So, shit's been pretty strange for a bit. I keep waiting for the rug to be jerked out from under me, but it keeps staying put.

We bought a house a few years ago, just before shit started getting seriously wierd. The only way we could afford a house was to find one that needed work. This one had been rented for 20 years to a couple with several kids, and the owner didn't give a damn about anything. It needed work. Fortunately, I have the skills (carpenter's kid, worked remodeling construction for about a decade) and I work from home. The back yard also had several beetle killed 120 yr old trees. A year later, and I have a ridiculous supply of clear, effectively old growth lumber stacked, stickered, and drying in the back yard. Both of us work from home, our kid is pulling straight As in the most advanced math and science classes in her school, I just got an award at work and survived a massive round of layoffs, my wife and I both work from home, she is my best friend and we get to see each other all day every day.
My entire life has been a series of buildups followed by a massive crash, usually through not fault of my own.
THere are so many things that could go wrong; we're falling behind a financially, but we are making massive investments in tools and materials in our home. One job cut, one serious injury, one disaster, and it all comes crashing down, but the bad stuff keeps not happening. It's been 6 years since we had anything really terrible happen, which is a record for us, individually and collectively.
I am putting the last coat of paint on my daughter's bedroom. I tore out to the studs, installed a bathroom, made the flooring and moulding from the trees we had to take down, ran all new lighting and power, levelled the floor and stiffened it, installed an entirely unique lighting system. My wife and I are utterly dedicated to each other, and our youngest actually likes us. Every morning I check my legs to make sure I didn't lose one over night.
Yeah, it is an amazing amount of work; my day begins at 6:00 and ends at 10:00 if I'm lucky. I haven't had a weekend 'off' in almost two years, my wife handles almost all of the day to day cleaning and scheduling so I can focus on the work.
It is often stressful, frequently frustrating, utterly exhausting, but we are making progress.
I feel like I'm dancing on a knife edge every day.