Home ownership is a mixed blessing

It’s a wonderful thing to own a house, but it’s distinctly a mixed blessing. My wife and I moved into our home 34 years and 10 months ago and it’s given us great joy and pride. It’s also been a major source of work, worry and expenditures of mass quantities of money.

I’m learning more about the everyday chores associated with my house. For 40-some years I practiced law and my wife was the main per...