Story Weekend: Money Pits (and a giveaway of an audio book)

floor I’m now the happy owner of my second beach condo, this one a three bedroom. They are both rentals, but we use them when we can and we looooooove being right on the ocean. This one was a tad dated and I knew I wanted to spruce it up a bit. My youngest stepdaughter, Caitlin, is an interior designer in California (check out her company, Symmetry Designs), and she asked if she could do the design work. That sounded like great fun, so of course I said yes. And as many of you know, my oldest stepdaughter is Brittany, aka Pretty Handy Girl–a professional do-it-yourself blogger. And my middle stepdaughter, Alana, is an architect, and while she wasn’t able to physically help out on this project, she’s contributing some of her beautiful photography for the walls. Of course, John’s photography will be well in evidence, too! So, as you can imagine, the “sprucing up” has turned into a complete gutting! It’s going to be so wonderful when we’re all finished with our contributions. The new floor is in (those tall things are the painted closet doors, waiting to be reinstalled, and the dog is Brittany’s sweet Buddy). My job has been mainly to pay the credit card bill. Yikes! (I know I went over my word count, but I’m excited!!)

So what’s your Money Pit story? Monday evening, I’ll randomly select one commenter to receive her (or his) choice of one of my audio books.

If  you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve been contributing. As always, there are a few “rules”:

▪   The story must be true

▪   Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge. Happy writing!

 

11 Comments

  1. Martha O'Quinn on October 5, 2013 at 9:23 am

    My uncle, now deceased, had a wonderful sense of humor and didn’t hesitate to share. He and his wife had six daughters (kept trying for that boy). His girls are beautiful and he adored each and every one. He was fond of saying that the only negative to having six girls and their mom under the same roof was his monthly expenditures for sanitary products and the PMS that went along with them.

  2. Linda Linares on October 5, 2013 at 7:12 pm

    This is a sad, but true story. I have never had any extra money to sink into a “money pit”. If that was the way things started to look, I would put on the brakes right then and there and move on. However, on the other hand, I would consider my mouth a money pit as is evidenced by how much money I have spent at the dentist office over the years. I hope this qualifies for me to win an audio book, at least! LOL!

    • Pat Werths on October 5, 2013 at 9:26 pm

      We decided to replace the ugly peel and stick tile in our retro bathroom. This meant we would have to use a pour-on floor leveler…very pricey at the home improvement store forty minutes away. The 45 minute dry time ended three days later after heat lamps, dryers, and three more trips to the distant store. At that point, we decided to call a local glooring company and have them install the new flooring.

  3. Debb on October 5, 2013 at 7:33 pm

    If you have an in ground pool like we have its a constant money pit. Having said that, three years ago we had a flood that put close to four feet of water in our rec room, it cost over 80 grand just to put it back together and that’s not counting all the new furniture we bought as well as a new hot water tank and heater and a/c.

  4. Pamela Stone on October 5, 2013 at 9:00 pm

    In September, I simply wanted hubby to build some new doors on my cupboards. He built all new cupboards. I wanted a simple counter top that looked like real granite, I’m not into showing off, and there’s so many nice choice with out going out on that limb. It’s an old house, work with what we got I say. That was it…that was allll I wanted. We have now a new sink…new taps…and now it’s well…, the floor doesn’t go. My estimate cost just a little spruce up has tripled.. But wait, that’s not all, ….the kitchen floor butts to the dinning room floor, ..the dinning room butts the living room……..and hmmm those walls could do with a new colour as well before we do floors……… gads, I’m wore out just thinking about how this goes on and on and on. Love my kitchen though.

  5. Ola Norman on October 5, 2013 at 10:06 pm

    It seems like it never fails that when one thing tears up at least two more will within a short time. When my husband tried to fix a water leak, he made a bigger leak that flooded the laminate floor and everyone knows laminate cannot tolerate water on it. Oh well….just waiting for the next thing to happen.

  6. Ola Norman on October 5, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    It seems like it never fails that when one thing tears up at least two more will within a short time. When my husband tried to fix a water leak, he made a bigger leak that flooded the laminate floor and everyone knows laminate cannot tolerate water on it. Oh well….just waiting for the next thing to happen. Now i keep getting a message that says this is a duplicate message and it’s not!

  7. SueAnn Beer on October 5, 2013 at 11:12 pm

    We bought and old farm house 2 years ago- we down sized from ANOTHER old farm house, I have 15 windows now, instead of 32, we have 4 less rooms, most of my work is all on one floor, which I love..but…and there is always a but….needed a new furnace, the old oil one was the wrong size, put in wrong, and oil is too expensive. $15.000.00 later, I can gaurentee our furnace will get to the moon first! Had to re-build the fireplace brick-it was stuck up with super glue I think,each brick facing had to be re-done, then there was dirt to move! It was all in the wrong places around the foundation, allowing water to run INTO the foundation….the summer of the shovel,moving dirt! Tomorrow, the elec co. is coming out to replace the main line to the house-last time it was added, was about 60 yrs ago, it is looking a bit frayed,that will be 4 hr no elec,and then the gravel guy is coming to dump 2 tons B-19 gravel,we need to make the drive edges safe,,,or you could skid down the ravine,,,to the creek .House was built in 1809,good sound structure,,just needs a few THOUSANDS of dollars to get it all back in order!!! Knock on wood,roof is holding just fine! We are just about at the end of the money pit..we HOPE!

  8. Lois Manowitz on October 6, 2013 at 9:47 am

    Boats. ‘Nuff said!!

  9. Diane Chamberlain on October 8, 2013 at 10:22 am

    The Random Number Generator selected SueAnn Beer to win an audio book. Congratulations, SueAnn! I’ll be in touch.

  10. SueAnn Beer on October 8, 2013 at 11:18 pm

    Thank-you!

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