The new dishwasher

well, it isn't really a dishwasher at all. The dishwasher has been an epic fail at our house. Half the dishes come out still dirty, and I end up having to hand wash practically all the bowls and cups after each load. That's not very helpful at all.

When I was five years old I washed dishes three times a day...all by myself! Surely, I can teach my children (ages 2 to 10) to wash dishes once or twice a day. The younger ones can't reach the sink very well, so I decided to get them their own sink...a la Montessori style. It's educational, so it's cool! 

Now instead of a chore, it's an "activity." We can run two washing stations at once. The kids break up into teams. Each time has a washer and a dryer. The little kids get to help in a very real way. They learn fine motor skills, attention to detail, how to cooperate with others, and hopefully organizational skills. These are activities of daily living task from which they can gain a sense of pride in their earnest accomplishments. Who needs a dishwasher anyway?

This table was made by Junior at Midwest Woodworks. It's assembles using pocket screws which gives it a smooth "no hardware showing" look. However, it does take a while. It took a little more than a month for our table to arrive. Now that it's here, I can say it was worth the wait.

Flybaby

Take a picture, it will last longer...than this shined up sink. Indeed, it was much less shiny within half an hour.

I've heard a lot about the Flylady's book, but had never read it. Last week, I just happened to walk right by it and spotted it on the library shelf. Yes, I suffer from chaos (can't have anyone over syndrome). So I brought home the book, Sink Reflections.

Now, I know she recommends you start by shining your kitchen sink, but I decided that my AC air filter was in much more dire need of cleaning, as it's gone all summer and hasn't been cleaned in a couple months. Surely, I would feel loads better if my air filters would actually start filtering the air. And indeed, I've sneezed a lot less today. Also, I won't suffer the heartache of watching my hard work come undone within the hour. No, that air filter won't need to be cleaned for another month. The sink, however, already dirty.

Roofing

Our house needs a new roof. There are two layers of shingles on our roof at current. The top layer is 15 years old, and the bottom layer is any one's guess. Double layers decrease the life on the top layer because any defects or faults on the first layer will cause disruption to the second layer. Also, the double layers result in twice the weight on the roof, leading to breakdown of the wood structure supporting it, or so I've read. I've noticed that when it rains it smells like wet wood in my bedroom. So I think we should replace the roof as soon as possible.

However, we haven't saved enough money to replace a roof yet. Up till last night I wasn't sure just how much a roof would cost us. We've been getting phone solicitations for free estimates, so we took one company up on their free estimate. It was only suppose to take an hour. It took two. The price was about twice what I'd hoped to pay. I really wasn't interested in picking out shingle colors, but the guy was rather insistent we look at the exterior of the house for a bit before getting to the fiscal details. Finally, they quoted us for over $16,000 for 30 year asphalt shingles, with a complete tear down, not including any wood replacement should we have any rotting wood underneath.

Sure, we "could" finance a new roof with the contractors, or do 6 months same as cash, or go to our bank. However, we just bought the house a little more than a year ago, and the prices in our neighborhood have only gone down since we moved in. We have zero equity in the house. Financing seems imprudent. For those reasons, I don't think the bank would be willing to loan us the money. At any rate, the thought of taking on more debt to replace the roof sickens me.

No, I'm thinking we'll just have to come up with another plan...savings. We've got to start saving a LOT more. The days of credit are done.