Homeowners Come In

[twotrue]

How often do you do house related projects? I'm not talking about weekly chores like laundry, weeds, etc. I'm talking about major projects - power washing, painting, caulking, landscaping, etc.

We have a nice house. It's not new to us but for this area is is considered new (20 yrs old). It's a good house but I feel like we are always doing projects. I realize part of this is our nature. I have friends that will leave repairs (like water spots on the ceiling because of a leak) on their to-do list forever but I can't live like that. So it ends up feeling like we have a never ending to-do list.

This weekend we installed a sump-pump cover (including adding a vent to vent it outside) and then I re-screened the front screen door, replaced basement window screens, and power-washed the house. And of course there was all the weekly stuff like vacuuming, mopping, laundry, and odds and ends like weeding, spraying for bugs, etc.

Will the house just ever be done?

[clickerish]

This is, in part, why I stopped being a home-owner and swore off it forever. I found it exhausting and a bit like having a child but without any of the pluses. Hang in there ;(

[never2amazing]

No, nor should it ever be. By doing what you are doing, not only to you keep the price of the house at it's max value, but you lessen the amount you have to put into it if/when you move.

Keep up the good work! I am sure you take great pride in your place!

(I wish C and I were like this with our old place; but I think we learned.)

[twotrue]

Aug 13, 2012 8:59:15 GMT -5 never2amazing said:

No, nor should it ever be. By doing what you are doing, not only to you keep the price of the house at it's max value, but you lessen the amount you have to put into it if/when you move.

Keep up the good work! I am sure you take great pride in your place!

(I wish C and I were like this with our old place; but I think we learned.)

I get that, I really do. And TBH I don't mind all of it. But sometimes it feels like the work never stops so I'm going from work-work to home-work. I will say that yesterday was nice though because Jelly Bean stayed inside with K (who was cooking dinner) while I weeded, washed, etc. It was a nice break from being in mommy mode.

[thiswillbe]

Yeah, the only thing worse than constantly dealing with maintenance issues is dealing with a bunch of deferred maintenance when you move (says the woman with a huge power-washing, re-caulking, brush-clearing, etc. to-do list).

At the new house, I'm planning to have one major project on the books each month. That way forward progress is being made, but I'm not spending every weekend embroiled in house projects. (So goes the theory, at least...)

[ct]

You are definitely an above-and-beyond homeowner. I'm barely keeping up with the weeds at this point.

[2brides]

Aug 13, 2012 9:46:11 GMT -5 ct said:

You are definitely an above-and-beyond homeowner. I'm barely keeping up with the weeds at this point.

Agreed. Well, given I am the least handy lesbian around, I am not able to do any repairs. L is much more handy than I am, but isn't really interested in doing major repairs on her off weekends. So, we tend to build up a list and then have a handy repairman come and do it all in one fell swoop.

But there are things we aren't going to pay anyone for and yet we still haven't done them (ie. the blinds in the basement/playroom need to be replaced from where a couple of toddlers bent them in half a few years ago and the toilet seat that needs to be replaced in the boys' bath that we have bought, but not replaced.) Sigh.

[hlke]

Back when we were homeowners, we always had a never ending to-do list, but never made much progress on it and had a lot to do when we were putting the house on the market. We did try to devote one weekend a month to house stuff - gardening, deep cleaning, maintenance, improvement projects. We were mostly DIY, but did hire people for stuff that we just aren't that good at, like a major repainting of the whole house.

Now we're renting, and it still feels like it never ends. Our rental wasn't in the best shape when we moved in, and we actually do some stuff in exchange for lowered rent (with the bonus of it getting done faster - our landlord is very busy). I think we'll try to stick to the one weekend a month thing here, although lately we're lucky if we even have that.

[kimnsandy]

Well...Sandy and I are over achievers on our home projects. We have spent the last couple of years working constantly on improving the inside and outside of the house and yard. We spend our weekends home doing at least some home items. For instance, we have been doing a ton of landscaping lately. This means we put vitamin water on all of these plants every week or two. Then there is the mowing, weed eating, cleaning the pool.

For additional items, we have a mutual "honey do" list with all pending maintenance items and we try to catch a few every weekend. Like this coming weekend we need to prune back a few limbs of our tangerine tree so the fruit doesn't fall in the pool.

I guess it IS work....and don't get me wrong, we plan our downtime just as carefully so we can sit around in our jammies....but it is like our own little oasis when we come home each week so it's all totally worth it. I don't even consider for resale purposes. I hope we live here until we are old ladies and just can't keep up the place anymore.

So I said all THAT just to say THIS...nope...a woman's work is never done. haha!

[joyseattle]

We have an old-ish 1940s home and a never-ending list but I think we approach it differently. Since we bought our place almost 3 years ago, we do 2-4 big work times a year, during these times (often my birthday and summer), my dad and usually one of my other sibs comes up and we do a ton of projects all at once. My dad has a construction and renovation background, so that's helpful. The rest of the time, C and I figure out what we can do ourselves (painting, caulking, etc) and add those to a list that we tackle bit by bit. We don't do something every week, but we try to do something most weeks based on project and time. We then re-prioritize the list as we go and sometimes add things to the big list. This makes it feel like we're making progress without also feeling overwhelmed or that we can't just relax too.