Entropy Increases

My father's house, a beautiful place which is now happily rented to a couple of very nice tenants, is a barn. No, honestly, a barn. When we bought it in 1956 it still had hay and animal droppings of various sorts. It is now House Beautiful, with 45 foot ceilings and a trapeze in the front hallway. Since my father transferred ownership to me, we've put on a new roof and redone the front window (a huge, formerly sliding door, 20 feet wide by 30 feet tall, with a clear pine frame). And this week we learned, oh joy, that we need to replace the furnace, water heater, and oil tanks. Total cost: $13,000.

Well, it needs to be done. And I've been able to establish a sinking fund for just this sort of emergent repair, which should pay for most of it. And it will all be fine. But still: Yikes.