Dear House of Mine...

Dear House of Mine,

I know you are upset that you have been placed on the market. What you need to understand is that it's not you, it's us. You were the perfect house to move into when it was just Pig and I with a newborn Horse. Unfortunately, as our family grew, we outgrew you.

I know we have had our difficult moments in the past. I vividly remember how Rooster tried to blow you up by somehow turning on multiple gas burners, two of which did not actually ignite, seconds before we left the house one day. I did not realize she had done so until we returned almost an hour later. I am still not sure how a toddler managed to do that right in front of me in the half of a second she was out of my line of sight while walking through the kitchen and out the back door.

I remember how our newly installed stovetop had a gas leak and how you filled up with gas and freaked me out. We had that fixed quickly, remember? I assure you that were not intentionally doing anything to hurt you.

I know about all of the plumbing issues we had to deal with in getting you in tip-top shape. We had the bathroom redone so you did not have that hideous pink tile and leaky, beaten-up shower any more. Surely that must have made you happy. We replaced the Bilco doors into the basement so that you would not have to deal with leaks through fifty-year-old concrete. We replaced the sump pump and had a new pump put onto the boiler in the basement so that your mechanical parts would run smoothly. Were you upset with us thinking that we were trying to replace you?

We keep trying to tell you, dear House, that we have nothing against you. We just outgrew you. We were trying to do our best to take care of you and maintain you, but you seemed exceptionally hostile towards us today. We had that appointment scheduled with a chimney contractor to get rid of your old, chipped, falling off stucco and replace it with nice, fresh, properly mounted stucco. But you had to go and show them that you had been secretly cracking for years. Why did you not tell us your chimney could be pushed away from the house? Why did you not let us know that it could have come crashing down at any time? Why did you leave us to discover the massive cracks hidden behind your old stucco without giving us any warning beforehand? We would have rushed to get it fixed before it became a huge issue, I swear!

Dear House, think of what you had us give up to take care of you today. Horse is going to have to wait a year or two before getting braces. I am going to have to hope my one molar does not crack in half while I put off yet another root canal and crown for as long as possible. Pig is going to have to postpone his own dental visits, which makes me wonder if the two of you are in cahoots so he can avoid all the work he needs to have done. Whatever tax refund we might have gotten next year has just been spent, too. Did you not want us to be able to dream about spending that money? That hardly seems fair since we had already spent a good chunk of this year's refund on you.

I do adore you, dear House of mine, but I want you to start behaving so that the next owners love you just as much as we do. Please, please, dear House, stop falling apart on us.

Sincerely,
One very broke Dragon