A picture is worth....A THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!

Hooray for the time of year when everyone is filing taxes and expecting big returns and all the stores are offering rebate sales.  That is unless you are self employed and pay your own taxes and you dread this time of year.  Lucky for me, Drew's job and our three precious deductions offset my self employment tax so we usually file quickly as we often get a good refund.  

This year we have been discussing how to be good stewards of that extra cash. We have a pretty long list of home renovations that we have been working on for over 6 years to bring our 1940s original owner craftsman, into the 2000s.  (Isn't that weird to say?)  

When we first bought the house the owner was in his late 80s and had stayed for our showing to point out all the remodeling they had done... in their lifetime.  Naturally the updating they had done in the sixties didn't really impress us.  Although the knotty pine and orange shag carpet that graced the entire second floor would have made the set designers of That 70s Show weep with authentic discovery!  Anyways, we looked past all the wall paper and ancient window coverings to get some vision of what this house could be before we put in an offer.  

But honestly, where in the world do you even begin to dream up some kind of wonderful for this....

Pause and really take it in for true effect.

Well, six years and lots of HGTV shows later, I FINALLY have a plan for this bathroom.  I can see it my head and have priced most of it in reality.  We can replace the toilet and vanity, sink and light/mirror combo for around $500.  The rest is really just paint and 'extras'-my favorite.  We also need to either re tile in the tub or get some kind of surround-thingy.  I like staying with in a budget and $1000 was earmarked from the tax return to the bathroom.  I was golden!  I had this!

Until,

we started taking a Sunday School class at our church and they are teaching the Financial Peace University curriculum.  The author strongly stresses the importance of an "Emergency Fund". 

OK, that makes sense and everybody knows that, but honestly, we chewed up our (very meager) savings after I became a full-time stay at home mom.  Well, in the words of my darling Husband, "It's time to start building that up again."  

And my renovated bathroom dreams go swirling down that beigey-peach colored commode...

But wait, there is more to the story as the title says...

...no sooner had the deposit been made, 

when the kids who had been playing in the basement family room started coming up the stairs with wet feet!  

Ugh!  

I went down to investigate and sure enough, we had a leak!  

Well, we did what any two college educated people with no propensity towards plumbing would do...we paid $60 to have an "Authorized Service Technician" tell us that our water heater had rusted out.  

And since that appliance had been replaced before the days of  "drip pans" we had 40 gallons of water slowly leaking into our finished basement.   

The good news is that the original estimate was $1400.

The bad news is that $915 later this is what my dream for a spa-like bath retreat looks like...

Back to saving, I guess.