If You Own a Home?

Jules

Jules

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If you have a house, are you maintaining it as well as you could years ago? Do you still have the desire to keep it as perfect as possible. We used to look at older peoples homes and realize they obviously weren’t being cared for, though it may not have been because they had no desire to.

DH was an organized worker and every thing on his work schedule got done right away. His health has deteriorated and I’ve convinced him that it doesn’t all have to be done. The important things get done, by him or we hire someone if there’s someone available. Required maintenance happens. The little things can wait. I just don’t care the same way now.

By the same token, I don’t want our home to end up like this. A windowed neighbour‘s home looked spotless. It sold quickly and then the new owners found out the basics hadn’t been kept up. A slow dripping tap let water run down behind a wall. Plugs and light switches that didn’t work. A dryer vent that was packed full of lint; it’s a miracle the house didn’t burn down. They‘ve spent months doing repairs. She was a very caring person and probably didn’t have a clue that her house was rapidly deteriorating. She was also visually impaired.

I realize I can’t do many of the things DH does and hope we leave here before it becomes too much.
 

When we first moved in here, we made some basic changes, like replacing the windows, adding siding, and replacing the carpeting with wood floors.

After my husband passed, I had contractors replace my roof, plumbing in the house, and the hvac system. More recently, my son moved away, and I have had to maintain the home on my own.

Flickering lights a couple of months ago brought the electrician in and he changed the electric panel for me. The gutter people not only did my gutters in Oct., but also cleaned the vent for my dryer. I also brought in a power washing co. before it got too cold; they not only cleaned my house but the patio and cement in the back yard.

I have the lawn people mowing during the year, and cleaning the leaves at the end of the season.

There are some other projects that need to be done, but I will do them when the time is right.
 
I need to repaint and have been procrastinating. The exterior needs to be stained and the interior has some areas that need to be repainted. I did replace the roof which was a huge expense and earlier I replaced one of the HVAC systems in the house. Fingers crossed the other one keeps working.

I do the outside pruning if I can reach the tree limbs, otherwise I hire a service to do it. I have lawn service but I also do my own leaf cleanup. I sometimes put down milorganite but have a service for the crabgrass control and some fertilizer visits. It really is more than I want but I'm here so I need to make the best of it. I think I would like a cleaning lady once in a while just to help me keep up. It's much harder to do it all myself.
 
It isn't always the money as much as physical limitations later in life and now the labor shortage for the many small things. Reroofing, insulating, and repainting are easy enough to get though. But stuff like heating and cooling work and non-emergency plumbing have long waits and hefty price tags.

Significant water damage repair can be an issue as well. When people need it many others do as well, if it waits you have potential mold problems on top of it.
 
-Oy- said:
We downsized to a home half the size back in May 2022. Much easier to maintain and big enough for the two of us :)
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We want to do much the same. This house is huge, it previously belonged to a professional football player who played for Southampton. With what those soccer players earned money was no object, so many features. The reality of a five bedroomed house with two of those bedrooms having an en-suite bathroom, as well as a master bathroom has all become quite a weekly cleaning challenge.

We plan to spend a few shekels bringing the place up to a show standard and then see how it fares on the market.
 
At 82 still do regular upkeep. Most recent was tree trimming. Battery replacement in smoke alarms, clean out dust from dryer, clean dust off refrigerator coils, air filter replacement for HVAC, water filter replacement, all done regularly. Plus that is written out so my wife will know when to ask either of our sons to do that for her. I have the filter size & numbers info included for her.
 
I've always kept up on my house and property but think I do a better job now than years ago. These days I have the money to do things right, and while my energy level isn't as great as it once was I have more actual time to dedicate to a task and the patients needed to do a quality job.

As an example the last two weeks I have been redoing the electrical runs in my basement. Replacing wire, making things nice and neat and maybe even code compliant.lol
 
I bought a home recently. The first one I've ever bought.

I thought about maintenance in the years ahead, and keeping up the grounds, too. That's why I chose a house near where my sons live. They're both very willing to pitch in if needed.

My oldest son's training and work experience includes plumbing and electrical stuff, and my younger son is just freakishly strong. That'll probly come in handy someday.

Then there's my wife. She's quite a bit younger than me and follows directions well. :giggle:
 
When I got divorced 3 years ago I sold the house and bought a condo. Now I only have to worry about what’s inside my home. The hoa does everything else. The only problem is that I joined the hoa board so no shortage of headaches.
 
