Anyone else HATE fixing up their homes?

[frugal-one]

I absolutely ABHOR contacting people to fix my house (they rarely show up on time... if at all) or how to determine who to contact????, shop for new carpeting (never looks the same as in the store), shop for furniture or furnishings or do repairs. I have a tendency just to live with the way things are. So, I finally decided things HAD to get done and had someone come in to do an estimate..... Still haven't heard from him. I am good if things go together and are clean. I can't see the joy in decorating either. However, it does get to a point where things need to be updated. How to live through this? UGHHHHH!!!! Would have sold the house before we got to this point, but MIL now is in assisted living and we are stuck here until she dies. Need to get basic things done so we can sell the house.... ie a few new windows, carpeting, house/siding painted and a few minor repairs. BLAH! Sorry for the rant.

[Gardenarian]

Happiness is a reliable handyperson :)

Even better if you can get one who will work with you and show you how it's done.
I dream about having an all-purpose handyperson who will can fix everything at one go - wouldn't that be great? Most of my experiences have been pretty good. I always use local people who are recommended by people I know - but still, they usually can do just one thing really well (electric, plumbing, tile, gas) but when a project is more involved - eek!

I have had some frustration with people not showing up, leaving work half finished, not admitting that the job was beyond their skill level.

I enjoy fixing up things myself, though I don't think of it so much as decorating as just making a place comfortable - figuring out the best kind of window covering, what kind of lighting do we need, how can I make the house more low maintenance - and a whole lot of just replacing/repairing stuff that is broken.

I currently have a broken bathroom faucet that is frustrating me. Seems like too small a job to call out the plumber, but do I want to spend my day pouring over diagrams on Google image? No I don't!!

I sure do wish I'd learned more of this when I was younger.

If you are working with a realtor on your house, ask them for recommendations. They'll often help push the work through.

[catherine]

Yes.. Real estate is supposed to be such a good investment, but somehow when you're caught up in owning your own piece of the pie, you forget about the cost of maintenance. I tend to wait until things HAVE to get done.

This year, our house HAS to get painted.. but we're taking the easy route--we'll powerwash the back and sides because they're asbestos shingles from the 70s :( --carcinogenic, but hey, they hold up great! The front of the house is regular wood shingles, but they are so chipped we're starting to look Addams Family. Plus the moulding around windows has to be replaced, and I'd love to replace a few windows but that's so expensive. So we'll spend the money on the front--scrape and sand, repaint, fix and replace moulding and trim where needed, replace a shutter (the last wooden one we have).

DH is dying to get vinyl siding, but I'm wishing there was a more environmentally-friendly alternative. I've heard about some kind of fiber cement?? I just hate the idea of wrapping my house in plastic. Uggh!!

[frugal-one]

Well... got the estimate back and we are going to get 'er done. Surprisingly, the guy came out right away and emailed the estimate in a reasonable timeframe. He also included a start time and completion time for the project. Got this recommendation from a neighbor who had their house painted by him. Price was not too bad so, hopefully, all will go as planned. Now... on to the windows... The painter told us how to go about this and also gave some recommendations. Hope this goes well too.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Yes.. Real estate is supposed to be such a good investment, but somehow when you're caught up in owning your own piece of the pie, you forget about the cost of maintenance. I tend to wait until things HAVE to get done.

So I am told. "You don't know what owning is like, you have your weekends to do what you want with pretty much don't you?". Yea except when I'm working. "Yea, a house would put an end to that, the week would end and you'd have to work on the house" "Hmm, really? Never thought of that .." Though I don't actually think it's always that bad, especially if you let things slide :)


This year, our house HAS to get painted.. but we're taking the easy route--we'll powerwash the back and sides because they're asbestos shingles from the 70s :( --carcinogenic, but hey, they hold up great!

