Life in the Time of COVID: Managing the Money Pit

Who benefits when you're staying close to home–all the time?  Could be the home itself.  When you're out and about, it's easy to get distracted and ignore signs that the house needs some attention.  But when you spend the lion's share of your time at home, it becomes daunting.

The most urgent task was determining the source of a significant water leak and then fixing it. Was it in the pool? The hot tub? The water feature?  Worst case (most expensive to repair) scenario, was it under the concrete?  Long story short, it took nearly 6 months to figure out that it wasn't the pool (yay), it wasn't the water feature (yay), and it wasn't something under the concrete (major yay, I hope).  We still haven't found the source, but we're closing in with help of professional leak detectors (of course).  

Although the water feature wasn't the cause of the mystery leak, it did need to be revised before becoming a major problem.  The lining had to be replaced, some rerouting, etc.  Although it required outside expertise (of course), it wasn't prohibitively expensive.  I was already struggling with our waste of water as a resource.  Every time we had to raise the water level, I thought about people who just needed clean water to drink and cringed.  We were so first world. 

Aside from the pool and the hot tub, there is a modest slope to our hillside in the back.  Unfortunately, we hadn't added bark dust for several years and it showed. That had to be done too and new bark dust was added to the job list.  The slope required the bark dust to be blown on, rather than a DIY spreading that Earl and Jack could have done (of course).

Earl and I were good at identifying a job that needed doing, but not good at fixing it ourselves.  Earl had noticed that there was a problem with the landscape lights. He could change bulbs and do some basic troubleshooting, but that didn't fix it. We had to call our contractor who found roots growing into the wiring.  We began to see our descendants' inheritance diminish.

But wait, there's more!  The worst was yet to come.  Our deteriorating driveway was hazardous and threatened to upend Skeeter every time I left the house for a scoot. Alas, a cosmetic resurface wouldn't do, so we called in the professionals and their heavy equipment.  The final result?  A new driveway that should last our lifetimes.  The next owners can deal with their own 'Money Pit' however they want.

The lesson:  You don't see it coming, but there can be some significant hidden home maintenance costs to COVID quarantine.