oh hail no!

Two Saturdays ago, we were hit by a tornado.  JUST KIDDING and I don't wish that on anyone!  But really, there was a bad hail storm in the middle of the night.  Having lived in Vancouver for 9 years, we did get hail but nothing like the golf ball size hail we get here in Dallas.  And we didn't have tornado warnings, EVER (seriously, what are we doing here?).  I prayed that our roof would hold up okay.  The previous owners just replaced the entire roof back in 2009 because of hail damage, and the guy who did our house inspection said that our roof was one of the best he's seen in a long time.  So that assured me that it would be fine.  My next fear was that a big sized hail would come flying right through our bedroom window and I'd be the first to get hit (we have one of those half circle windows that can't be covered by standard blinds, and as much as you want to sleep in past 7:30 am or so, it's almost impossible because the sun hits you directly in the face saying WAKE UP).

The next morning, Paul surveyed the scene and sure enough, we got hit. 

What started out as a small hole turned into a crack as long Kim K's butt crack (not sure if you can see it in these pics - if I had Photoshop, I'd so use arrows).

So I'm the lucky one who gets to leave work early today and be home to supervise the people coming to replace it for us.  Actually, it was supposed to be yesterday but they called and said they broke the glass so they had to order a new one.  Do you sense a bluff here?

This just adds to the list of things that we've done around the house since we've moved in.  Here are a few more:

- Because of the freeze that we got last February, one of our water pipes burst under our living room floor, which resulted in our laminate floors being removed, drilling a huge hole on the floor and losing one of our holly bush.  Luckily, insurance paid for most, if not all of it.  We ended up putting the laminate floors back ourselves, which was a puzzle in itself, and we still have to fix our base boards.  We planted a new holly bush but it could take up to two years for it to patch up the bald spot.  This was one of those nightmares that a home owner dreads.  I'd post pics of the damage, but I don't want to attract any more bad luck!  We DO NOT want a repeat!

- We painted the living room and kitchen walls TWICE!  I need to plan these things out better.  I'm also very indecisive which drives Paul crazy. 

- We didn't have any window treatment in the formal dining room for almost two years, so we decided to put in plantation shutters, and switched out the rest of the blinds as well (minus the bedrooms). 

- I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but we had our exterior repainted just this summer.  It really made a difference and we actually got a good deal on it.

- Which reminds me, our fence will probably need to be replaced down the line, but hopefully we'll be out of here by then!

Other things on the to-do wish list:

- Paint the kitchen cabinets
- Paint the bathrooms and bedrooms
- Replace kitchen counters with granite or silestone =)
- Put backsplash (I swear I've watched enough HGTV for me to do this myself)
- Change sink, faucets and light fixtures
- Paint the other side of the front door black

.....and the list goes on. 

I guess my point is that, with becoming homeowners comes unexpected expenses along the way.  Okay, I know some of the things I listed are more of a preference (like the paint), but some things are out of our control and we have to be prepared for things like this.  I hope 2012 gives us a break and spare us from any incidents for a while.  But we love our little abode.  Slowly, we've made it feel like home.  We're enjoying our time here and can't wait to have little ones running around (I admit - after the cute trick-or-treaters who stopped by our house on Halloween, I officially have baby fever).  We're so blessed and thankful that we have a place that we can call our own.