So I walked outside.

Well, I actually ran. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life, that you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting, while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries podcast.

Today I'm going to talk about homeownership Again. I'm pretty sure I've talked about this before. I know when we first moved back here to my parents' house wait, my house, our house it takes some getting used to sometimes, when we first were living here, everything, well, every day something broke, it's true, every day something broke, it's true, every day something broke. And I equate that to the fact that my parents, as they aged, didn't really keep up with the maintenance of the house and they didn't use a lot of things in the house. Maybe the caregivers did. Everybody kind of kept to certain areas, right, and so, yes, every day something broke. It became quite comical. I mean, that was really the only for now. Recently, that issue has not been an issue. It's been a non-issue because things have not been breaking every day. Obviously, that would be pretty discouraging if it were true, but there are times when things do break, and what I found, as we've lived here, is that things happen in a house and you don't always know that something happened. It takes sometimes some intuition or some discovery work to figure out what is really going on. Let me explain.

I was in the kitchen last week and sometimes I'd be at the sink washing dishes. We don't have a dishwasher. We don't have the space for a dishwasher, unfortunately, because the counters are so well, they're not deep enough, they're very narrow, and so I was washing dishes and I heard a noise from outside and I thought, wow, what is that noise? And the neighbors sometimes they have kids, maybe they're having a party or they're doing something and I thought, well, okay, it must be that Went about my business. The noise stopped and then, a few days later, I was back in the kitchen and the noise started up again, and I didn't notice it when I was walking into the kitchen. It only started after I had been in the kitchen for a while and I started to think. And it wasn't a loud, obtrusive noise, it was just a new noise and so I started to think, run through ideas in my head and I thought, uh-oh, because I was running the hot water out of the faucet. I thought I wonder if that's the water heater, because the water heater is just outside of the kitchen. So I walked outside. Well, I actually ran. I ran outside and, yes, I discovered that the noise was coming from the water heater. Now I'm very familiar with the noises that the water heater makes.

This was a new noise and what I've learned is that when you hear a new noise, a different noise, it's not a good thing. It's never a good thing. It's not like your house has decided to do something different. That's good, it's that off the hot water and stopped doing the dishes and decided to call the plumber the next day. Usually it takes him a day or two to come out and see us. It wasn't really necessarily an emergency.

I did take a short shower that day because I had to go off to a site for work and he said, oh, I'll be right there, and I was like, oh no, because I have to go, I have to leave, right. But anyway, it worked out. He came over and he said, yes, not only is your water heater not working properly because it was spewing out carbon monoxide, which was bad, it was also not properly ventilated. The way that the little water heater closet was made it was not in compliance anymore, which is a bad thing anymore, which is a bad thing. So heavy sigh. Great, it's great news. It's great. It's what you want to hear.

So we went over the options and he said he would get me some prices, and the only thing I can say to that is when did things get so expensive? Don't you just ask yourself that question all the time now, how did things get so much more expensive? And there's a whole bunch of reasons why things are more expensive. But that's the way it is, and if you want to get things done or have things done, that's what you have to deal with. So luckily, I guess, he was ready to come the next day and put in the new water heater. We decided to go from a tank to a tankless. I guess I'm lucky I know I'm lucky to be able to say that I'm able to do that, even to have a tank. It wasn't cheap. It was nowhere near being cheap or cost effective in my mind, but we're able to financially do it. I still felt bad because it was so hot and the water heater area it's was fully in the sun most of the day and it was 100 degrees against a lot of reflective concrete surfaces Very, very hot there. Anyway, got the old unit out, got the new unit in and then we had to put in some electrical work to make it work properly. But we have hot water again and for that I'm grateful.

But there's a whole bunch of things that happen to a house and you never know what is, unless you're a plumber or an electrician and you also do all these other things yourself. You don't really know what's going on, what's right, what's wrong, what it really costs, it's all just. It's kind of faith right, and I felt like I should have been given a homeowner's manual, like home ownership for dummies. Well, actually I looked it up and there are books home maintenance for dummies, and not that I feel like a dummy, but I kind of do, because I feel like there's so much that I don't understand about keeping up with a house and I think back to when we lived in the apartment and there's a lot to be said for picking up the phone and calling somebody and saying, hey, this is broken, fix it please. Even though you don't have, maybe, your privacy as much and you can't make decisions about who comes in and fixes the bathroom, let's say, or who fixes the lock, or who is cooking underneath you or who's walking above you. There's still a lot to be said for living in a community. There's also a lot to be said for living in a house. I get it, but I'm constantly terrified that we're going to have to put a new roof on, because I know how exorbitantly expensive that would be. But for now cross my fingers the roof is okay. So that's my story. I'm sticking to it.

Home maintenance that's what I'm trying to learn about, and learn about all these systems, because I love geeking out on stuff. Hardware, I've always loved cars. I love to know how things work. I get it. It. But in a house, a house repair that you delay is like a car repair that you delay it's only going to get worse, it's not going to get better. So the sooner you realize that something's wrong, the easier it is for you. That's all I have to say about that. Again, lucky to have a house, I'll agree with that. I know I'm lucky, but gosh, it can be a lot of work, a lot of worry and a lot of money, so now I have to go out and check the sprinklers.

Next week we'll tackle another topic together. Stay cool and I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on and consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page Only Child Diaries or Facebook Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace and these are the Only Child Diaries.