ah well everything has asbestos in it anyway. Ok, it's a serious poison linked directly to certain diseases and indirectly to a few others. But I was always under the impression asbestos was banned, that they used it for awhile but now it's been banned, but doing research this weekend - wondering if something was asbestos (this apt isn't new, I was wondering if there was some way to recognize asbestos by looking at) - apparently it never has been banned in the U.S. (although it is banned in almost all non-developing nations besides the U.S.). Usage peaked in the 70s, everything was asbestos, asbestos and avocado greeen :). So yea the 70s siding probably. But asbestos is still used and for commercial products not just industry, in roofing, in insulation, in textiles. One study found it in the putty stuff used to insulate windows (purchased new now at Big Box hardware stores) and in duct tape (in duct tape!!!!). It was found in all purpose flour ...

http://www.mesotheliomaresource.co/asbestos/asbestos-use-threat-today/

[razz]

Find one good tradesperson and get their recommendations for other needed projects if possible. I have found that good tradespeople like to work with other trades of the same calibre.
It is a demanding experience to go through. Fortunately, so far, I have found good people for my updating projects by talking to other people going through the experience and generally putting out the request for contacts that might help.

[Miss Cellane]

A reasonable sounding tip I heard some years back was to look at your house as if you were going to sell it. Make a list of the projects that would need to be done in order to get the house on the market--paint, new flooring, fixing cracked windows or squeaky doors, new furnace, new refrigerator, digging up an overgrown tree, putting in a new driveway, etc.

Then pick one or two large projects per year and do them. Pick one small project per month and do that.

If you do this every year, all year, the house never gets completely run down, the expenses are more spread out and you can budget for them better. And you get the benefit of living in a house where everything works and looks pretty good, instead of limping along until you decide to sell and then making the house all lovely and fresh.

[iris lilies]

Yes.. Real estate is supposed to be such a good investment, but somehow when you're caught up in owning your own piece of the pie, you forget about the cost of maintenance. I tend to wait until things HAVE to get done.

This year, our house HAS to get painted.. but we're taking the easy route--we'll powerwash the back and sides because they're asbestos shingles from the 70s :( --carcinogenic, but hey, they hold up great! The front of the house is regular wood shingles, but they are so chipped we're starting to look Addams Family. Plus the moulding around windows has to be replaced, and I'd love to replace a few windows but that's so expensive. So we'll spend the money on the front--scrape and sand, repaint, fix and replace moulding and trim where needed, replace a shutter (the last wooden one we have).

DH is dying to get vinyl siding, but I'm wishing there was a more environmentally-friendly alternative. I've heard about some kind of fiber cement?? I just hate the idea of wrapping my house in plastic. Uggh!!

Don't you have an old house? For aesthetics how can your DH even contemplate vinyl? shudder.

Sorry, house hugger here. But for full disclosure, we have vinyl on the back of our house, on the addition that we built 25 years ago. I hope to some day replace it with Hardie board.

We used James Hardie board (fiber cemet board) for the entire exterior of our tiny 1870's house, it's approved by our local historic commission. It's got a sort of "grain" and it comes in widths that mimic the really old siding. It holds paint for 12 -15 years, longer than wood.

edited to add: well, sometimes vinyl is ok, Perhaps on your house it would be fine.

[Blackdog Lin]

Yup, frugal-one, like you I truly HATE and LOATHE the necessity and hassle of general home maintenance.

But I need a more clear-headed time to go into details. :) Tomorrow, maybe.....

[awakenedsoul]

A reasonable sounding tip I heard some years back was to look at your house as if you were going to sell it. Make a list of the projects that would need to be done in order to get the house on the market--paint, new flooring, fixing cracked windows or squeaky doors, new furnace, new refrigerator, digging up an overgrown tree, putting in a new driveway, etc.

Then pick one or two large projects per year and do them. Pick one small project per month and do that.

If you do this every year, all year, the house never gets completely run down, the expenses are more spread out and you can budget for them better. And you get the benefit of living in a house where everything works and looks pretty good, instead of limping along until you decide to sell and then making the house all lovely and fresh.

