I love my casa, but sometimes . . .

The casa on a good day

OK, so this blog might seem a little lovey-hatey about the casa.  Sometimes there's a good (no, great) deal of stress in living in a 70 (80?) year old house.  I mean, you learn to put up with the fact that any remodeling will have to adjust to non-squared corners, various building supplies found along the way by the original builders, and crumbling lathe and plaster walls.  That is known from the outset, so you just sigh and deal with it all.  What tends to wear on a person are the little things you deal with when not in remodel mode.  The plumbing, for instance, has had various upgrades along the way.  I remember staying here one summer as a child while my dad and his brother remodeled grandma's bathroom (a small room of the kitchen that originally was a pantry when facilities were used outside the house.)  I remember very vividly the fight they had to get the new, steel tub through the half-sized doorway.  Then the consternation they expressed when the tub was about 3 inches too short for the space.  (They left it like that, by-the-way, and when we moved in Corey built a little wooden spacer to cover that icky, everything-fell-behind-the-tub-and-grew-feelers space.)  I could mention many other stories, but let's just leave it with this:  whenever something goes wrong at the casa (electrical, plumbing, etc) we always assume the worst.  It's not because we're pessimistic.  It's because, through experience, we've learned that this old house needs more maintenance than most.

So, a major concern has been the fact that our water pressure has been steadily dwindling since last fall.  We originally thought it was the pressure tank not being set correctly, so Corey spent one Saturday with a rented air compressor and some tools trying to calibrate the on/off switch.  No change.  When we woke up one morning before Christmas to a lake in our driveway (see previous post), we thought we'd found the culprit--a leak in the line.  Not so.  The plumber that arrived said that wouldn't do it (it was on the neighbor's coming into the line side) and also, the pressure tank was running just fine.  So for the past 2-3 months we just watched and waited as the water  pressure got lower and lower.  We'd start filling the tub 15 minutes before we needed it; I'd plan a load of laundry for an hour and a half of washing; there was no way we could wash our hands or the dishes if either of those other two uses were happening.  We were holding out for warmer weather and the hopes we'd be able to afford a new pressure tank, complete with the $75 an hour plumber to install it.  Then something truly amazing occurred . . .

I was getting ready for work yesterday morning and the thought came to me, "I wonder if something could be wrong with the water softener?"  (I'd just watched an "Ask This Old House" episode on DIY where they fixed a water softener.) Somewhere, in the back of the earliest memories of living at the casa, I'd witnessed something . . . but I couldn't quite place the memory.  I mentioned it to Corey (my "Do it Now" boy) who went immediately to close the bypass valve.  While there, he removed the little banjo filter for the water going into the softener.  Eureka!  The amount of water pressure we then had was astounding to us.  We literally turned on all the taps and stood back watching in amazement.  Oh my gosh!  It took a while to process the information.  You mean it was a small, 1 1/2 x 3 inch cylindrical filter full of rust and other hard water minerals that caused all the concern?  You mean we were able to replace it for around $10 and a trip to AgWest?  How relieved we were . . . how blessed we are . . . how vindicated am I for watching DIY?

Being a mom . . .

Last Saturday we had a baby shower for my daughter-in-law.  She's having her second baby girl, but we didn't get to have a shower for her first one, so it was fun and exciting to have one this time.  I'm so glad she felt up to the trip from Utah; she's just 6 weeks away from delivery.  We had an enjoyable luncheon and a fun time comparing baby notes and oooo-ing and aaahhhh-ing overt the pretty pink baby things.  As I looked around the room full of women, I was struck by the realization that we are all bound together in this life-giving-circle of love.  I also was remembering that many of these wonderful women were at a baby shower for me just a glance-back ago.  I was as big as a house, uncertain about the whole parenthood thing, and realized with every gift I opened that this step was more and more inevitable.  No turning back.  I was going to be a mother.  One of the sayings we had for decoration at the shower was:

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new."  --Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh


When I read that statement, I realized how true that was.  That baby forever changed my identity.  I became a mother.  My mom once told me, "Once you're a mother, you're always a mother.  Even after they grow up and become parents, you're still their mother."  Yep, there's no escaping it . . . but oh, how I have loved being a mother of five amazing children.  Each one different, yet each one the same.  Each one bringing a different joy, and each one bringing a special relationship for me.

Now I'm not only a mother (and grandmother), but a mother-in-law, and I'm finding that those dear, sweet daughters-in-law have found a place in my heart as well.  The more I'm around those wonderful women, the more I am grateful my sons found them.  As the crowd left and they visited in the kitchen together and then later with me as well, they were truly part of my family.  I am now the mother of seven.