Lesson #1 learned: keeping on top of outdoor maintenance is a pain in the ass. Mowing the grass, weed wacking, snow removal, keeping sidewalks clear and slip free in the winter. While we're at it: pulling weeds, mulching, maintenance of the flower beds/flowers/trees. Don't get me wrong - I love gardening. However, when you have a homeowner's association, you also have certain standards (gag me!) that you have to live up to. Or else you get nasty-grams from the HOA. Yeah, I've had nasty-grams (several) in the past year. All about how a certain tree isn't alive. I beg to differ - it certainly is alive, and does not need replaced. Just because the leaves have sprouted out from the base of the tree versus the top of the tree, does not really make the tree dead. It just makes it "different".
Moving on...........
Lesson #2 learned: keeping walls clean is no joke when you have a messy 8 yr old kid who likes to touch every-single-wall. I love me some Magic Erasers from Mr Clean! Or, perhaps repainting the walls will look better? I'm not a fan of these white walls.
Lesson #3 learned: one cannot run a cool mist humidifier in the winter, with closed windows, and not expect to see mold develop on said windows. Yes, totally gross. I have scrapped the cool mist humidifier for now (and changed it out for a air purifier), but in the winter time, it gets awfully dry in the house. I was also up at midnight last night scrubbing the nasty black mold off of the window sills. Gross. Mold = worse allergies. Dry air = dry nasal passages. It's a catch 22 situation folks.
Lesson #4 learned: it's going to be expensive keeping up with the yard. Yes, back to the yard work. I didn't really think about the fact that I will need several "scoops" of mulch each spring to keep the flower beds and landscaping looking fresh. Sigh. So much for the "free upgrade" of the outdoor landscaping when we were building the house. I didn't really consider the years of maintenance to keep up the "free upgrade" of the extra landscaping.
Lesson #5 learned: water, sewer and trash is expensive. Holy crap!
Lesson #6 learned: annual property taxes. Need I say more?
Lesson #7 learned: maintenance for the central air/heating unit. Keeping on top of this is important, otherwise, God knows how expensive it would be to replace it.
Lesson #8 learned: electricity problems? Yeah. Great. We have problems with the electricity in the basement already. Three outlets have gone out. Electrician coming next week to fix it. Luckily, it's still within our one year home warranty.
Lesson #9 learned: if something breaks, we have to pay for it to be fixed. Self explanatory.
Lesson #10 learned: it's hella more expensive to have electricity for an 1800 sq foot home versus a 900 sq foot townhouse. Shut off the darn lights when you leave a room kids!!!!
Lesson #11 learned: while a hardwood floor certainly looks beautiful, and you think it's less maintenance than carpet, it's really more maintenance.
Lesson #12 learned: well, it's still a mystery. Where the heck does all of this dust come from? Baseboards, floor, counters.........it's just all over the place! The filter gets changed every month in the forced air furnace, perhaps it's time to clean all of the vents out again?? I mean, flipping heck! Every single baseboard trim needs wiped down AGAIN.
No matter how much I complain, I would do it again. I just step outside, look up at our house and say...........wow, this is OURS!!!!!
7 comments:
We would have been better off renting. We have sunk so much money into our home, and now our house is only worth a half or third of what we purchased it for before the economy went bad.
Argh. Home ownership.
This post is a great argument for NOT buying a home. In So Cal where I live, despite our still-crashing real estate market, homes are still RIDICULOUSLY expensive. Alas, we have no snow-related expenses and therein lies why I love living is the Los Angeles area and don't mind paying for it! I complain about the cold weather when it's 46 degrees outside.
A couple small suggestions: While paint is expensive, if you get gloss or semi-gloss you can choose from a spectrum of lovely colors....and the dirt and handprints wipe off with a wet rag.
Mulch isn't too bad...look for sales.
Electrical problems suck...but don't go cheap on fixing them. Costs a lot more if the house burns down. Make sure you get them to check EVERYthing while it's still under warranty. If it breaks later it will really suck.
Enjoy!
"Where the heck does all of this dust come from?"
I can absolutely relate to that.haha. Dusts are everywhere even if you are constantly cleaning your own house. Whew!
Cheers,
Peny@white nursing shoes
So can relate... property taxes stink! I will say we built our house two years ago, and though it was a huge pain and we still had compromises on what we wanted versus what we could afford it has made a huge difference in my overall happiness with it. We live in north Florida and because we have good insulation and windows as well as thermal curtains we have not had to run any heat or air since early Sept. Talk about a better deal on electricity ~ wow! Our biggest bill on a 3/2 1800 sq/ft home has been around $155 in two years. I praise God for that. Home ownership is definitely more work than renting but it is also more rewarding because we know in a set amount of time we will own it and then those payments can go towards maintenance upgrades or just whatever we want. Not to mention no one can tell us what we can or can't do ~ paint, hang things, change whatever we want :)
We've been running a cool mist humidifer in one of our small bedrooms quite a bit this winter, and I have not noticed an increase in mold. Many new homes are TOO well airtight; it's possible that the mold issues are coming from elsewhere, like hot showers, or maybe it's not as dry as you think. I'd much rather have the humidifer running and just wipe the windowsill once a week---a kid can do that job. An 8 year old can also shovel and do quite a bit of gardening :) And they're great at wiping baseboards and walls, using a damp microfiber cloth from the dollar store :)
Greeat post thank you
Post a Comment