on homeownership

Lately, I've been drawing alot of comparisons between home ownership and marriage. I know I'm actually only qualified to personally write about the former.

Owning a home is alot of work. There's always something that can be improved, there's always something that doesn't quite work right. It's always a little messy and dirty. It's never the best option to "sweep it under the rug" or "cram it in a closet". Sometimes you know things are gonna break, fall apart, or overflow but you wait till they actually  do, until you fix them. You can change the paint color, you can knock down walls, you can buy shiny new appliances, but in the end, it's the same foundation. There are things you wish you didn't have to deal with, and wonder why God makes you. But you do, you do deal with them (even if it's alternating between repeating Philippians 4:13 and singing Kelly Clarkson's "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"

I spent last weekend around the home doing everything from beginning to put away Christmas decorations (it's Jan 26 and my REAL (dead) tree is STILL up!) to baking cookies for the neighbor that has a snowblower (keep those relations strong), to revamping some hardware of a few pieces of furniture, to touching up paint.

Perhaps the biggest home change that has happened is a new roof! (k, this might have happened a few months ago, but roll with it). I got a great roofer (TIP: your realtor is a great go-to person for getting repair folks!) In Burlington, you have to get a permit for nearly everything you do to your home. I knew this, but kinda forgot. So the roofer started, and then I realized I needed to get a permit. WHAT? How do you even do this? I'll tell you how. You have to go to the city zoning department to get a "z" card, then go to the department of public works for the permit. Let me tell you how out of place I was in that office. (Note: you wear carharts, not a skirt, you wear muddy boots, not tall boots, and you carry tools, not a Vera Bradley bag). So I'm filling out this paper work totally nervous, because I'm sure this process was supposed to go down BEFORE there were men on the roof. No worries! everything went through, PTL! I had to sign the zoning card, cause apparently i was the contractor, and the inspector asked me if i was a doctor (i guess my signature is a little illegible). I looked him square in the eye and said "i'm an artist!" haha!

well, here are some photos:

 

oh, and p.s. if you have a really classy department of public works, there's a stained glass map of your city on the ceiling: