I didn't sign up for this

Yet, this is where I am. While I could say that about most aspects of my life right about now, in particular I'm talking about being a single homeowner. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I got the house. My kids need the stability, and it's a great asset to have, in the long run.

It's the short term that's not looking so pretty. The house is almost 20 years old, and there has not been a lot of maintenance done over the years. Of the projects that did get done, they were done with an eye on how cheaply they could get done. To be fair, some of that, particularly earlier on, was out of necessity. But for the last 5 years of my marriage, money should not have been an issue. As it turns out, it wasn't. The issue was that ex had checked out of the marriage, and had begun cheating, and wasn't invested in the house as "our home."  So he had little, if any, desire to repair, replace or upgrade things around the house. Oh, we talked about it, and he made it sound like that's what he wanted. But as he told me, he was really good at telling me things he thought I wanted to hear.

So, this all brings me to a ever-growing list of things that will need to be done, repaired, and replaced around the house. There are some pretty big items on the list, too. Like the a/c and the fencing. Yesterday I realized I needed to add a new stove to the list. Well, move it up much closer to the top of the list, actually. It's been on my list for years. But as I was cooking the Thanksgiving meal yesterday, and moving the racks in the oven, I saw that there's some corrosion occurring inside the oven, and small pieces of the side wall were coming off. That can't be good. So replacing the oven has now become more important, if not urgent.

I was really hoping these types of expenditures could wait until I've found a job, and am more financially stable. But apparently appliances that are almost 20 years old don't agree.