Saturday, January 28th

You’ll have to take my word for it. Yesterday morning I got back into bed with my cappuccino and spent at least half an hour writing with my lovely Waterman pen in my lovely moleskin journal. I did start the day writing. I just didn’t do it on the computer, ergo no posting on the blog. I did this to avoid using the computer. After my journal entry, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast and started doing housework.

As I was making the bed I asked myself when I’d last washed the bedding. I had no idea. When that is the case it means it’s definitely time. So, bed stripped, bedding into washing machine. My antique furniture has been polished, the book cases have been dusted, the rugs properly walked. (If you have no idea what that last means, you obviously have no idea how little use a hoover is when you have cats.) I even got the pictures down off the wall and polished their glass. (When was the last time I did that? Absolutely no bloody idea.) Despite my friend Jane’s comment on my last post – that anything, including internet games, was better than housework – I had a rare sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. So much so that I decided to celebrate by opening one of my now many bottles of sauvignon blanc to have with my dinner. I didn’t get to the filing, but I can live with that.

The other thing I accomplished yesterday was reducing the cost of my home insurance. A couple of years ago it crept up to over $100 a month. When I received the renewal notice earlier this month, the payment required was $120 a month. Jesus. I made a few enquiries. Other people with homes roughly the same size as mine were not paying this much. I went to see the insurance broker and asked if there was anything that could be done to bring the monthly payments down. One thing was agreeing to a credit check which, if successful, would give me a bit of a discount. Fine, I said. I may have an-alarming-to-me line of credit debt, but my bills are all paid up. Then she told me what the discount would be. Not enough. I asked what else we could do. She started combing through the file. “So,” she said, “you have a two storey, 1400 square-foot house.” I actually laughed, then assured her I did not have a two-storey, 1400 square-foot house. She looked at the photo they have on file of the front of the house.

Then she looked at me as if to say “how is this not a two-storey house?”  I told her to check the photo they have of the back of the house.

“Oh,”she said. Yes, indeed. Despite this photo needing updating (there is now a deck), the message was clear: I do not have a two-storey house. I have possibly a  one-storey house with a finished basement.

This is what the downstairs looked like when we bought the house.

Or I have a one-and-a-half storey house. Whichever it is, it is definitely not a 1400 square-foot residence.

So, I came home, measured the upstairs and downstairs and rang the broker to tell her that my house is approximately 1030 square feet. She crunched numbers and suddenly my $120 a month payment had been reduced to $89. Result.

I asked how long they’ve had this false information. She assumed since we started insuring the house 21 years ago. Mike was the one who sorted out the insurance. For the past five years I’ve been spending hundreds of dollars more per year than I needed to on insurance. For the previous fifteen years, we’d be paying more than necessary. (No chance, of course, of ever seeing that money again.) Oh, Mike, Mike, Mike. I thought I was the one who was supposed to be spatially challenged? How on earth did you come up with 1400 square feet?