There's a leaking toilet tank thing-a-mabob (the official do-it-yourselfer name for it) downstairs in the bathroom where I have also discovered a leak either from the outside wall (or a pinhole leak in the wall) that is ruining the vanity. Meanwhile, I'm in the middle of my 2-week job on laying out laminate flooring on my whole main level -- I'm on the 9th week.

And I'm thankful. Where else can I live in a $500,000-plus home (that in any other city across America would bring no more than $175,000), have plenty of equity and still need to work on a cracking driveway, leaky faucets, overgrown trees and be overdue in replacing every window in the house.

It's not a glamorous home, but we're thankful to have these problems when I consider the plight of many others. God has truly given us the resources and ability to keep this house going for the six residents, six pets (four dogs, a cat and a bird -- the two beta fish died last summer) and hundreds of visitors we call family and friends.

If I didn't have so many moles in the backyard, I would never have discovered what a great mouser Gumby is. Before he got here I had tried several home remedies -- traps, battery-powered beepers -- and I was about to go the caster oil treatment route, and then Gumby came up with his first kill. So far he's dragged 13 moles up to the door (only one live one) and earlier this week, he left me a little field mouse just in time for Thanksgiving.

Without the pinhole leak in my foyer (this is separate from the suspected one downstairs) I would not have had a great time of bonding with Ken, my do-it-yourselfer neighbor. He scoffed at the idea of calling a plumber for such a small task. So we went to the hardware store, bought the copper piping and accessories and spent an evening fixing it. The patch job on the ceiling took longer than the plumbing, but it was worth it.

I love my dog, but they have pretty much destroyed the carpet so now we have hard flooring. I've learned how to snap that project together and saved some money and potentially increased the value of my investment here. Not that it's taken a long while, but now the guys at church greet me with: “So how are the floors?” Forget the kids, family, the dogs, how's work, what's up? Just “So how are the floors?” It's unfortunate that now my life has been defined by a do-it-yourself project.

We've painted every room at least twice in the last 7 years and I'm sure my lovely bride believes it's time for a new coat of paint. I've always prided myself in my paint jobs and with as much activity as we've had in this house it's one of those skills I possess that will never lie dormant.

The windows are our next project and I haven't decided whether or not I should do that myself or hire it out. Ken assures me it would only take a few weekends. (I think of the floors and rub my back.) The real challenge is whether my book will sell more copies to pay for it. (Please shop early and often online and in bookstores everywhere.) Meanwhile, we'll check for weather stripping gone wild and make sure I'm not heating the outdoors this winter. And I'm thankful.

It's easy to get spoiled, to become ungrateful, to complain about what's wrong with the house. But if you do have a house, whether it's rented or owned, and you have dry place to lay your head at night, then join me in being Thankful this season for what we have and grateful for how good we have it.

God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving.