I think I am heading off to bed  

Part of the problem for us is that my first husband got sick and died the year we were going to do some renovation to this hundred year old house. The new hubby works on cars, not houses. I do not nag. Money gets to be short. My house has many of the same problems yours does.

I did not have to do a lot of the work, but I will have to rake and water in the soil where the new line went in. Are your apartments some you own, or some you rent. I am aware that in some places people buy their apartments. They need to get repairs done as soon as possible to reduce the future damage.

Our friend Hatley is in a retirement center in California. I have worked in some, and I have worked in group homes with the adult disabled. I own a house or a money pit. Take your choice. The house payments are so low, it is almost paid off, I have told hubby that as we reach our retirement years we need to be smart and proactively fix EVERYTHING. I think this convinced him. I did quit a stressful job in January. I wish I had the money, glad I do not have the job. Good luck with your move.

Oh. I was confused. The money pit business is one reason I never bought a house.

Lookie what I found! http://www.polybutylene.com/poly.html

I probably would be told that having a concrete slab laid over it is what ruined it. I appreciate the link. I remember thinking how pretty that blue hose was. It was somewhere around 1994 that it was done. I am relieved to know, however, that the sewer I had put in before that was PVC.

Our church had a financial freedom seminar. I have never taken it, but one of my friends said that the first step you are supposed to take is to get $1000 in savings. I had a little over $400 I had put away before I ran out of sick leave. I hardly ever spend my PayPal, so the rest came out of there. I need to get regular with income since I quit the one Freelance thing, and start building up again. In the winter the city here puts insulation in the meters and charges us an average bill for the winter on water and sewer. They read it in the spring, divide it out and that is your new average.They are supposed to do an adjustment of some kind since we paid for a plumber.

My house was built in 1959, if that makes sense. It really means a lot to me because daddy built this house and there's a lot of history here.

What they ended up doing here, Kathy was to put in a brand new water line, and send it in through a different spot in the basement to my hot water heater. This house was probably built around 1890 or so. I do not know if something like that would work for you, because what I am reading here is that you do not even have a crawl space, right?

No, I don't have any crawl space. I bet your house is very pretty since it was built in 1890. I imagine it's interesting, too.

With all the things that CAN go wrong, I really have been pretty fortunate.

I would think she would be glad to have you for that. Most everything that ever broke, except plumbing, my first hubby could do, including wiring.Plumbing made him throw stuff. The stuff in this house is so pieced together by previous handymen it made me skeptical. Current hubby was willing to try on the breaker, but I felt more confident in this case to have the professional.There is some stuff that is still messed up, in my opinion, but not threatening, so it will wait.

Loverbear: I need you at my house, lol! I've had a lot of plumbing problems over the years which has cost me quite a bit of money. I've also been without a car since Wednesday this past week. I didn't get to take it to the mechanic until Thursday, though. I was driving home from volunteering out at the therapeutic riding center Tuesday and when I started to go after stopping at an intersection, my car acted like it was going to quit on me. I couldn't get it to pick up any speed whatsoever. I got cramps in my legs from trying to give it the gas! When I turned the car off in my carport, I smelled a funny, electrical smell from the car. I got a call from the man working on it yesterday and he said the catalytic converter was stopped up and that I needed a new one. He told me how much it was going to cost and I was so stressed out all day yesterday wondering where I was going to get the money. He said it would be Tuesday before he could get the new part for it and as much as I hated to do this, I decided to use the money I have in my paypal account. I have money in my bank account but I need it and I didn't have any other option. You just don't realize how much you take things like a car for granted until you have to do without one. I've just about learned to live with car trouble, though, because I've had a lot of it over the years, even when my parents were living. I do a lot of horseback riding and it's at times like this when I've often jokingly said that we might as well go back to horses, LOL!

Spent down the savings, which actually was a new thing for me to have. I had put it away for an emergency. Time to build it up again.

I am fortunate, hubby can fix most car things.