Marylanders don’t consider themselves as really part of the south, but we’re sure not northerners, either!  It’s 21 degrees, give or take a few, outside today, with wind chill making it feel more like 10.  That’s way cold.  And to make life all that more interesting, our heater has decided to start leaking gas.   The BGE guy wisely decided for us to turn off the heater, to avoid us making our house a bit more accidentally HOT than is advised.  But it’s 21 degrees outside!  Inside of our house isn’t yet that cold, but we’re getting close to 60, and still falling.  [Heater repairman is here now…  no word yet on what the necessary remedy will be.]

At the end of December, we had a plumber out, to fix what ended up being a root ball in the pipes.  Water in the basement, luckily confined to the laundry room, and luckily shower water was the outflow, rather than toilet water.

Last night, my hubby realized our sump pump isn’t working, luckily by observation, rather than overflow.  Looks like some time spent on Monday doing a sump pump replacement, which will have the side effect of causing us to clean out the workroom so he and his dad can actually get to our sump pump without a huge hassle.

So…..  this new year isn’t starting off so hot, from a home upkeep and maintenance perspective.  Now, thinking of cash inflows into the economy, well, we’re doing our part to keep the service and home repair and supplies industry going strong!