It never ends does it?

[zoegirl]

Ok. Being a relatively new homeowner (4 years just last week!)....Just thought I would open a new thread to converse about the general greivances about housework, yardwork, and other nefarious home repairs that cause us to shake our head s and sigh "It just never ends"

I have had to worry about in the last couple months...

flooded basement when the East COast had three to four inches of rain back in APril. (a small portion, praises!!) and no lasting damage ....can't even IMAGINE what the Iowa popualtion is going through. BUt had to pull up the carpeting and padding, not to mention bookcases, books (of course) papers, desks, computer and then move everything back once everything had dried.

Replacing a sink drain stem in the master bathroom....AND finding out the first one purchased wouldn't fit, troop back to the store and buy the nicer model that would. Clean out the space between the inner and outer sink (yuck!)

Painting the front trim of the house (thankfully a townhome, so the size isn't too bad!) and repairing some rotted parts of the trim....

Repairing a part of the prvacy fence that ahs popped loose. (haven't done yet)

Waiting to install a bedrrom ceiling fan (found at a yard sale, love those yard sales) to help with the summer heating bill...

General yard work (call me crazy but this part I love, love mowing the lawn, gardening...)

ALl of this my father has VERY graciously helped with (HAppy Father's DAy, DAd, love you!!) and mother as well (belated happy mother's day!). NOne of which I can afford to hire done, considering my teaching salary and my medical bills (high deductible )....

I would LOVE to be able to build a small deck onto my house, I love sitting outside and eating breakfast outside. Want to build with the new Trex stuff to avoid those rotting as well. And have a quirky part of me that wants to put a sprial staircase on it.

BUt there *is* an amazing satisfaction to getting things done yourself!

Any other house woes to share?!?!

[cslewislover]

Bummer about the flooding!

We have been in our house for 12 years. It's an old but nice house, I mean it was originally nice but needed work when we bought it. Having problems with contractors is such a hassle! I have even put off work now because of a mental block dealing with contractors. What we need, for one, is to reinforce a major beam under our living room, and we need to replace some of the wood floor there too. My son's room's wood floor should be replaced since, believe it or not, we had a leak in the roof that somehow found its way through the walls (without leaving a trace) and came up through that room's wood floor. The wood there is blackened, yet not warped. So weird. It took us quite a while to deal with that.

When we moved in we thought the furnace was fine, but it turned out it wasn't. We were living paycheck-to-paycheck at that time and couldn't afford the thousands of dollars it would cost to put in a new furnace with all new duct-work (and asbestos removal). But, we got that a year or so later.

I recently built a new gate for the back yard (we have an alley) because someone was trying to climb over our old one, probably to get avocadoes, and broke it. We still haven't hung it because we're afraid of messing up the bolt-work through the concrete blocks. I may have to do it myself. There's other work like more painting to do, which I need to get to as my husband isn't really into, or good at, that kind-of thing.

There are other wood and foundational issues too, inlcuding getting a good bolting done for earthquake reinforcement. There are windows that need to be fixed, and some that should be replaced - somewhat of a problem in this old, signficant house with flush, decorative moulding. The pocket-book is always a limiting factor (I homeschool our son and don't work now). So yes indeed, it's always something!! Besides all these things, we would like to move since our neighborhood is getting so noisy and my son can't really play outside anyway (too urban fast and full of parked cars).

We are blessed, however, with a relatively low house payment, and a house is way better than an apartment.

[zoegirl]

Ruining a good gate for avocados...hmmm....

SOunds like you have a handful!!

There is certainly something to be said about saving money by doing it one-self! I would have had to shell out 600-800 dollars to replaces and paint all of that trim in the fron t of the house! (There would go my tax rebate, just liek that!)

Of course, bless my dad who is still willing to pull his ladder out and help caulk and paint the high areas!

HOw about this? The best deal you ever received.... I LOVE yard sales and thrift shops. Have found a leather couch and seat for 40$, an elliptical machine for 50$, two TV's for about 30$ each (now that everybody is getting those great new plasma and high def TV, the old ones are everywhere!)

Talk about successful hunting and gathering!

[cslewislover]

I should do yard sales more. The problem is, we don't have a truck. I know that you find good deals on couches, dressers, and things like that; well, I guess we could rent a truck. We have saved a lot of money by me doing things. We just couldn't do the roof ourself, the electrical (the whole house was redone), or the furnace and ducts. I have repainted all rooms myself, opened up the windows to replace the sash cords, and even patched many big holes in the walls and replastered them (because, also, we had much plumping work done). So by contractors, I mean pretty major ones. I never answered about chores. I'm getting lazy and am doing fewer outdoor chores! Part of it is my attitude about living here (we've also had an illegal business going on behind our house which was noisy, so we didn't use our backyard as much - the city is sort-of taking care of it - but that's a whole 'nother story).

