Being a homeowner sucks

Being a homeowner sucks

This is my "being a homeowner sucks" face...

This is also my "I am a spitting image of my mother" face

And since I wrote this post 2 weeks ago and I am just posting it now, I figured I could use an old picture too...sounds good to me

Owning a home comes with tons of perks. You can paint the walls whatever color you want. If you feel like knocking down a wall or ripping a door off of the hinges, more power to you. And the best part? When you decide to move out, you get to sell it and keep the profit. Win win, right?

How about when the air conditioner stops working in June---in Florida? How about when your house is 87 degrees at 7:00 at night, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. Let's say we were renting our house. We walk in after a long day of work, realize that our house is an oven, and don't think twice before calling the landlord. Since no A/C in Florida is considered cruel, either the landlord or the HVAC company would be over that evening or the next morning, no charge, and everything would be back to peachy-keen in no time. Let's compare this to the realities of owning our house...That same relaxing evening of waiting on the landlord turns into 45 minutes of pouring burning hot water onto a frozen-over A/C unit. Following this excitement would involve replacing the filter (again), wiping down the vents (again), and spending the remainder of the night sweating and cursing at the fact that neither your warranty company or HVAC company are open at 9:30 pm. When you finally get a call back the next morning, you learn that it will be an $87 service charge to come fix it. The best part? You already paid the same company $87 last summer for the same repair, which was "Sure to fix the problem."

You know what makes the situation even better?? To avoid a heat stroke, we spent a few hours outside, enjoying the cool summer air. The cool summer air that was filled with approximately 400 mosquitoes, only about half of which landed on me for a feast. You know the second best thing aside from sleeping in the heat and sweating your ass off all night? Being covered in mosquito bites from head to toe. Awesome.

So what have we learned? Owning a house sucks. Let's compare, shall we?

Price to fix a broken air conditioner
Renting: $0
Owning a home: $87 (per year, apparently!)

Level of frustration at the ice chunks that are sure to form again just as soon as you melt them off
Renting: 0
Owning: Are you kidding me?!

What you can do when your A/C breaks
Renting: Freak out on the landlord and demand that he fix it immediately
Owning: Abso-freakin-lutely nothing