Stuff breaks, but why all at once?

My garage door opener broke on me several weeks ago and I have been having to manually open and close the door if I want to park inside. When my back pain (sciatic nerve - yay pregnancy!) was at its worst Tyler was opening and closing it for me in the morning which was very sweet, and now that the snow is almost done I can park outside and ignore the broken door altogether. But that brings me to the next broken piece of house: the doorknob.

If I want to enter the house through the garage door I must complete what may look to some people like some sort of odd arm dancing ritual. Twist to the left, twist to the right, shake a few times, yell, stomp my feet, twist some more, and then if I am lucky it may open. Now mind you, this too has been broken for some time and we totally know that it is only like a $10 repair, but no one around here (except Fred) has any time to spare with History Day and end of quarter grading (oh, and did I mention the PILES of tests and papers Tyler has been grading all day and all night for DAYS now?!).

Tyler hard at work with literally stacks of essays and tests still to grade!

And History day projects too!

Our final big ticket item is the oven. In an 11-year-old house one would not necessarily expect to have the oven already die, but alas, it is a piece of crap. Not only is it ugly (to match the dishwasher and refrigerator and microwave), but the oven decided to stop working last week and we have no idea why. We consulted the online GE troubleshooting guide, we unplugged the thing and wiggled parts around in very non-scientific ways, we cleaned God-knows-what off the sides (the only productive part of our examination), and yet we have no idea what is wrong. The range works great, but try cooking a delicious lasagna for your weekly lunch (it's currently in the oven) and the temp fluctuates from 400 to 200 to 300 to 400. What a nightmare.

To top it off, last fall I decided that if Nicole and Alex could rebuild their house from scratch, I could learn how to replace some old weatherstripping (old meaning 10 years) from around the door in the living room. I watched a few YouTube videos, read some stuff online, bought what I needed at Ace and was on my way to success. Except I wasn't successful at all. We had major drafts from the door all winter, and now the bottom rubber piece (the only part I didn't touch) is falling off. I can't wait for some sunnier days soon when the black flies discover this easy entrance and invade our house.

Does your door have a black tail?

Since I do not know how to repair anything and the "local" appliance repair guy is in Littlton, NH, I have spent some time on Consumer Reports tonight researching brand new stuff and have found that Lowe's will deliver everything we need (for FREE!) by April 17th at the latest. We've decided for now to "sleep on it" before making any big purchases, but I bet I dream about a working oven tonight!

Oh 30"GE Electric Free-Standing Range with the 3rd highest CR rating, how I love thee!