The Homeowner’s Expenses No One Tells You About
After a ridiculously long winter, spring has finally arrived in the Midwest. There are only three or four perfect days (i.e. 71 degrees and sunny with zero humidity) per year in this part of the country. Typically, Matt and I like to take advantage of such days by enjoying a bike ride or a scenic drive and picnic at a nearby state park, but when a perfect day presented itself last weekend, we did what everyone else on our block was doing - yard work.
I live in a wonderful neighborhood - it’s a older part of town and the people who reside here take a lot of pride in their homes. We own a very cute little 1930’s brick and stucco Tudor that sits at the top of a pretty steep hill. Our neighbors are a very diverse group - DINKs like Matt and I, families with young children, and retirees who have lived on this block for more than 30 years. For the most part, we really enjoy our neighbors - except during this time of year.
I’m not sure what the deal is, if there is some secret pact that all of our neighbors made without our knowledge or what, but it seems like everyone on our street spends a lot of time and money on their yards. I’m not just talking mowed and trimmed lawns - I mean manicured, landscaped, beautiful yards. Most of the adjacent properties are occupied by retirees and stay-at-home spouses - I figure they must spend half of their days planting annuals and mulching this time of year.
Last weekend I spent $187.28 on annuals and perennials for the front of the house in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses (actually, they are the Smiths and the Parkers, but you get the idea). I tried to go low-maintenance and purchased decorative grasses and phlox, but while I was planting I discovered that our retaining walls - old railroad ties - are rotting and infested with carpenter ants. It looks like the previous owners just filled them full of foam and painted them black prior to listing the home - and now they are our problem.
Oh, and just to make things interesting, our front steps (concrete) have begun to crumble with the spring thaw. Yay!
We have more labor than money, so we’ve been brainstorming ways to replace the retaining walls ourselves with an inexpensive alternative to landscaping stones. We think that we have a solution, but it’s going to be extremely labor-intensive. You see, my dad is a farmer and we have access to tons of free fieldstones (literally, tons). The challenge is that we have a lot of square footage to cover, and the rocks that make ideal cornerstones and bases are extremely large and not exactly something we can just throw in the back of my C-RV and haul home.
Right now we’re doing a cost-benefit analysis regarding hiring a contractor to move and place the rocks against the cost of using concrete retaining blocks from Lowe’s.
I had no idea we would have to tackle a landscaping job this size just two years after buying the place - and we still need to fix the deck and replace the patio door as well. Inside the house, the fridge, hot water heater, furnace and air conditioner will also need to go sometime in the next few years (we had anticipated these appliance updates - but they will likely take a back seat to the yard stuff).
I wish someone would have warned me about the “joys” of owning an older home before I signed on the dotted line (not that I would have listened).
Stumble it!
May 6th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
We’re currently renting a very old home and it certainly has made me rethink getting an old home. It’s poorly insulated, tons of stuff needs fixing, and it doesn’t even have a spot for refrigerator. The garage is falling apart and we have a basement that looks more like a morgue than anything else.
But it looks so cool! and it has a porch! and a huge back yard!
I suppose it’s a trade off.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Yeah. Our “to-do” list is so long, I’m not sure we’ll ever get it done! *sigh*
The joys of homeownership
May 7th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Have you thought about throwing a “work party” for the landscaping labor?
My boyfriend and I are doing some of the same work, building some walls for our gardens, etc.
We’re borrowing an old truck from a family member, then likely asking a few of his buddies to come help, plying them with good food and beer.
Just a thought … if you’ve got work to do, make it fun too.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Great post! As I was out mowing the lawn this morning, I think some of the exact same thoughts were running through my head. I too live in an older house with neighbors who are immaculate when it comes to landscaping. In fact, my neighbor is outside right now relandscaping the corner of his lot!
May 8th, 2008 at 8:39 am
At least you have a husband to help you. I am single, work full-time and in what time’s left over, i, too, try to keep up a circa 1930s house, a colonial revival with “issues.”
On my spring to-do list are repairing the lower step on my front stoop; the concrete between the bluestone totally crumbled.
Expanding the brick patio in back
Enclosing the screen porch so i can extend the season i can use it; i enjoy it so much.
Fixing a broken toilet; already made 2 trips to Home Depot.
Rewallpapering a bathroom.
Using up the the Mt. Everest of Mulch, the remains of an evergreen i had to take down.
For a single woman, the tasks associated with homeownership areoften overwhelming.I simply don’t feel I have time to devote to a relationship now. When i did before, the house and yard was neglected. Maybe I’m complaining, but i love my house too.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:08 am
[…] The Homeowner’s Expenses Nobody Tells You About - Oh boy, do these creep up on you. We spent about $150 last weekend just to buy some retaining wall bricks, plants, mulch and the like for a tiny 10′x10′ area by our front porch. Bad news is, we’re still a few bricks and a couple bags of dirt short of completing the job. […]
May 9th, 2008 at 9:12 am
I feel your pain. We live in a very rural area, but our one neighbor that we do have is a retired couple who loves to garden, and it looks like an award-winning botanical garden over there!
We have only been in our house a few years as well, but there are a few landscape problem spots up around the front porch area, and we decided to finally begin tackling it this spring. It is amazing how fast that stuff adds up. But, it is nice knowing that taking a little time to make the house have better curb appeal will result in hopefully a little better resale value.
Plus, it is actually really nice now that we have it almost finished. We already have hummingbirds visiting our new flowers.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I totally feel your pain. We moved in when it was turning into winter so we did not have to do much yard work. Previously I would just mow over the leaves. Not this year. I went out and bought a leafblower, but I didn’t get around to bagging it before it rained and got really cold, so this spring I now have a massive dirt spot.
We chose a house on a quite street like we wanted. Each one of them will buy one of hte high end equipment, and they all do each other’s lawn with their equipment. But not our house. Bummer.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
It’s always something, isn’t it? One upside is that the constant maintenance that goes into a home helps prevent more expensive problems down the road. At least this is what I say to myself as I’m trying to repair the myriad problems spots around the house and yard
May 15th, 2008 at 5:04 am
I’ve often said that anytime anything breaks in your house, it’s gonna end up costing you a minimum of $300. Somehow that just seems like the magical baseline for home repairs. Of course, the actual cost is often much more…
Still, I’m very happy that we own a moderately old (built in 1960) home. We got into this place dirt cheap because the previous owner had passed away and his kids were eager to sell & divvy up the proceeds quickly. We’ve overhauled nearly every room - and redone a couple of them twice now - and had to do some major upgrades like new roofing due to untended hail damage, central air to replace a leaky old roof-mounted swamp cooler, and a new fence in the backyard since the old one was rotted & falling over.
Where our house started pretty rough, now it looks incredible since we’ve redone each room to suit our needs & styles.
The point is, in buying an older home that was about as basic as we could go, we ended up with enough money left over each month to afford periodic fixups and some fairly major renovations. Friends we know who’ve bought much newer, much nicer McMansions are so strapped with debt that they can’t even afford a bucket of paint.
We’re in the midst of completely gutting & redoing our tiny master bath right now. It won’t ever be one of those lavish affairs you see in the magazines (who really has a bathroom big enough for a sofa?) but it will have a nice, spa-like feel when we finish.