Getting a Little Taste of Home Ownership

A couple of months ago, I mentioned that my husband and I started to consider looking at buying a house. We ended up deciding to stick with renting for a little while longer, so that when the time comes, we're able to have more time to look as well as a better idea of what we're in the market for.

One thing I didn't expect that would come with renting for a little while longer was that we've already started to get a little taste of what home ownership might be like.

As soon as we moved into our humble abode, we discovered that the sprayer in the kitchen sink was dripping water into the cabinets below. We called our landlord and she had someone come and replace the sprayer. Then we discovered the bathroom sink pipe was dripping; another phone call and another replacement.

Next came the clogging of the kitchen sink. After I spent an hour or so plunging and trying a vinegar-and-baking-soda home remedy, a plumber had to come out to unclog the rust-filled pipes. Then we saw that our fridge would periodically spit out ice-cold water onto our kitchen floor and the inside of our fridge.

The latest discovery has been that our dryer no longer tumbles.

All within less than one month of moving in!

Fortunately, our landlord has been pretty on-top of getting most of the things fixed, but the dryer was something we had to take care of because it was left by previous tenants and not provided by the landlord. We knew this when we first moved in, so once we discovered the problem to our damp clothes, we started doing some research and figured out that the cause was likely a broken dryer belt.

A lot of the information we read online said that this was a fix we could do ourselves. And with the part costing about $20, versus calling a repairman out for around $200, we decided to try the DIY fix first and call in the professionals if all else failed.

This past weekend, after an early-morning hike in the sunshine, my husband and I stopped by the appliance parts shop to pick up the dryer belt. We watched a how-to video on the Home Depot website, and then decided to roll up our sleeves and dive in.

Within half an hour, my husband had the belt on and the dryer running better than ever! Marking our first home improvement project together, outside of piecing together IKEA furniture. A little taste of home ownership, one day at a time.

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