Mini Blog#35 - I love having a house
It just feels good to not be renting anymore. It feels great to have Jaci in the house with me even though we did not plan on it until we got married. It feels amazing to come home to a garage. I love watching the kids play on the playground across the street…
I love having a backyard for Annie (my dog) to run and play in….
Hell, I just love having a back yard to do ManStuff in…
If you are sitting in an apartment or renting a place that belongs to someone else, I just CANNOT tell you how good it feels to have a home and how INCREDIBLY easy it is right now.
Welcome to the world of home ownership! I’ll give you some tips. Although your mileage may vary, these tend to hold true with me and with all my other new-homeowner friends:
Any project that you do inside the house will end up costing at least $1000.
Mowing the lawn is fun the first summer. After that, you’ll start looking for a neighborhood kid to do it.
If you want to avoid crabgrass and weeds without spraying or spreading nasty chemical, allow the grass to grow to at least 3 or 4 inches.
You will have a plumbing problem within the first 3 years.
Comment by AxsDeny — April 11, 2008 @ 8:05 am
Thanks for the tips! I laid down some dry crabgrass and weed preventer. Is that bad? Jaci and I have already agreed to save up about 5000 dollars for home repairs. I can just see me coming in the basement one day to find an inch of water or having the furnace or water heater just all of a sudden go out on another day. I tend to have luck like that. My first project that will probably cost 1000 dollars is to get rid of the wood panel walls in the basement. They are hideous…
Comment by admin — April 11, 2008 @ 10:28 am
i’m jealous!
Comment by girlrobot — April 11, 2008 @ 11:05 am
I try to avoid using nasty chemicals as it all ends up in the water table eventually. I used to use the Scott’s 4 step plan, but it seemed to hinder the deep root growth that I was trying to get. I also didn’t like the idea of the dog walking around on it then licking all the nastiness off of her paws. *shrug*
As for the walls, what’s under them? Normally people just put up some tack strips and put wood panelling over the existing walls. We have this in our house in the guest room. The tack strips are on top of the plaster walls. I guess they didn’t feel like having the plaster repaired. *eye roll*
On a related note, a good skill to pick up is basic drywall work. I’ve had to hang a few pieces of drywall since we bought our place. Mudding is certainly an art and I appreciate the guys that are good at it. Understanding the basics of electrical wiring is a good thing too. I’m glad I picked this stuff up.
Unfortunately, my wife’s knitting and scrapbooking have yet to add any structural improvements to the house.
Comment by AxsDeny — April 14, 2008 @ 9:25 am