I literally cannot afford any kind of emergency. As it is, I have been doing much better lately about minimising "unnecessary" costs, like books and outings and ordering food at work when I should be doing groceries like a normal person. It's helped, but is essentially a drop of water in the bucket of all the money that keeps getting sucked out of my bank account every month.
Mostly I live in constant dread that someday (sooner rather than later) I will make a serious miscalculation and someone is going to come take my house away from me and I will be not only houseless but will have to declare bankruptcy and rehome the cats and the dog and sell my furniture and generally be a big fat failure. Not that I am ever overdramatic, no.
Seriously, there are times I'd consider alcoholism if booze wasn't so damned expensive.
I have a number of outside-related projects I want to get done for the house, but are mostly dependent on my winning the lottery. I need to pave my driveway, install a retaining wall, and build a fence to separate me from the neighbour I suspect might be more than a little crazy. I'd also like to build three more raised beds for next year, so I can plant vegetables.
Do I have the money to do any of the above? Hah. No. *sigh* Not even the money to buy the two-by-fours I'd need for the beds. Although I will likely have a bit more loose cash in the early fall, which is when I'd be able to build them. Supposing I can figure that out. I am not exactly what you would call "handy." I am learning as I go.
I did get myself a shiny new compost bin from Home Depot yesterday, though, and assembled it this morning. No more food waste going into the garbage. *kermitflail* I also got some biodegradable cleaning stuff for the back patio, which desperately needs it. I will likely be doing that over the weekend. The Maternal Unit is coming by tomorrow to "help" me with the garden. I suspect it will mostly involve her obsessing over some tiny detail I'd never otherwise have noticed, and nothing else happening for the rest of the day. Oh well, it'll be nice to have her over.
The dog has not been enjoying the heat, but today the temperature has gone down, and so everyone is enjoying a much-needed break.
And this has been the Most Boring Update Ever™ in the history of LiveJournal. ;)
I am on vacation, and have actually managed to do a cursory cleanup of the main floor. Eventually, if this nice new cool weather holds, I will clean out the basement too, and try to set up the shelving I have been promising myself I would do for months now.
The garden is in so-so shape. I haven't planted anything except the raspberry bushes that
karine gave me, which did well for a while and then promptly keeled over and died. Otherwise, I've been making do with the plants that were already there (peonies and a few small rosebushes), and fighting a losing battle with the powdery mildew that's growing on half of them.My main problem, these days, is that I am flat broke. Or, rather, I am house poor. I have a lovely house which I adore, but it feels like every damned penny I earn is going either to my mortgage, to my insurance, or to my car payments. I am also not going to get any kind of respite from the handful of teeny-tiny loans I have here and there for at least another 18 months, which makes me want to cry. I haven't lived pay check to pay check in years, and it is stressing me the f*ck out, because I literally cannot afford any kind of emergency. As it is, I have been doing much better lately about minimising "unnecessary" costs, like books and outings and ordering food at work when I should be doing groceries like a normal person. It's helped, but is essentially a drop of water in the bucket of all the money that keeps getting sucked out of my bank account every month.
Mostly I live in constant dread that someday (sooner rather than later) I will make a serious miscalculation and someone is going to come take my house away from me and I will be not only houseless but will have to declare bankruptcy and rehome the cats and the dog and sell my furniture and generally be a big fat failure. Not that I am ever overdramatic, no.
Seriously, there are times I'd consider alcoholism if booze wasn't so damned expensive.
I have a number of outside-related projects I want to get done for the house, but are mostly dependent on my winning the lottery. I need to pave my driveway, install a retaining wall, and build a fence to separate me from the neighbour I suspect might be more than a little crazy. I'd also like to build three more raised beds for next year, so I can plant vegetables.
Do I have the money to do any of the above? Hah. No. *sigh* Not even the money to buy the two-by-fours I'd need for the beds. Although I will likely have a bit more loose cash in the early fall, which is when I'd be able to build them. Supposing I can figure that out. I am not exactly what you would call "handy." I am learning as I go.
I did get myself a shiny new compost bin from Home Depot yesterday, though, and assembled it this morning. No more food waste going into the garbage. *kermitflail* I also got some biodegradable cleaning stuff for the back patio, which desperately needs it. I will likely be doing that over the weekend. The Maternal Unit is coming by tomorrow to "help" me with the garden. I suspect it will mostly involve her obsessing over some tiny detail I'd never otherwise have noticed, and nothing else happening for the rest of the day. Oh well, it'll be nice to have her over.
The dog has not been enjoying the heat, but today the temperature has gone down, and so everyone is enjoying a much-needed break.
And this has been the Most Boring Update Ever™ in the history of LiveJournal. ;)
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I'm also trying to remind myself that outward appearances are just that—outward appearances. I have no idea what's really going on in people's private lives, let alone their bank accounts. So I'm going to focus on what I do know, and make sure that I get all my ducks in a row, as it were.
Thanks for the kind words!