My house is almost 200 years old and to maintain it properly would need builders who specialised in maintaining old buildings. Fortunately my neighbour is a very skilled builder and helps me with basic repairs. I could do with having some repairs done to the roof which is covered with Scottish slate. This is now difficult to obtain so I have to rely on reclaimed slates.
 
I consider myself extremely lucky in the fact I grew up around self-sufficient family learning a lot. Then worked at many different jobs, developing a broad range of knowledge and skills... (Jack of all trades, master of none). Currently in the finishing part of our retirement home rebuild, basically replaced everything but the framing and chimney. Hopefully we will be good for 25 years..
 
We have a large home on acreage. Hub built the home and I helped with the interior. Its built with interlocking concrete blocks, with cement and rebar between. There is fiberglass covering on both sides of the cement. The roof is standing metal. There's very little to do, usually to maintaining the outside of the house and since he was an EE (electrical engineer) the wiring is good - had the main house bathrooms remodeled a few years ago and the kitchen was updated a bit before that so most things are ok. Son lives out of state and says the house "will always stay in the family"...lol.

We have a great guy that mows about 6 acres around the house for us and we leave the rest to nature. Deer love it.

Its good to think about what and how you would propose to keep the main maintenance issues in and on your house up to par. Hope everyone here on the forum can do that, as it takes a big weight off of you. Cosmetics aren't that important unless you are planning to sell it but doing what truly needs to be done when it requires it will prevent future, more expensive issues, usually.
 
In NJ ,I ,too, had a house that was about 200 years old. The Historic Society gave me a bronze plaque and installed it near the front door. It was challenging when my Army husband died , to keep it up and then when I remarried my Marine husband got it in good shape and it sold fast.

I have a smaller home now on my farm in NY and every year I plan on a large re-do of something. Last year I got a new water well pump and this year it might be a new heater. My roof was replaced about 10 years ago and in good shape by I needed a repair job on a small part of it last year.

My lawn is very large and I pay 50.00 a week for mowing. The mowing man also has done quite a few other things around here for me. A neighbor cleans my driveway if we get a lot of snow but It is not always easy for people in rural areas to find dependable snow removal or lawn mowing.

I worry about some of the seniors in my church who still have spouses , but spouses who are still able to help with major problems.

Because we can never be really prepared for a spouse's death. The loneliness, and grief, and the financial changes are magnified when major appliances start to break or the car needs a lot of repairs. I hope everyone here who is married ( or not married but who has a family ) has made a good investment in Whole Life Insurance. One of my most costly repairs came 2 months after my last husband died, and ,without the life insurance, I don't know how I could have handled that expense.

I hope the economy gets better in 2024, because so many young families are hurting, and also seniors, with a fixed income that cannot match the uptick in prices for our basic needs , probably have a struggle with prescription costs , as well as food and gas prices. I do not think our administration has a single Cue on how devastating the 'economy' really is.


The stock market is only doing well because of the high prices and the job market, with favorable stats recently, is because many workers have had to get more than one job or were able to get rehired when they refused the COVID shot years ago ,and were let go. This sure is not the America I grew up in.
 
I am certainly not going to win the Martha Stewart housekeeping award, but my house is in better condition than some houses I've been in delivering meals. Being old and infirm isn't an excuse - there are housekeeping and personal care help available for special needs people. In fact, I have an aunt that has someone come in once a week for these services.
 
When we bought this house in 2022, unbeknownst to us it was a total fixer-upper and we spent over $80,000 in remodeling and repairs. We had smaller projects still to do after the major ones were completed, but when hubby died in October, I decided those small projects just weren't important any more. Thankfully, the furnace is new and the hot water tank. We had all new windows put in (19 of them!) and new front door, new kitchen, new master bath, new family room, new electrical, new garage door openers, new landscaping, and we had trees trimmed and one removed, and we had the old brick and shutters painted. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

So, I'm praying that I won't have any big expenses in the near future. I'm going to sell hubby's new lawn tractor and snowblower and edging equipment this spring. I'll get someone to do the mowing for me and my next door neighbor told me he'd plow my driveway if we had snow. So far this winter, we haven't had anything much.
 
debodun said:
Being old and infirm isn't an excuse - there are housekeeping and personal care help available for special needs people.
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Good idea but depends on where you live; some of those services are just not available around here and even in the areas where they are, you get put on a waiting list.

I worry constantly about all this stuff; our house isn't huge but I think it's become too large for just the 2 of us and we're for darn sure on too big a piece of property so the place is just becoming too much but Huzz refuses to move.
 
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