House for sale...free to any takers

I'm cursed.
Seriously. My husband and I are quite conservative with christmas bonuses and stimulus checks because if we spent it when we got it, there'd be nothing left to pay for the occasional house fire, or IVF, or car crash, or surgery, or ER visit, or physical therapy, or spinal tap, or theft, etc, etc. Every year it's something bizaar (and expensive!). I've already forewarned my Houston pals that as soon as we decide to move there, Houston will have it's first Category 5 hurricane, in a loooooooong time. Trust me, it'll happen! As soon as we arrive, be sure to cut boards for your windows and buy stock in Home Depot because the cities doomed!!

In addition, everytime I'm ready to move, the economy takes a plunge. When we lived in Chicago and I was ready to return to Texas, the economy was hit hard, especially for who? Software Engineers. Of course!! It took years for my husband to find a new job. It was so frustrating! We eventually moved to Texas and a short time after moving into our new home, the prices shot up. We were thrilled with the value of our home. "Boy, did we get lucky", we thought. I guess we should have sold our home then, but unfortunately, we weren't ready to leave then. And now...well, you all know how it is right now. Oy. I'm a little confused with he info I'm receiving about recently sold homes in our area though. It has to be incorrect. The house next door to me (3500 sf) sold for $152,000!! But the 1500 sf home sold for $230,000? What?! Somebody got screwed! Considering the current condition of my home, thanks to my lovely children, I guess that means my house would sell for about $20,000. Exactly the amount my parents paid for their first home, 30-something years ago! I have to be optimistic though. Maybe the buyers won't notice the numerous holes in the wall that Abby chewed up last year. I tried to patch them up and repaint them, but that became a nightmare. After repainting those few spots, I realized that the rest of the wall is so dirty that the paint color no longer matches the repaired spots! Now I have to repaint the whole damn wall! And then there's the carpet. Good lord, the carpet. It has four solid years of dripping sippee cups, dog vomit, mud, and baby pee in it. I've steam cleaned it, but that has proven to be completely worthless. As soon as it dries, the kids spill spaghetti sauce on it and it rains on the dog and she tracks in mud. Ugh. My constant sorrow. How do other people avoid these catastrophes?!

I could always invest $10,000 in fixing up my home, but I'll never get it back when I sell the house. That would mean I get only $10,000 for my home. Maybe I could donate it and the tax write-off would be better than the value! I could donate it as a half-way house for ex-prostitutes or something. My neighbors would love me for that.
I don't even know why I'm bothering to consider this right now because not only will the kids trash the house again before I can even put the house on the market, but also my husband hasn't even made up his resume! DUH!! Yea, it helps to actually have a job first. I guess I'm just a little too anxious to move. Maybe in a couple of years...sigh.
My mother said we could live with her while we try to sell the house. Quite a generous offer considering the fact that my children would basically be destroying the value of her home! Does this woman really know what she's signing up for?! I'll have to take that $10,000 we get for our home and give it to my mom, for repairs to her home. Which leaves me with $0.00 Maybe we should just pray for another house fire!!