Fun with real estate jargon

As we know, as I type this, John and Elly are currently living in what we call the Tiny Train House. As we also know, John pitched a fit because there were certain problems with the place despite being reassured that Stibbs had taken adequate care of it. What seems to have happened is that he didn't understand what the real estate listing meant by 'meticulously cared for'. He took it at face value when, if he knew anything at all, he would have realized that it meant that while the old man kept the floors swept and the counters cleaned, he couldn't afford to fix or replace out of date appliances, furnaces or bathroom fixtures.

The reason that I mention this is that the Pattermanse of 1987 could also be described as meticulously cared for owing to the fact that the range and oven are out of date and only someone used to cooking on a wood stove could produce edible meals. John's reluctance to spend money on that sort of thing because he buys into the media image of the impractical wife trying to spend her husband into the poorhouse is really against his best interests but he can't not get reluctant because he shares the same mental infirmity with the rest of the family: a belief that the government would not let the media lie to him.