Pennywise Pound Foolish?

At the peak of the housing market a young couple bought a house across, and a little bit down the street from me. I am aware of the inflated price they paid from a neighbor nosier than me. The house, was in disrepair. The old woman and original owner, died in it. Nothing had been touched since 1929. The front lawn was pachysandra.

And despite the ridiculous amount of money the new owners spent to buy the house, they then pumped an obscene amount of money into it. It was completely renovated—state of the art kitchen, 4 bathrooms, windows, added family room, outdoor covered deck with ceiling fan. The roof, the electrical, alarm, sprinkler system, driveway, central air and landscaping--you name it—and it was replaced. And it was done so with top of the line products. The house is something to behold. Everything is in keeping with its Tudor tradition. I am in awe--- but for one thing--- the crappy original front door. For some reason they chose to keep the hollow worn-out wood veneer door whose only redeeming feature is that it opens. After spending millions of dollars (literally), that is where they drew the budgetary line.

A valve broke on my boiler and the consequence was some water on the utility room floor. So in addition to replacing the broken fitting my husband also cleaned out some accumulated junk near the heating unit. He came up the stairs to the kitchen with no less than 20 or 30 used aluminum pans in varying sizes in his hands. And he looked at me and inquired Are you saving these for a reason? And I said Yes. I might need them. And he responded with All of them? I said Yes. And because my husband is a kind and gentle man, he, without ridicule said Isn’t the point of disposable pans that they are disposable? Can’t you buy new ones?

But the thing is this: I like reusing disposable pans--- particularly for the grill. I do not like spending the money to replace them after only one usage. I spend lots of money on lots of other things but I do not like to spend $2 on aluminum pans. That is where I draw the line.

And while on some level I understood my husband’’s point I told him Leave the pans on the countertop and I will throw them away. But I didn’t do that. I hid them in a different cabinet in the basement. All those pans represented about $20 in value. To me those pans represented a manicure and a cup of cappuccino---and I wasn’t giving up a manicure and a cup of cappuccino for no good reason.

And I can only guess that the new neighbors saw no need to drop 7K on a custom front door even though that 7K only represented a cup of coffee’s worth of their total investment. Everybody draws the line somewhere. Everyone has one thing they cheapen out on. Everyone has a budgetary quirk. And I suppose that even with the crappy front door, the new people still have raised my property value-- and if nothing else, increased my viewing pleasure. And I thank them—especially for removing that pachysandra covering the front yard.