Broken

We went to Corpus Christi last week for a little beach getaway before the madness of school starts up. It was great. We spent Wednesday through Saturday getting in some sun and fun--the aquarium, USS Lexington, lying on the beach (for me), jetskiing (for my hubby), and Joe's Crab Shack (who knew? It's delicious!).

The only little issue was when we were trying to fish off the breakwater. It was windy, and we didn't have weights on our lines, so we were having trouble casting. Hubby, being the manly-man he is, was determined to make it work. He jumped off the breakwater onto some large rocks in the ocean without checking them first to see if they were slippery (that's Boyscout/Hiking/Beach Rock Climbing 101, by the way). Of course, being in the OCEAN, they were slippery! He fell in between the rocks, gashing up his leg and nearly falling backwards into another rock and breaking his head open. Thank god he caught himself before that happened. He totally broke himself. Thankfully he wasn't seriously injured, but here's what happened (the squeamish should turn away now):



My husband has a death wish. When I asked him if he'd learned his lesson (after I stopped freaking out over the blood and ascertained that he was, in fact, fine), he responded that he most certainly had not and "I like scars!" Yeah. He's like that. The next day he went jetskiing while I lounged on the beach reading. Now apparently Corpus suffers from a bit of a jellyfish problem. I have no idea what kind, but there were signs at the hotel warning people to beware of jellyfish, so that usually means they're not the good kind. Hubby decided that since he had never been stung by a jellyfish, he wanted to find out what it felt like. So he picked one up. Fortunately, this one was harmless. He carried it onto shore and showed it off for awhile before returning it to its home. Yeah. He's cute, but he's dumb.

All this was a delicious appetizer before the bitter entree we have to choke down this week.

Our house was built in 1935. We love it. It has its quirks and its little faults and idiosyncrasies, but it has always treated us pretty well over the past 5 years. It was gutted and redone in the 80's, which left us with all the modern conveniences, but also with an utter mess. Everything that was done when the house was remodeled was done pretty shoddily. Strike that. VERY shoddily. Since we bought the house, we've had to replace the furnace, hot water heater, dishwasher, oven, refrigerator, recessed lighting, garage door and gate motors, most of the wiring, and the A/C. Every single repairman that came through this house told us how poor the original work was. So we knew there were issues, but none of them were dangerous, just annoying, and none of them, we thought, were structural. We knew there was some moisture under the house, but there was a sump installed, and we were told that as long as we turned on the sump and drained it after it rained, then no worries. Yeah, that didn't so much work.

About a year ago, we started noticing some bumps in our dining room floor. We jokingly dubbed them "cat speed bumps" and assumed that it was just because of the moisture under the house. Then we started to notice some dips. And some bounciness. And an increasing slant. It got to the point where if you sat at the head of the dining table, you were at about a 10 degree slant. So we had some pier and beam guys come out. The verdict: 1 beam and 5 floor joists were rotted out, 2 of which were completely rotted through. AKA GONE. To the tune of $6,000. And the floor would (obviously) need to be replaced as well. So that's another $4-5,000 for new wood (OK, laminate) in the dining room and living room.

Why is the floor so much? I'm glad you asked! It's because once they cut a hole in our dining room floor, we discovered there was NO SUB FLOOR! It had completely rotted away! So under one specific area, there were no floor joists and no there was no sub floor. So the only thing holding up our dining room table (and us) was the hardwood flooring. Yay. Safety first! Then they discovered that not 1 but 3 beams were rotted, adding almost $3,000 to the total. Yay. Check it out:



That's the underside of our house. Those two joists in front that are all broken? Yeah. Those are supposed to go all the way across. And all that soil? Shouldn't be touching the beams.

On top of fixing foundation issues and getting new flooring this week, we're also having a new cooktop installed (ours has been broken for awhile and we finally found a new one that fits) and getting new back doors (they were also rotted and one literally fell apart last week--it's held together with duct tape at the moment), and I'm trying to run around getting new glasses, contacts, and a bachelorette party outfit, getting my dress for a rehearsal dinner altered, getting all my books and materials ready for school, doing my reading, meeting up with a friend from out of town, and taking the dog to the vet all before Friday when orientation starts. Then I have orientation Friday and Saturday and class starts Monday.

Kill me. I've started smoking again from the stress. I'm a control freak, and I've totally lost control and it's too much. Everything's broken and I can't fix it.