This is what I do. When I first bought my cottage, I struggled to pay for property taxes and repairs. After cutting my expenses, and learning to budget for things like taxes, health insurance, and home maintenance, life got better. I love living in a home that is well maintained. It really depressed me to have things break and not have the money to fix them. Now I have a list, and I have repairs done right away. In the past few years I have replaced the carpet, heater, fridge, (with a Big Chill,) painted the exterior and interior, and put in retro tile in the bathroom. Doing the landscaping myself helps, too. I like the feeling of pride in ownership. But, I'm one of those people who love houses. Second hand antique furniture and lamps have really helped give my house style, too. (I like to keep the look of the period.)

[Geila]

I have to agree with awakenedsoul here. We've done a lot of fixing up of our house and although the work can sometimes be tiring, the rewards are great. I did find it stressful when I didn't have the money to pay for skilled tradespeople, and was a single female. I had a steep learning curve to overcome.

[Gardenarian]

Yes, I am a house person too. I like dreaming up ways to fix up the house (and my cabin too) and looking at other peoples houses and gardens. Our little piece of paradise...with a broken faucet :)

[Teacher Terry]

I am also a house person & love to fix it up, decorate, etc. I just bought a bistro set for my front porch because it was empty & we have been here 2 years. I tend to make a list of stuff to do & then chip away at it.

[pcooley]

I hate working on my home, and I hate having work done on my home. We have a foam roof, and I know I need to either get up there and repaint it, or I need to call the roofers to take a look at it. Part of our roof difficulty is, just before we had it reroofed, we tore up the cement in our driveway and planted a garden, with a tree at the top of it. The roofers made us pull out the tree, or they said they would have to charge us thousands of dollars more to carry things up and down ladders because they couldn't back their truck up to the house and raise the back up on lifts. After the roofing was done, my wife insisted on replanting the tree, so now, several years later, we have a huge cherry tree blocking truck-access to our roof.

There are support pillars for our front porch and back porch that are rotting out underneath - they need to be replaced before the roof caves in. There is a wooden window ledge on the garage conversion that is rotten and soft and has shelf-fungus growing on it. Occasionally, I try to fill it in with wood putty and paint over it, but I have a feeling the shelf-fungus is doing a better job of holding it together than any wood putty of mine would. The paint is flaking here and there, and on and on and on.

I never remember my father working on the house. I do remember a big project where he put up peg board and organized his tools - complete with an outline of each one on the peg board. But my father always preferred to spend his time in a deer stand or fishing, or out on the golf course. I wonder if I inherited his same lack of interest in working on the home. My father in law had a shop in the garage he actually used. Sometimes I wonder if some of the stress - and I have to say I don't have a very stressful marriage - in my marriage comes from the fact that my father liked to sit on the banks of a pond with a fishing pole, and my wife's father liked to be up on the roof replacing shingles. [Edited to add: I have heard that my great-grandfather was no good on the grounds that all he did was fish all day. My grandfather left my father's mother when my father was young and lived in a dirt floor cabin in the Tennessee hills and gathered roots for a living. I spent most of my twenties living in cabins and tents. Maybe it's just in my genes.]

I keep thinking if I time it right, the house will wait to dissolve until the day of our deaths.

[pinkytoe]

I don't hate house fix-up but I do hate getting ripped off. You want how much to replace my back door steps! We used to DIY everything but dh has lost his energy for that.Since we are in the getting ready to sell mode, there is more impetus to get these things done. The most helpful thing for us has been strong neighborhood listserves where neighbors recommend various kinds of tradespeople.

[iris lilies]

DH is the handyman for this neighborhood. He does carpentry and light construction including electric and plumbing lite. He has no website, no advertising, no Angie's list presence. He is always busy. He is great for this neighborhood!

But everyone here knows the story of the shoemaker's family, our own house was gut re-habbed and unfinished for decades. :)