Widow's Voice

The Joys of Home Ownership

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Mario and I purchased our house (I’ll probably always call it “our” house) back in 2007. After looking at many different houses, this one stood out and we made an offer as soon as we saw it. Through a series of “perfect timing” type of events, we closed on the house within 30 days.

I remember one of the very first things we did as far as home improvements was replace all of the lighting fixtures, not because they were broken, but because they really didn’t fit our style and it was kind of a “low hanging fruit” type of upgrade. Shortly after, we also replaced the laminate kitchen flooring with tile and then tackled redoing the hall bathroom. We were never DIYers when it came to more involved remodeling (like tiling) but we did do the demolition for the hall bath.

Mario was not a “handy” guy by any means, but I grew up with a dad who could fix absolutely anything, so some of that rubbed off on me. So I was the “fix it” partner in our marriage. One of the first things I did on my own was replace our dishwasher. After purchasing two “fancy” dishwashers that ended up dying right after their warranty was up, we decided to get the most bare bones, cheapest model we could. It was fairly easy to install and believe it or not, that thing is still running like 15 years later. I’d also upgraded a number of faucets in the house around that same time.

Other things I’ve fixed in the house include: changed the pump out in the washing machine, changed light fixtures, painted rooms, installed an oven hood vent, installed shelves, replaced light switches, replaced door locks, installed blinds, replaced seal on toilet, replaced parts in the dishwasher, changed the fuse in the furnace, performed maintenance on the gas fireplace, patched walls, replaced the thermostat, replaced the garbage disposal and probably a handful of other things I’m forgetting at the moment.

Every time something would break, especially if it was a bigger item, Mario and I would always call that, “the joys of home ownership”. No matter how big of a bummer it was, we were always grateful to have a house and “reframed” things needed fixed in a better light by using that phrase.

So my latest “joys of home ownership” happened earlier this week when I went to get a kitchen trash bag from under the sink and noticed everything under there was wet. Turns out, that garbage disposal that I put in there like 15 years ago gave up the ghost and was leaking from the bottom. I learned that many of the disposals have galvanized steel grinders as opposed to stainless steel. So when they leak out the bottom like that, it means they’ve rusted out. This one probably lasted as long as it did since I really don’t use the thing a lot and am careful about what finds its way down there. Nevertheless, I purchased a slightly upgraded one that has the stainless steel. I haven’t had a chance to put it in yet, but hoping to get to it this weekend.

In other news that revolves around my home, the weather has been nuts here this week. It’s been raining off and on, but the wind has been next level. Earlier this week, I was woken up at 1:40am by the sound of metal banging on something. My deck has a simple, metal roof over it. I got up to investigate and a wind gust had ripped six screws right out of the wood on one side of a panel which was causing it to flap against the panel next to it. Technically, it’s a simple fix (just get new screws in there), but requires getting up there, so that remains flopping in the wind at the moment. As I’m writing this, heavy rain is coming down out there. Earlier this afternoon, the wind blew my locked shed doors open. Luckily they weren’t actually broken as I didn’t have the left door anchor latch down all the way. Hopefully the winds die down soon and there isn’t any real damage. We’ve been lucky here in that this area has not experienced the type of flooding that Washington is getting.

One forecast I looked at even had the potential for a little bit of snow. Snow where I’m at is always a novel thing and most times it’s in the forecast it never happens (except for the time it actually did… like 2 feet of it and it caused a massage amount of damage in the whole area and we were out of power for over 50 hours, but that’s a whole other story!). Only one time since I’ve lived in Oregon have we ever had a white Christmas. That was honestly pretty neat because growing up in Southern California even the potential for something like that was out of the question. So we’ll see what happens given that Christmas is next week already. I can’t believe how fast this year has flown by.

pine tree with colored lights in the snow(A pine tree in our front yard the one year it snowed for Christmas)

About Sherry Holub

I met my spouse, Mario, at UCLA School of Art in 1993. After graduating in 1995, I founded a small agency specializing in web and graphic design. Mario became my partner in the company in 1999. In 2002, we were married at the Costa Mesa, CA court house because neither of us wanted a big wedding ceremony (after already being together since 1995).

Mario was a highly talented artist, musician, illustrator and 3D Designer, but a tortured one. He was one of those gentle, creative souls who ended up burning twice as bright for half as long. Mario lost the battle with liver disease induced by alcoholism (almost exactly 6 months after he became sober) on 2/10/21.

I’m a long-time artist and writer with a background in photography who enjoys cooking, getting outdoors, staying young at heart, and sharing experiences to potentially help others. When it comes to writing, I’ve written both for fun and professionally over the years. Writing is also sometimes therapy for me and I don’t mind sharing my personal experiences with a wider audience.