Home Ownership

Home Ownership
By Allan Olson

It’s been a month since we took possession of this big place we now call home.
In the time leading up to it, we knew there were some repairs that needed to be done, just from the walk-through with the realtor.
To what extent, we thought we had a good idea, but some of those repairs have resulted in more work and many trips to town just to get the right part that we thought we got the last time.
At our old place, a trip to town was only a few minutes, and it was no big deal to run to town several times a day because something was forgotten on the last trip. Our home is now 20 miles from the nearest town, and a quick trip to town and back takes no less than an hour, if hitting any stores is involved.
The first weekend was the worst for trips to town.
We got started on one project but ran into a snag, and so had to go to work on another project while someone ran to town to get what was needed to fix the first problem.
That weekend I learned that home repairs – especially those involving plumbing – are like putting a 1,000 piece jig saw puzzle together, only to discover that you’re missing a piece or two to finish the project, and your stuck until you get those final pieces.
I’ve also learned that I should not throw away those extra pieces, because they might come in handy someday.
The second weekend, while still hectic, was not nearly as bad. The biggest glitch in the day was resolving a wiring problem. Once it was discovered that the person who did the original wiring didn’t think on the same lines as those trying to solve it, the problem was quickly resolved.
That Sunday night, as my mother in-law prepared to paint the boys’ room, my youngest daughter walked out of the empty room and pulled the door shut behind her.
No big deal, right? Wrong. The bedroom doors all have locks on them, and Alivia managed to set the lock on the door prior to closing.
Since I had no key, I hoped to simply drill the lock out, but in the process broke the drill bit in the first few seconds. Okay, I thought; I have a larger drill bit, I can fix this. No luck. That drill bit had spent the entire weekend in my brother’s drill, and I didn’t realize it wouldn’t fit in mine.
In the end, I took the hammer to it and broke the handle. After I got done with the boys’ room, I promptly walked to the girls door and took their door handle off so I wouldn’t have to repeat the process a few days later.
Now approaching a month into home ownership, with more rooms painted and carpet installed in the kids’ rooms, we’ve also managed some time for fun with the family as well.
This past weekend we explored the adjacent lake on snowmobile, with the kids getting rides either in the sled or on the snowmobile.
Abigail and Alivia were two that got to do both.
“It felt like I was flying,” Abigail said with excitement in her voice, referring to the ride across the lake. “The wind was like an airplane jet.”
Alivia said her favorite part was riding in the sled with her cousin Angela, with uncle Tony driving the snowmobile.
Marcus, ever the cautious one, refused to go for a ride either on the big noisy snowmobile or on the sled.
Nikolai went for a ride in the sled and was eager to go as many times as he could.
The biggest thing I’ve learned in this process is that once again, I’m thankful for family. For without the help of family, we would never have accomplished so much in such a short time. Thanks for reading! Remember, we appreciate your feedback so feel free to drop us a line at cltimes1@arvig.net. For more of my columns please visit my blog at: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com/.