Every drop of water, crack, ant, royally freaks me out at this point. I can’t afford to rent. I own a shitty house that is a fixer upper. So frustrating.
I had a shitty house and it is so stressful. Just do things as you can. #1 was metal roof so I didn’t have to think about the roof ever again. Get tented for dry wood termites after paying off the roof (they are everywhere here but very slow eaters). Get flooring one room at a time. Learn enough plumbing to replace fixtures, and get new piping throughout house after recovering.
My only real tip is get roommates, split these costs among more wage earners or if you know someone handy and homeless let them live with you for free and pay them a little for the work too.
Learn how to fix things in your house and it will give you the confidence to stop worrying about every little thing or sound.
I remember going from being super excited that I owned the walls and fixtures around me to then realising I owned the walls and fixtures and no-one else was going to fix them. Not everything needs doing now though, so separate the issues into things you can live with, mid-term renovations and now things.
Oh, and always remember you’re not paying off someone else’s mortgage anymore!
That’s how i deal with it.
It’s not causing more damage, it can wait.
It’s not someone else who’s benefiting from my hard earned money
Oh, the stress? I remind myself that renters in my area are now paying twice what my mortgage is, and I bought just three years ago. It’s a quick boost, and believe me, I’ve got at least a dozen fixes myself to do that I don’t have the energy or money for.
If that’s not enough, take a few weekends to at least hit what you can. Make a list and tackle things slowly as to not get overwhelmed. One by one, step by step.
For example, I used a week break to paint the kids room and it feels like a brand new home, even patching cracks and dealing with water damaged ceiling drywall (was minor, and the roofing was already fixed before I moved in). The rest of the house needs it, but it still made me feel like I did something.
When you hear a loud noise just think to yourself “Please be haunted and not something expensive…” it’s what I do.
Not a home owner yet, but I just purchased a home and waiting on the handover.
This post has been really helpful! Certainly in writing some stuff down to remember 😅
Try to only tackle one project at a time. It gets exponentially more stressful trying to juggle a bunch of incomplete projects. Also, you’ll never be “done”. That’s not the point. The point is shelter and comfort.
This is probably some of the best advice here. It’s important to prioritize what is going to the most costly if you don’t fix it now, and if you try to do 7 things at once, you will feel like none of them will ever be done, which contributes to your stress more than still having 6 broken things after fixing one.
Get handy. Fix things before they go bad, and learn basic construction on the way. Second hand tools are cheap, and there’s a number of good youtubers to help in any situation. After you get your bearings, it turns into a fun way to make the place into what you want it to be. Nothing is terribly difficult, and materials can be had cheap if you’re not in an emergency. Facebook marketplace allowed me to build a house for 70k over two years, and it’s valued at 350k, and not finished yet. The experience gained led me to doing odd side jobs and reselling unused materials to keep paying for new additions. If you can replace your own water heater, you can replace someone elses for half the price of Lowes and still take home 700$ for three hours work. Pick up some resold tile and put in a bathroom wall. You’ll find out what you did wrong in your own bathroom and won’t mess up someone elses for some extra cash in a pinch.
Electrical work is my favorite. Know the code, and how to stay safe, and it’s a lot of fun that the average person is HORRIFIED of. Get a good electricians multitool, a current tester, a drill and some tape, and you can perform miracles.
Most people will never afford a house. You don’t have to fix it, you get to fix it, so take pride and make it somewhere you love to live.
All this is part of the game. What you save on not paying a landlord you pay in time keeping up with the place. Every ant and water drip is a challenge that you get to learn about fixing and make it your own. We’re all lucky we live in a time where you can learn how to do anything from the internet.
Not really much advice other than being proactive about issues, but it is funny how concerned you quickly become with all types of water once you own a home. Rain intrusion, drainage in the yard, leaky pipes, dripping noises, frozen pipes, gutters, humidity, water heater, storms, etc, etc. It’s a real menace and so are squirrels (as I also found out after purchasing a home).
This right here. Every running water noise your ears perk up thinking that it’s the worst. Then you realise it’s just the dishwasher.
Did you hear that? I feel like the toilet flushed funny
I just fixed the dishwasher that is original to the house. I’ve never used a dishwasher before(ty technology connections). my god is it loud and keeps giving me a heat attack even a week after using it, but I can’t argue with clean dishes.
You certainly can argue with them. It’s only a problem if they start to argue back.
how concerned you quickly become with all types of water
LOL, yes! 99% of my problems these last 5 years have been related to water. It’s really made me want to learn more about plumbing.
I pulled the hydrometer out of my cigar humidor to became more aware of the dampness of my basement. I also spent over $1,000 on evicting a family of raccoons out from under my backyard deck. So yeah, I get it HAH
Did you have to hire a lawyer to serve them papers?
They just ate it as well :(
I learned to fix it. Before YouTube, that usually means not so great. But now, I usually do at least as good as a job as the people I’d hire.
Fixing stuff is easy, and you have to accept that there’s no perfect fix.
Ants, set out ant bait traps. Look outside and see if there’s a trail, follow it to the source, and spray it with ant poison.
Cracks, YouTube that. They may be nothing.
Leaks, if it’s plumbing, you can buy pipes at home Depot and replace them.
