Every drop of water, crack, ant, royally freaks me out at this point. I can’t afford to rent. I own a shitty house that is a fixer upper. So frustrating.
NEVER start a plumbing project when the hardware or big box stores are closed.
Similar to auto repairs. If you have one vehicle and you start working on it make sure you have uber or a neighbor willing to drive you to the parts store because you forgot a part/wrong one.
Reminds me of dental issues too. If you bust a tooth it will ALWAYS happen from Fri evening-Sun when the dentist is off.
I did learn this one the hard way. This is excellent advice.
Don’t tell me… I’m 36 years old. Five years ago, I bought my house—an old one in a small town here in Spain that needed a complete renovation, including the roof. After four years of very, very hard work, mostly done by myself, I managed to restructure the house. I redid everything except the exterior walls. I moved in six months ago. So, here’s what happened: last month, some workers were installing new fiber optic cables for the whole street. They climbed onto my roof without asking and drilled a hole in it to run the cables—without my consent. For the past two weeks, I’ve been battling the fiber company and insurance to get this fixed. Meanwhile, I’ve had a bucket in one of my rooms for two weeks, and the room is now full of humidity and mold. The entire ceiling, which is made of drywall, needs to be completely redone. My hair is falling out nonstop—I’ll be bald like a light bulb in a couple of months if this keeps up.
It would be a real shame if that cable which is on your property suddenly wasn’t.
Username checks out.
Never, ever, under any circumstances, think that you’ve finally done everything that needs doing.
So many people who are mentally and cognitively bankrupt own houses. They never do any maintenance on them, or if they do, they never do it right. And yet, their houses aren’t (always) falling apart.
Houses are more sturdy than our anxieties convince us. Fix things little by little as they come, prioritize what comes first. Your house won’t fall apart or blow up. This is what I tell my wife when she gets nervous about something creaking.
I know it is cheesy, but look at every maintenance project as an opportunity for learning a new DIY skill.
Start going to garage sales and flea markets to collect tools.
It helps if you can chitchat with someone IRL about mutual homeowner issues.
Homeownership is man’s continuous battle against water.
Homeownership is man’s continuous battle against water.
Yeah, a heck of a lot of household troubles can be put on the backburner, but anything involving water intrusion needs to be fixed right away.
My home is from the 1890s and has a sandstone foundation with no footer. It leaks ground water, but only after a torrential downpour or when a lot of snow melts. Sandstone was not designed to ever be completely watertight. Leaks are incredibly common due to it just being a stack of rocks in the ground.
Luckily it all leaks right into an old grey water line in the floor. It tends to slowly fill up, then makes its way back into the earth either through that or my brick floor.
It can be a little gross and stressful at times but I’m waiting til spring to install a sump pump
I know some people with a similar house. I guess the bright news is that when a house gets that old, but it’s still standing, you probably have some time, lol.
I agree so much with the water thing. I spent two days on reshaping my yard
I’m trying to convince myself I need a table saw to replace a rotten board in my deck.
One board? Hell no. Circular saw it. If you don’t own a circ saw, buy that instead
Yah, I was going to just get a board cut but this is an excuse to buy a new tool, right?
Learn to fix these things.
I get ants turn up maybe once a year during summer. putting some ant killer powder down when they show up usually sorts them out.
DIY isn’t too hard, plenty of vids on youtube about how to do more or less everything.
I did all the laminate flooring in the top floor of my sisters house using nothing but youtube, a dremmel and a mitre saw.
I probably should have invested in a laminate cutter in hindsight but i got it done
To add to this, perfect is the enemy of good. You probably won’t do it as well as a professional, but having it done is better than not at all (since DIY is generally cheaper.
I remember going from being super excited that I owned the walls and fixtures around me to then realising I owned the walls and fixtures and no-one else was going to fix them. Not everything needs doing now though, so separate the issues into things you can live with, mid-term renovations and now things.
Oh, and always remember you’re not paying off someone else’s mortgage anymore!
That’s how i deal with it.
It’s not causing more damage, it can wait.
It’s not someone else who’s benefiting from my hard earned money
Remember this is a marathon and not a sprint. So think in long terms for fixing things. Even if you sell the house having something done correctly will increase the value. Fix something and maintain as best as possible to keep it working or as high value. This feels best if you do it room by room so you can enjoy the things you fixed.
Know when to bodge a fix, and when to nut up and spend some time and money on something. Damp mouldy patch on the ceiling? Have a look in the ceiling space, see if you can spot the issue, fix it if it’s easy. Slap some mould killer on it, done, don’t worry about it. If it comes back? Get it fixed.
