Water damage

This morning I spent 20 minutes with a contractor looking at, and talking about, some cracks in our ceiling. It’s an old house, and small cracks have been present since we moved in three years ago, but in the past several weeks they’ve gotten significantly bigger. More alarmingly, there is a stained area that looks like water damage, which makes sense because the area above this damage is the upstairs shower. Fortunately it’s not as bad as it looks, and there is no water actively dripping from the ceiling, but obviously it’s something we need to address.

We don’t know yet how extensive the damage is, or how expensive it will be to repair it. Certainly it will be at least hundreds of dollars, possibly thousands. If I was handy maybe I could attempt to work on it myself, but I’m not, and especially when you’re talking about water damage within walls, DIY work-gone-wrong could be a truly ugly situation. Besides, with a full-time job and raising twins where am I going to find that kind of time?

Yes this is totally a first world problem. We are fortunate enough to own a charming Craftsman house in the pricy Bay Area, and we will be able to pay for the repairs one way or another. And one good thing about being the owner is that we can pay to have the work done right, as opposed to cheapskate landlords who may only do a half-assed repair job.

But sometimes I ask myself: is it worth it? Is it worth living in a 100 year old structure that is slowly trying to rejoin the Earth? Even if the house doesn’t fall down around us, what about all the little annoyances that we put up with? The vintage glass door knobs look great, but get stuck regularly. A big part of the first floor is on a noticeable slant. The windows are beautiful, but some are damaged and need to be replaced. It’s difficult to hang things on the plaster walls. Storage is a joke. The decades-old galvanized steel pipes are corroding and will need to be replaced. The insulation is poor. The floors squeak. Etc.

Is it worth it?

And of course the answer is: yes. These are the trade offs you make when you live in this kind of house. Despite the above gripes, it is so right for us in so many ways. We have great neighbors, easy commutes, the aforementioned charm-factor, and a topnotch elementary school for the boys.

We’ll probably be here for at least several years, leaks, squeaks and all.