A washing machine. It's laundry day. It's barely above freezing. I am grateful that I don't have to be out boiling my clothes in the yard as my grandmother did. I can remember when she got her first washing machine, so a lot of her life was spent waiting for a good day and boiling clothes.

Freshly washed sheets tonight.

My dishwasher. I love that it holds the dirty dishes all day, so they are not stacked in the sink, or I am not hand-washing all day long to keep them from being stacked in the sink. When my grandson and his family, as well as his best friend and his wife, went to the lake house, his wife assured me that they all made sure to wash their sheets, towels, and wash cloths; fold them and put them away, took out the trash, and everyone cleaned up the house before we left. She said, "Grandma, I washed all the dishes. I knew how because our dishwasher went out once, and I learned how then. Nobody else there knew how" She was so proud of herself, but it took a lot of determination not to laugh in her face that she had not learned how to wash dishes until she was a married woman, and because the dishwasher went out. It is the reality of the times, though, and we can be happy about it.


The inspector finished with the house. My husband and son were there while he did it. He said that the house has great bones. We were worried that windows would have to be replaced, but he said it has fairly new double-pane windows, so we would only have to replace the glass in the one that was broken on the outside pane. It also has a new roof and a new AC. He said the heat unit in the other AC needs to be repaired, and we could put off buying a new one or buy a new one now and enjoy lower bills. The roofers replaced anything in the attic that was damaged when the old roof leaked, so it is all sound. Underpinnings are good in the main house, and the only thing wrong with the addition that my husband was so worried about is that the foundations are not done to code. It needs to be set on concrete and piers (fairly easy and not very expensive). The rest of the add on are fine. The house just needs some minor things here and there that are basic upkeep as houses age. Relieved.

There is already a bidding war on our old lake house, and we haven't listed it, and no one has seen it except for some pictures that my husband or son has. Not only that, but we are not going to have to do the upgrades that we thought we would have to do to get people to look at it. The ones interested are not interested in an HGTV house.