Home-ownership and its never-ending need for attention

Well it's February, and at our house that means Hubby is getting ready for his annual trip to NYC for a children's book conference. He is a free-lance illustrator attempting to find an agent so that he can realize his dream of illustrating a children's book, or getting one of his own published.
For me, it's more about the few days I get to myself. I love my husband but I am a loner at heart and enjoy a few days of just doing what I feel like doing at any moment of the day without thought of how it will affect that other person in the house. I even take an extra day off work while he's away. Generally, I use this time to organize or deep clean or just watch all the movies he hates. Sometimes I crank up the music he hates, but I love, while I bake all day in our tiny kitchen.

At least, that is what I'd like to do. But it seems like inevitably something breaks. Right before his last trip out of town (that was a trip for his actual day-job, though) the fridge broke!
'Well, when I get back we can shop for a new fridge, I guess,' he says.
'Nah...I'll see if I can fix this one,' says I.
And I did. It was a total pain in the ass but it cost me about $80 in parts (because I wasn't sure if it was the thermostat or the heater switch, so I replaced both) and it took me an afternoon to do.

Now, this is a personality trait that is fairly new to me, this try it yourself first attitude, and it definitely started with the car restore. But fixing the fridge was a direct result of success I had fixing our washer.
Right before Hubby's NYC trip 3 years ago, our washer was making awful noises, not getting our clothes clean, and I was noticing an odd sediment in the tub after using it. He, of course, suggesting waiting for his return from his trip and he'd call a guy our friends had used to fix theirs.
I, of course, didn't want a stranger in my house and decided I could figure it out. Watched some videos, and decided it was most likely the pump or something stuck in the drain.
I found this stuck in the drain.

I immediately blamed Hubby, as he ALWAYS has rocks in his pockets and I figured he had inadvertently used the washer as a rock tumbler.
However, I soon found out that it was not as easy as that.

I dug a little deeper and watched another video, after realizing removing the obstruction didn't actually help.

It was an issue with the tub. I had to replace the tub?
Not exactly.

The hub of the tub had deteriorated and was no longer holding the tub together. I was shocked at how bad this looked!

This weekend project turned into multiple parts ordered, and extra trips to the hardware store after work to get new tools I needed specifically for this project.
I had luckily had enough time to order the washer parts (and yet another tool -a spanner wrench- to get the giant nut off the broken hub), and they were shipped quickly.

There was a lot of cleaning up of all the old metal bits, but I was able to just replace the hub and keep the old tub.

Because I had to wait for parts, I ended up working on this project after work over a couple of days.
But in the end, I did fix the washer. It cost me about $70 in parts...with an additional $60 for the spanner wrench and star screwdrivers. The added bonus of not having a stranger in my house and paying him for labor I could obviously do myself and the sense of accomplishment I got were worth that and more.
Knock on wood that washer is still working, 3 years later. The fridge is also still working.
This year's project: replace the awning over the side door of the house. This one involves a later and the prying eyes of the neighbors so I have a little more anxiety over this one.
Wish me luck!