A consequence of buying a house is that my sense of what constitutes “expensive” is totally out of whack.

Context: we talked about getting a gas oven.  We don’t need this per se, but would like it, and figure it’s a good investment to get something really good that will be used daily.  The stove that comes with the house is electric, and has the coils.  I’ve had a glasstop stove for a while, so it’s a downgrade.  No one has ever endorsed the coils as the premier surface for cooking and easy cleanup.

Anyway, normally a $1200 purchase (plus or minus) would be a significant expense and I’d do a lot of research first and probably put it off for a while just to let the sticker shock settle in.  But when you’re already committed to a house like ours, $1200 is like a 0.5% extra expense.  It feels like practically nothing.  It’s NOT, of course.  It’s $1200.  It’s more than a week’s work.  But then again, the house itself will cost me 30 YEARS of work. Will I be mad, when I’m 63, that I can’t retire on Friday because I bought that stove in 2010, so I have to wait until next Friday instead? Gosh, I hope not.