Writing shit down helps. I’ve got a whole todo list of things that need to be fixed. It’s shitty how long it is, but because it’s written down it’s already half taken care of and I don’t have that random stress of ‘oh good that’s right there’s a leaky shower’ and having to remember to do that thing.
List the issues, google one by one how to bodge it, decide if it’s worth it.
If you have a damp moldy spot on a ceiling, that’s likely leaking from the roof. Roof leaks can be very difficult to find; if you have asphalt shingles that are starting to curl at the corners, then it’s probably just time to replace them, along with flashing. Thankfully, depending on the pitch of your roof, re-roofing isn’t that awful. It gets ugly it you have a really steep roof pitch, or if you have an flat EPDM roof in a brick home.
Learn/Improve your DIY skills, most things that need fixing around the house are actually pretty simple to do yourself
This 100% also most general contractors are just scam artists that will do a very shit job or make the thing worse.
It beats having a landlord.
Same sentiment for me, at least I’m paying myself ( mostly ) every month to live in this place
If you can afford the down payment, it really makes a lot more sense to buy your home than rent it.
This is it for me. There are a lot of things that aren’t awesome about owning and maintaining a house, but not dealing with a smug, PITA landlord every month is absolutely worth it to me.
Paying more for good quality tools to fix things properly can seem like a luxury initially, but they’re worth it when you’re 10 years down the line and still able to use the same set as if they were brand new.
Idk. I now recommend getting cheap tools first until they either break( from usage) or their bad quality is a noticeable and active hindrance. From there buy better quality. I also suggest buying ALL the tools you need. Sometimes, you think you can make it work with some alternatives and don’t want to get the specialized tool. I feel that I usually end up spending more time dealing with the problem and getting more stressed out.
Example of the latter: dealing with my drum breaks with just pliers. Uninstalling was a breeze, but installing was a huge pain. The cheapest specialty tools made my life so much better, and used them several times. I notice their janky, but they still work good enough to get the job done.
I don’t have a fixer-upper per se, but the dude who flipped my place to sell it really cut corners. I do as many repairs myself as I can. I consult the Internet, local hardware shops, and people I know who have done home repairs. I’m currently dealing with a toilet that won’t stop running unless I cut the water supply to it. I know that I need to replace all the parts in the tank, but I haven’t been able to make it to the hardware store to get the parts.
Also redneck engineering temporary fixes is totally a valid strategy. My parents put flex seal on a fucked up part of their roof and it kept the leaks at bay for 4 years. It could have lasted longer, but they got the whole thing replaced.
My screen door is broken, and I haven’t been able to replace it, so I have it tied open and held in place against my porch railing with some yarn. In bad storms, before it broke really bad, I used duck tape to keep it shut so it wouldn’t go flapping around.
Parts of my porch siding (plastic lattice) would also start blowing around in bad storms, so I used spare boards to prop everything in place until I was able to cut all the lattice down.
i had the toilet running issue. turned out i just needed a new seal for the bottom of the flush mechanism.
was a little more expensive than i’d like on account of the fact that the mechanism in my toilet is no longer produced but managed to find one.
Still cheaper than replacing the lot
I’m not 100% sure what part is causing the running, so I’m just replacing everything. It’s all probably due to be replaced anyway lol
well check that bottom seal, it was pretty obviously toast when i looked at it
I did. It looks a little rough, but doesn’t seem to be complete toast. There’s also another mechanism that might be malfunctioning. I adjusted it like I was instructed to and the dripping got worse.
You get used to being house poor. You learn how to budget how much it really costs you to live.
It beats paying someone else’s bills. That’s for sure
When you think things are bleak as far as repairs/maintenance, look to local lenders in your community. Unless you made a significant down payment they probably sold your mortgage to Freddie but they still can give you loans on your home equity especially if going to pay for things that are going to put more equity in your home.
Depends on the condition of the home. Make sure you get a good inspection before buying and understand the ramifications of anything they find if you go ahead with a purchase. Things that eventually need to be replaced, likely in the lifetime you’ll own it, are the water heater, refrigerator (assuming it is cheaper than replacing the compressor), HVAC and roof. Not terrible but you have to budget for it. Since you say you live in a “fixer upper” I’d say just keep it so it doesn’t leak. Don’t worry about ants as long as you keep all of your food sealed up and they aren’t carpenter ants. If they are then you need an exterminator.
You WILL find the occasional bug, odd noise, scheduled repairs and replacements, etc. These aren’t causes for panic. I can do most basic repairs but I leave plumbing and bigger electrical jobs to pros because they require specific skills, familiarity with the issues and lots of tools I wouldn’t need again. Yard maintenance is just work. I call it my “gym” lol.
My mortgage payments will go down over time unlike rent that just goes up. On the downside my property taxes and insurance costs have gone up as the value of my home has gone up. I have great neighbors also.
