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Life lessons
The Downside Of Having Money
Here’s a perspective you seldom hear
For hours last weekend, my husband, daughter and I crawled along her old deck, removing the old finish with putty knives, wire brushes and sanders. The sun beat down and bits of sawdust stuck to our sweaty, sunscreened bodies.
If you’ve ever tried to revitalize a neglected old deck, you get it.
It would have been easier to rip up the old one and start over, but we needed to do this on a budget.
Several times, as I mindlessly scraped, this thought crossed my mind: “Wouldn’t it be nice to just call someone to come out and take care of this? We could be doing something fun right now.”
But none of us could afford to just throw money at the problem.
My daughter is busy.
She’s raising two young children. She works a demanding job and is in the middle of a protracted divorce. The deck is far from being the only household project she has to worry about.
But my husband and I wanted “Erma” and her kids, “Lillian” and “Rupert,” to have an enjoyable backyard. A nice deck, rather than a damaged one, will also raise the value of her house if she ends up selling.
