Being a homeowner really sucks sometimes

Before I get started, yes, I'm spoiled. Yes, I know there are people in the world who are living in much worse situations than what I am about to describe. I should be grateful for what I have. And I am, really. But I.Still.Want.More!

I've been in this house going on 5 years now. I really haven't had to have a lot of stuff done, which is good. A couple of years ago, I had someone out to work on one of my central heat/air units. At that time, the guy recommended that I get ready to replace the unit he worked on, as it was very old, and would probably cost more to repair than it was worth. So last year, I decide I should go ahead and do that. I forgot which unit he worked on, and replaced the wrong one (which needed replacing, too, just not as soon). So, while I have heat for the upstairs and downstairs, I only have AC downstairs. Living in the South, AC is almost a necessity. But I know you can live without it. My parents are doing so, and they live in Arkanas, which is typically hotter and waaaay more humid than Tennessee. So, I get by with the AC downstairs and fans upstairs.

The hot water heater has acted "funny" sometimes in the past. Meaning that some days, I just wouldn't have very hot water, but the next day, everything was back to normal. I was in Arkansas this past week, and got back home on Thursday evening. When I got up Friday morning, I had no hot water. I wasn't happy about it, but thought it was just the water heater acting as it had in the past, and that it would be just fine the next morning. I took a shower in the freakin cold water (one of the quickest I've ever taken) and shampoo'd my hair. I couldn't stand the thought of sticking my head under the water a third time, so left off the conditioner. Man, was that a mistake! My hair looked like crap yesterday. When I got up this morning, I hoped for the best. Well, tough luck for me! Still no hot water. Brrrrrr! But I had to condition my hair this morning, so I toughed it out, and did it. The worst, IMO, is having the cold water run down my back. I can handle on my front side fairly well, I can suck it up and deal with it on my head, but when it runs down my back, it kills me! And because I'm such a dumb shit when it comes to managing money and credit cards, it's going to be probably the end of September before I can replace the damn thing. I do have a gift certificate (which was actually a refund of something) for a plumbing company that would probably (I'm hoping) cover making a repair, if it could be repaired. And if the plumbing company could work on this particular water heater. The reason I have my doubts about that is because when I had the food disposal replaced, the plumber signed me up for a preferred customer program with that company, which included a check of all plumbing stuff that day. He said something about not having seen a water heater like the one in my house. *shrugs*

Ah, for the good old days of apartment living, when I would just have to call over to the front office, tell them what the problem was, and it would be fixed. And I wouldn't have to miss any work because of having to wait for a plumber to show up in the 4 hour window I would be given.