Another Day, Another dollar?

But where is the dollar? When I see these things on TV about people in situations like mine being visited by Extreme Home Makeover, or winning the lottery, or the latest in a long line, being visited by a secret millionaire, I feel like "Why can't that happen to me?" I went to an insurance agency yesterday, and after describing my house, and being really honest about it, the agent was discouraging. She told me that some insurance companies would charge more than I am being charged now, and some wouldn't cover me at all because there's alot of work to be done on the place. I hate being treated like that - like I'm irresponsible because I haven't contracted someone to come and excavate an area of my barn where the sill is rotted to replace it. The cost of that is more than I can come up with, so I've protected it as best as I can, and am waiting for a way to fix it.  I've got more urgent issues with this house - last winter was so bad that the ice crept up under the edge of the shingles and the roof leaked. Well, the last time it was replaced, probably right before I bought the place, it wasn't done professionally (or correctly), and I don't have the money to replace it, so I patched it. It doesn't leak, right now, but there are no guarantees that my patch will hold if the winter is bad again. My plumbing, also not set up properly, is crap. The lot of it. Both the kitchen and bathroom sink leak, and the one in the bathroom needs to be completely replaced, because the damage to the cabinet was pretty extensive. The one in the kitchen isn't far behind. You see, when they installed these sinks they didn't install the drain pipe properly, and it keeps separating, and leaking onto the floor of the under cabinet.  Well, I'd really like to know why they make kitchen and bathroom cabinets from that type of wood that turns to oatmeal when it gets wet.  As long as the intake pipes are in place I know enough about plumbing that I could easily replace the cabinets, but (once again) I don't have the money to actually do it.  Add to that that when they constructed the bathroom the exterior wall was not properly sided. They put tar paper then 2 layers of foam board insulation - then left it like that. Well, this summer I spent some time out there, and most of the siding is nearly complete on that area. The bathroom isn't as cold anymore. But, as with all things, being this poor means that if it is going to get done I'm going to have to do it myself, and some of these repairs I cannot do myself, either because it is just too big a job or I just don't know how. And there is nobody to help me with this stuff. Well, they say money doesn't buy happiness, but poverty buys nothing!