House Quirks

 If someone told me that he/she lived in a house with no little quirks that have to be considered, I would call that person a fibber.  Every home on the planet has at least one little "bug" that needs to be fixed "when I get around to it".  Especially homes with some age on them.  My own home is no different.  In fact, as I age, I have considered composing a little house manual to pass on to the next owner, when that time comes.  I'm just not sure there's enough time in the world to do that...

I live in what I call a little bungalow.  It was built in 1968, on a concrete slab.  It is considered a National Home, which I believe is a pre-fab.  The internal walls are thinner than the norm.  It's all on one level on a corner lot.  I bought this place when my daughter was still in middle school.  She has long since flown the coop, but I'm still here, 30 years later.

Thirty years.  I've never lived ANYWHERE that long in my life.  Although I'm not necessarily in the location I would have chosen for myself, I finally, FINALLY, have some roots.

And speaking of roots, I always wondered why the previous homeowner showed me where the sewer cleanout was on the outside of the house.  I mean, weren't there other things that were important to know?  Well...not so much.  It only took me a couple of years to find out that the mature maple tree at the front of the house sits directly over the sewer line, and tree roots clog the sewer line every couple of years.  Plumber required.  Without sewer rooting, toilet overflows happen!  

So let's count that as Quirk #1 for my home: sewer clogs that don't always give fair warning that they are about to happen.

Quirk #2: probably has to do with electricity.  The home, being small, has only limited electrical service.  I don't understand all of the jargon, but my entire house has 110 service?  Does this make sense?  In any case, breakers don't blow regularly except:  can't have hair dryers going in both bathrooms at the same time; can't run the toaster and the microwave at the same time...  The list goes on...

Quirk #3: some electrical outlets work well, and some don't.  The one right next to the stove would not "hold" the plug for my electric knife or my crockpot, for example.  I decided to have it replaced by my handyman, and in the process, it blinked out taking my refrigerator with it.  Twice.  Had to call an electrician to get it fixed for good.  Some outlets are controlled by a light switch to which lamps are supposed to be connected.  Some aren't.  It is what it is.

Quirk #4:  behind a picture in the main bathroom is an electrical plate where a light switch used to be.  Why is it there?  When the house was built, the back door led in to a very small utility area, which (in turn) had a door to the bathroom.  Thus, one could access the bathroom from the main part of the house or directly from the back door.  (I think the idea was that people could come in from the back yard without having to traipse through the house to use the bathroom.)  It didn't take long at all for me to decide that the second door was a waste of space, so I had it taken out and wallboarded up.

Quirk #5:  There are kitchen light switches just inside from the garage room and just inside the back door, but nothing to turn on the kitchen light from inside the house.  That means that the kitchen light goes on first thing in the morning and stays on all day until time to retire.  Oh...and one of those two switches acts up sometimes...

Quirk #6:  the house is built on a concrete slab.  That means there is no crawl space through which to thread electrical wires, water pipes, or anything else that needs to go from one place to the other invisibly.  All of that has to be done through the attic and down into the living space, and it is a problem.  The main problems is that the attic--accessible only by a pull-down ladder in the garage room--is unbearably hot in the summer and freezing in the winter.  Anything requiring water delivery or passage out of the house (think air conditioner condensate pump) is subject to frozen/cracked/ruptured pipes or tubes, which leads to leaks on the ceiling.  (I know this from experience in this very house.)  

The problem?  The refrigerator has only one place to be in my small kitchen, and that is quite a few feet away from the sink plumbing.  That is complicated by the fact that almost all new refrigerators in stock in major home stores have ice makers.  Ice makers require a water source.  The last time I had to replace my refrigerator, I had to get a color I didn't want and an ice maker I couldn't use because money and time IS an object for me.   (When your refrigerator goes on the fritz, you don't have time to wait for a multi-week ordering process.)

Truth be known, it IS possible to rig up a water source for an ice-making refrigerator in my house, but it would be tricky.  Tubing would have to travel up through the sink, pass through a cabinet, make a 90-degree turn, go through another cabinet, make another 90-degree turn toward the floor, the another 90-degree turn to hook up to the refrigerator...and somehow, all of this would have to be couched in some sort of hollow trim so it couldn't be seen.  Not gonna happen on my watch! 

Quirk #7:  the windows don't stay up.  If you open one and want it to stay open, you need a dowel rod (of which I have several) to prop them up.   And with one or more, the upper window will slide down if the lower window is raised.  The last time that happened, it took two people to hold one up so we could prop up the other.  And cleaning windows?  HA!  The windows all need to be replaced, but I don't have the funds.  

Quirk #8: the heavy wood front door seems to shift.  One week, it's fine.  The next, it won't lock properly.  It gets worked on over and over.  The only thing I can think of that would cause this is some kind of foundation failure, and that scares the wadding out of me!  It's fine now, but for how long?  Same problem with the storm door immediately in front of it.  Suddenly, it sticks.  Never did before.  Ugh!

In spite of all, I love this little house.  It's been my home for 3 decades.  I have fought like hell to keep it through some tough financial times and worked like hell to make it livable for my family.  Yes, it has its quirks, but every home does, and I've learned to live with them.  Be it ever so humble, there's no place like HOME.  Would I ever give it up?  Yes...to be closer to my family...but until/unless that happens, I can be found in my own little hermitage.