Musings of the Homeowner

I've been quite contemplative as of late about the joys and new knowledge that has come with home ownership. Don't get me wrong now, I love the rockin refuge and am totally blessed to have it. My street is very quiet and we are having alot of fun watching each of the new neighbors settle in. For all y'all who are thinking about jumping in to owning, you can muse over my musings. For all y'all who also share the joys of home ownership, this will probably trigger memories (or encourage you to be preventative in certain areas of the house).
1. Turning off the water to your sprinkler system prior to freezing is a plus. You probably won't come home to a bog for a yard, a flood down the street, and a pipe spraying water like an open hydrant.
2. Being gentle with the downstairs toilet is also a plus. Note: heed any gurgling like your life depended on it or you may find your toilet overflowing and flooding your downstairs. FYI...A shopvac or shampooer for clean up of overflowing water works great.
3. Never forget about the magic red button on your garbage disposal. (see prior blog for details).
4. Chemistry grad students are excellent fixers and finders of coupling devices to fix your H2O hose going to the ice maker. Note: Never store CDs on top the freezer where they can fall on ice maker hoses.
5. More shelf supports are better than a few or you may walk out to find boxes of legos avalanched on your vehicle in the garage. Note: actually putting the brackets into the studs also is imperative for success.
6. Driveways without cement "wings" on the edges will result in deep divits by your sprinkler system. Get stones to fill them in early and before the ground freezes.
7. When relighting your furnace pilot, flip both switches at once. Note: It is a silly question to ask where the pilot flame is. Trust me, when it's on, you'll know! They look like after-burners.
8. H2O pilots aren't too bad to relight either, but having a flashlight to look underneath makes it easier.
9. Always investigate water coming down your neighbor's siding. You may find H20 running out the garage and front stoop with ceilings collapsed and 2 feet of H20 inside as well.
10. When installing doorknobs, sometimes the directions are wrong and you have to reverse the direction of the latch to get it to close.
11. Shampooers are very handy to clean up creamy colored carpet with hot chocolate spilt.
12. After having so many little things go wrong, your home radar may be elevated. This increase in paranoia that something else is wrong does not mean your fridge has stopped running. FYI...You may find yourself standing with the door open trying to get it to kick on just to settle your nerves.
13. Sometimes your circuit breaker switches stick! You have to press them really, really hard to the side to get them to reset. FYI...Electricians say they like house calls for people who don't know how to flip the switches, but then again, they may think you are a little "green" for calling them.
14. Battery connected smoke alarms throughout the house are not a plus when they decide to have an uprising against their owner. What at first sounds like birds chirping to one another all over the house, soon begins to take away every one of your last nerves. Note: Changing all the batteries only helps if you shut the windows to keep the 1/10 of smoke from the neighbor's barbecue from drifting in 12 blocks away.
15. Home ownership has a continuous growth curve! I'm sure there will be more musings in the future.
Anybody else have some great home moments to share?