So you can build onto your townhome? There must be "regulations"?

[zoegirl]

I can't really build onto it with reagrds to rooms and such. I can build decks and patios. I'm sure there are regualtions, although I certainly wouldnt' have the money to build the type of deck that *would * breach those regulations!

Shame about the backyard activities. I had a teenage couple that was smooching and petting and *Ahem* about to go further when the sun went down behind the neighbors back yard (it's technically open space, but he decided to mow it down and make it nice and prettty, I've keep the space behind my yard a nice jungle, complete with rat snakes, garter snakes, brambles and poison ivy ....keeps the loiterers away!) I threatened to call the cops on them....she was more of a physiscal threat than he was!!


Perhaps you could strategically place some snake skins and plant some poison ivy!!

[cslewislover]

Lol on a number of statements. How big is your backyard?

We live in a very urban setting, downtown Anaheim. We live only one lot in from a main road, and the lots in back of us (seperated by an alley) face the main road. The city redevopment agency bought most of these lots a long time ago, with plans to of course redevelop. But for whatever reasons it's been slow going, and the small business behind us was empty. The city itself got the original business to leave (this was six years ago) so that they could start their project. Since they had whatever problems starting it, they got the current business to move in. So this business is paying rent to the city, possibly a good deal. There's more than one problem with them.

The back half of the lot is open - no walls or anything (just a chain-link fence) - and they start using power tools to cut and construct wrought iron gates and fencing. Now, we knew this was not what the city knew what they were doing, since both the city and their signage say they repair lawn mowers. We hinted to the city a while back that there was more going on than meets the eye, but the city didn't investigate it. Since the city told us that the business was only going to be there "a year or so," we dropped the issue. But now, about 3.5 years later, we just got too tired of it. Not only were their machines very very noisy, but more and more guys were coming to the back and being loud. Within a week someone tried to climb over our block wall to get to the avocado tree (I witnessed this; from evidence we had this of course was not the first time), and our wood gate got broken. So I finally decided to go full-on with the city. Honestly, the city seems corrupt. The person doing the "investigation" kept making excuses for these people. But, they were breaking laws regarding business licensing and no doubt taxes (this is obviously a black-market enterprise), and they were manufacturing in a nonmanufacturing zone.

I wish poison ivy and snakes would work, lol.

[zoegirl]

Ahha, I didn't realize the business was so large.

I have a corner townhome so the backyard is largeer than others, but we face a drainage area that contains many trees and many brambles. Here in the east coast, we have lots of brambles and undergrowth in forests. The area behind my fence is not mine, so technically I *shouldn't * do anything with it (Not that I want to)

My neighbor two houses down decided that if he mowed and kept this area up, he would essentially enlarge his "backyard", which is fine, except this makes for a great loitering place for teens.

I have found that nature is really annoying to the true loiterer. Mosquitoes, snakes, and poison ivy does a great job

I have had other neighbors knock on my door in great agitation to tell me they saw a snake! They thought they were doing a great service. But I really am fine with them. They only snakes around our neighborhood are tiny garter snakes and larger black rat snakes, both of which are great for keeping the pest population down.

[cslewislover]

That is so funny. I would rather keep the loiterers out too, and have some privacy. I have a really cute picture of my son, when he was two, holding a garter snake. We were visiting in Michigan (that's where I'm from - I really don't like Southern California). I'll see if I can scan it and upload it.

[zoegirl]

Cutie

[cslewislover]

Awws, thanks. You can compliment my kidling anytime.

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

Indeed, it never does end. Owning a home means that you will always have something to do...fix this, paint that, build this, clean-up that. But...I wouldn't have it any other way. This is the place God let me own* and I want to keep it nice.

It is a lot of work but I wouldn't have it any other way.


*well...uh, the bank actually owns it, but if I keep on paying them for the next 15 years, they'll let me keep it...

[zoegirl]

Oh, absolutely, it is really nice to go through the hoiuse and realize, I did that, I painted that, I put that in....

[BavarianWheels]

Oh, absolutely, it is really nice to go through the hoiuse and realize, I did that, I painted that, I put that in....

I'd rather say, "I paid someone else to do that...but it was my idea."

Try owning a home sitting on a lot 10X the house size! Can you say, Gardner?
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[zoegirl]

I would *love* that! I grew up in a rural area and spent my teen years mowing those 3 acres with our riding lawnmower.

THen moved to another 3 acre lot with trees and loved having a trail through the property.

[BavarianWheels]

I would *love* that! I grew up in a rural area and spent my teen years mowing those 3 acres with our riding lawnmower.

THen moved to another 3 acre lot with trees and loved having a trail through the property.

Sounds nice, but I live in the burbs of So. Cal. My lot size is just over 13k sq.ft.
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