Everything Breaks Here

 By now you probably know that stuff in my house breaks, a lot! Not because we don't take care of our stuff, but because the house is old and so is a lot of the stuff in it. 

Our house was built in the 1960's and we are not the original owners. We have renovated a lot of the years but a lot of things are still original, like the basement handrail and handrail mounts. 

Yep, you guessed it, the handrail mounts snapped. Luckily no one was hurt, my son was the one using the handrail when the mount broke, luckily though, he was already sitting on the stairs playing with the dog when it broke. 

No big deal right? 

WRONG!

We live in the basement, we use the handrail multiple times a day, every single day, and to top it off, my in-laws use the handrail regularly as well because we have a shared laundry room, in the basement.

Even if my husband, my kids and myself could live without a handrail, my in-laws absolutely could not. Not only are the now in their early 60's, getting up and down the stairs is not as easy as it used to be for them as their now at the age when they start having difficulties with their health and arthritis is kicking in big time.

We had to fix the handrail mounts and fast because my mother in law had just brought down her laundry a mere hour before the break.

The first thing we did was run out to our shared garage and check to see if we had any extra handrail mounts, my father in law has everything we could ever need in there, except of course, the one thing we actually needed this time. 

So I did the next logical thing, I googled handrail mounts to see where I could get some and how much they would cost. To my surprise they go for anywhere between $6 and $20, each. 

You know me, I'm cheap, so I decide that I want the cheapest one I can get. I find one that suits my price point and that is available in an actual store near me. 

Then, because I am a horrible mom, I con my daughter into walking with me the 5.5 KM (that's 3.4 miles for my U.S readers) to go pick them up. 

Random Hiking Map for distance reference

While I'm waiting for my daughter to get ready I decide to scroll my social media feeds and come across a mothers day event at the mall we will be passing, so I tell her that we will be making a stop to check it out. You can see my post on instagram HERE and my video about it HERE. 

After our little stop at the mall we continue our way to the home depot. It is a great walk and we got to see the cutest prairie dogs along the way. 

Then we get into a massive parking lot area that we need to cross, no problem. Only it was a problem, we nearly got hit by several cars either not paying attention or speeding. 

Eventually we manage to get all the way into the store, in one piece, and then we can't find the damn things.

Apparently handrail mounts are in the power tool aisle, not the mount and bracket aisle, because home depot logic. We found this out by asking the nicest young lady who worked there, who actually had to look up which aisle they were in on her phone.

We finally get into the right aisle and check out the various options, which of course, is about half of what the website had and obviously, because it is me, they didn't have the one I had originally picked out. 

I eventually find a cheap-ish option that will actually hold some weight without breaking and start my way to the till when my son text me to let me know that he found a couple extra ones. The extra's were actually the two original remaining ones, one from the long handrail the had just broke and one from the short handrail the had broke years earlier. YAY! I saved $15!

My daughter and I put two of the mounts back now that we only need two of them and decide that we are going to do some window shopping while we were there, just for fun, because we like to pick out the things we have in our fantasy house. 

We ended up in the kitchen area and checked out all of the appliances, which was pretty cool, we discovered that there is a fridge that will show you what is inside the door by simply knocking on it. 

Laugh at my excitement all you want (my husband and son sure did) but I seriously didn't know that existed, my current fridge is so old that it could be used as a bomb shelter, literally. It is a philco from the 1950's.

After me and my daughter have our fun window shopping and planning our fantasy kitchen we make our way home and I hand my son the handrail mounts so he can get to work. 

It took him close to an hour to put both handrails up with the mounts, mostly because the dog kept deciding that she wanted to help every step of the way, including when he pulled out the electric drill and pre drilled new holes. 

I am one proud momma, the handrail is stronger now than it ever has been (yes we tested by sliding down the rail lol) and we tried to pull it off the wall but it wont budge. We even joked that his shop teacher should bump his grade up a point for doing all of the work himself instead of letting his dad fix things like we usually do. 

Now we were play the waiting game to see what breaks next because in this house, once one thing breaks three more follow suit. Hopefully the next thing is an easy fix that doesn't cost much money. We were actually taking bets on what it was. I bet that it would be my oven. My kids bet it would be the stairs. My husband bet it would be something expensive. 

My husband was closest. The next three things that broke were the washing machine lid, the lawnmower and the bathroom door. Luckily for us, the most expensive break was the lawnmower, which my father in law replaced. The washing machine lid is still usable, it was just a small plastic piece that broke off that doesn't seem to effect its ability to open or close, and the bathroom door is a pocket door that fell off the track, which I am told, will be really easy to fix, once my husband gets to it (he is working like crazy and hasn't had time yet) so we got lucky this time.