Granted, it will take a while. Maybe all day. But you’ll get an endorphin rush when it’s done and eventually you’ll come to know all the ins and outs of your house.
But it’s you look at it and it’s too big, Google a company to do it. Even if you’re halfway, and find you’re stuck. No shame in getting help. This shines you don’t have a family member or friend who’s already handy.
But really, if you can’t fix it, can’t afford to have it fixed, just do what you can to keep the house clean and work on it a little bit or put aside money till you can. That’s hard, but that’s owning a house. Like anything in life, it’s difficult. But it doesn’t have to stay that way, with enough time and practice.
You’re already smarter than many, asking for other’s opinions. Don’t suffer in silence. I believe in you!
And if you are not 100% confident, take lots of pics as you go. And every step, do something that you figure you can undo. Worse case scenario, it goes back to how it was…
no perfect fix
And if you need convincing, go measure some parts of your house. Peak around in places and see how its actually assembled compared to how you thought it would be. Then realize it hasn’t fallen over yet, so maybe perfection doesn’t matter.
We all want to believe that these rooms actually follow geometry with things like parallel/perpendicular walls.
I’ve just been making a wardrobe in an alcove where in the space of 1200mm they have managed to be out by 40mm (1.5 inches in 4ft for our American folks) Trying to be within 1-2mm and deciding on referencing a side wall that’s curved but making the room “more square”, and having a variable depth wardrobe or making something that looks right but that I know is a parallelogram. Either way a future guy with a tape measure will ask “what idiot built this?”
Great advice. Here’s another hint for first timers: you’re going to get it wrong. Spend half a day replacing a faucet, following all the instructions and the collective wisdom of YouTube. Turn the water back on and… drip, drip.
Patching drywall, fixing a drawer slide, replacing a loose electrical outlet… No matter how much you read or watch there is some finesse to each. Practice and experience will make it so you get it right the first time more often, and then when you’re an old person like me you reach a point where you can pretty much do it better than the fly-by-night contractor you’d hire.
One more piece of advice. Don’t mess with live electricity. Wall current can stop your heart instantly or start a fire in the middle of the night. Turn off breakers and be diligent about tightening connections and keeping things to code, but don’t be too afraid of it. A little bit of awareness is all it takes. And the first time you turn that breaker back on it may pop, then you’ll see what went wrong and never make that mistake again.
I know I said one more, but here is one more “one more”. Hit yard sales or estate sales for cheap tools. You’ll have to do this proactively and not when you actually need them. Usually you can pick up stuff for pennies on the dollar. An old caulk gun, adjustable wrench, half box of drywall screws… All good to pickup on the cheap.
I know DIY isn’t everyone’s favorite past time, but after the first few things you tackle you might find it actually enjoyable. I know the combination of saving money, securing my home’s integrity, and completing a job well done is something I look forward to.
Know when to bodge a fix, and when to nut up and spend some time and money on something. Damp mouldy patch on the ceiling? Have a look in the ceiling space, see if you can spot the issue, fix it if it’s easy. Slap some mould killer on it, done, don’t worry about it. If it comes back? Get it fixed.
Writing shit down helps. I’ve got a whole todo list of things that need to be fixed. It’s shitty how long it is, but because it’s written down it’s already half taken care of and I don’t have that random stress of ‘oh good that’s right there’s a leaky shower’ and having to remember to do that thing.
List the issues, google one by one how to bodge it, decide if it’s worth it.
If you have a damp moldy spot on a ceiling, that’s likely leaking from the roof. Roof leaks can be very difficult to find; if you have asphalt shingles that are starting to curl at the corners, then it’s probably just time to replace them, along with flashing. Thankfully, depending on the pitch of your roof, re-roofing isn’t that awful. It gets ugly it you have a really steep roof pitch, or if you have an flat EPDM roof in a brick home.
Paying more for good quality tools to fix things properly can seem like a luxury initially, but they’re worth it when you’re 10 years down the line and still able to use the same set as if they were brand new.
Idk. I now recommend getting cheap tools first until they either break( from usage) or their bad quality is a noticeable and active hindrance. From there buy better quality. I also suggest buying ALL the tools you need. Sometimes, you think you can make it work with some alternatives and don’t want to get the specialized tool. I feel that I usually end up spending more time dealing with the problem and getting more stressed out.
Example of the latter: dealing with my drum breaks with just pliers. Uninstalling was a breeze, but installing was a huge pain. The cheapest specialty tools made my life so much better, and used them several times. I notice their janky, but they still work good enough to get the job done.
The biggest advice I can give is put systems in place to reduce as much as possible the list of things you have to manage freeing up your mind and time to solve more complex issues.
Stick a hose on the dehumidifier route into the drain never empty it again as an example where as before you emptied it daily or every 2 days.
Good example.
In a similar vein: setup alarms. Smoke detectors is an easy one, but also water leakage detectors. If feeling adventurous, maybe logging of water/power usage as well to catch slow leaks.
It gets boring to worry. Now I just view it as a cosy box that I’ll occasionally have to patch up. Also, getting comfortable with DIY, especially that first scary ‘dive in’ moment where you have to cut the wire, drill the wall, or pull up the board. Over time it all just gets as normal and run of the mill as cracking an egg for an omelette.
