Bugs!

Dare I say it? I HATE THEM! I saw one crawling out from somewhere while I was at the keyboard typing and it freaked me out! So you can see that I'm not too accustomed to having them around. Is there such a thing as a "bug free" house? I know the weather is getting warmer and I know that that will mean more bugs (and I hate to say the word roaches!). I also know that warmer weather will mean bees! I hate those too!

Losing Your Home!

I have to admit that this is one of my biggest fears!

I'll see ads in the paper where mortgage companies are offering certain amounts that you pay back monthly for a mortgage. Of course a lot of those amounts are much lower than what I am paying for my mortgage right now but I don't dare call these companies no matter how attractive their mortgage payment amounts look! Quite honestly I would like to pay my mortgage off just to not have the headache but I read somewhere that actually having a mortgage to pay could be considered a good thing because it is known as "good" debt. It has to do with your credit score or something.

I see the notices of sheriff sales in my local paper and see all the listing of homes that have already been foreclosed on. I even shutter when I see those programs on TV about "flipping" property!

My solution to this nagging problem has got to be for me to have a fund that has enough money in it so I don't lose my house. And I'm not talking about mortgage insurance. I'd rather have my own mortgage insurance where I have control over it. Just a nice tidy sum that is enough to pay off the mortgage and have some still in it to pay the yearly property taxes. It's a nice dream isn't it? But I would MAKE it a reality! I could go without some "niceties" if it meant that I knew that I had my "house" fund.

Mortgage Companies!

I recently read an article talking about how many people are going to lose their homes to foreclosure. It's a very sad thing to see and read about. As far as my mortgage goes, I like everyone else want to have it paid off! The foreclosure process is not a very pleasant experience. People need help to help them stop the foreclosure process on their homes. And while foreclosures may be a very good thing for real estate investors it isn't a very good thing for the people whose homes are being foreclosed on.

One good thing that I can say about my mortgage is that it is a 30 year fixed mortgage and it is not one of those adjustable rate mortgages. A lot of people have those adjustable rate mortgages and now they wish that they hadn't. But you know they probably could not get a mortgage any other way.

There are so many ads and commercials about helping people with their mortgage problems and how they can get out of debt by consolidating their bills. If you can avoid it don't do business with these kinds of companies. Paying off your mortgage the old-fashioned way may take longer but in the long run you will be glad that you did it that way.

Sticky Remote Control

I have Direct TV and now the remote is sticky. I don't know if I did this or if its just regular wear and tear as far as the remote is concerned. I haven't had it for even a year yet and I'm pondering what to do. I don't want to "fiddle" with the remote cause I don't want to break the darn thing and I don't want to call up Direct TV and ask them about it because I certainly don't want to pay for another remote control.

I suppose I could switch TV remotes from another one of the other TV's - guess I'm just lazy!

I'm thinking in the back of my mind that if I do switch them then I would have to re-program the remote control to work with both the TV and the VCR and somewhere else in the back of my mind is this voice saying that I may still need to fix it with whatever TV I switch it to.

The literature and the instructions that came with the Direct TV installation is full of what they will repair or replace and what they won't repair or replace and in that literature somewhere I'm sure that they don't say anything about "sticky" remotes. I don't think that comes under the warranty.

Emergency Repair

See this doorknob? It was faithfully working for over 10 years. Then one day I put the key in it and found out that while it worked the key wouldn't turn inside the lock. I did not want to be faced with the problem of being locked outside the house so I figured that it was better safe than sorry to have the lock replaced.

Actually I though that the doorknob itself could be fixed without having to get a new one but in the end it was just better to get a new one. (Side note here getting a new lock means getting new keys which was a good idea because this time I would know who had copies!). Even the guy that did the repair said the same thing that even though the lock could be fixed it would just be better to get a new one. (In fact he was surprised that the doorknob and lock lasted as long as it did).

Since the guy that used to do the repairs to the house had since died, I found this guy the old fashioned way - I looked in the yellow pages! You often hear about people who have had a bad experience when they call someone from the yellow pages - especially when it has to do with repairs) but I can say that my experience wasn't one of them.

The guy that did the repair was nice and he gave me his name and number in case I needed him for future repairs that had to do with locks. A lot of these guys that work for companies do work on the side, work that doesn't go through the company but goes directly to them. I mention this because they make more money if they bypass the company and get called directly to do the work. It's hard to say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing and I'm lucky that I got someone who wasn't a scam.

But this is one of those repair kind of things that comes under the heading of an emergency repair because it wasn't a planned thing and it was done immediately because I didn't want to come face to face with the prospect of being locked out. (Being locked in - I could handle that). The whole thing - new doorknob cost just under $100 bucks - the keys I got for free (or so they tell me).

So I'm wondering now which another "emergency" repair is going to come up.........