Since moving into our home in October of 2024 we’ve had to replace nearly every major mechanical thing in the house. The first thing to go was the furnace. Then the hot-water heater failed. That first winter we also had a plumbing leak in the shower that leaked through the lower level ceiling. When spring rolled around our rusted chimney crown cracked at the welded seams causing a waterfall down our chimney.. There’s more, the list goes on-and-on.
These repairs and replacements are on top of all of the aesthetic renovations we elected to do ourselves.
Before we bought our home it had only one previous owner and that person obviously moved into the new house in 1996 with a solid, pre-meditated plan. Build a house, do the absolute bare minimum in terms of maintenance until said house is paid off, then retire to Florida. It worked. The house looked immaculate when we moved in and many of the defects were so skillfully hidden behind fresh coats of paint and in other ways that made our home inspector miss them.
At 55 years of age I thought my days of diving into DIY home projects were behind me but this house has temporarily pulled me out of my DIY-retirement. Since buying my first home in 1998 I’ve done everything from complete bathroom remodels to extensive landscaping and just about everything in between.
We never had much money growing up and my dad did all of his own work on the house, he rarely hired contractors for anything. I don't think paying someone else to do a job he was capable of doing even crossed his mind. He taught my brother and I to be pretty self-sufficient in this regard and, most importantly, not to be afraid to tackle tough jobs and things we’ve never tried before.
The most recent issue with our house reared its head after we got our new prairie fire crab apple trees planted in the backyard in June. There was a hose spigot (bibb) on the back of the house that we had never used. Since I needed to water those newly planted trees I thought, How convenient! I’ll turn on the water supply to that spigot. I found the value to turn on the water to the spigot in our utility room and suddenly heard something that sounded like a firehose gushing water. The plumbing inside the wall had exploded from the pressure and was filling up the inside of the wall with water.
I immediately dashed back to the utility room and turned off the water supply line then stared, dumbfounded at the sheer volume of water leaking out of the bottom of our walls into our freshly updated lower level. After lots of towels, a solid 72hrs of box fans on high, and a dehumidifier the mess was properly dried up.
Yesterday, I opened the wall to mitigate the mold, and pull out the insulation so we can get to the plumbing. Today I sprayed the entire wall cavity with Concrobium to kill any lingering mold. This week our son is going to work his magic—repairing the pipes and installing a new spigot (he’s a licensed plumber-lucky us!) After this, we’ll put it all back together.
I’m a firm believer in karma and one of my favorite sayings is karma isn’t always swift but it’s sure. I would hate to have that previous owner’s karma. Thankfully we’ve been able to navigate these past couple of years of challenges without the unexpected expenses completely wrecking us but it’s taken creativity and a proper mindset.
All I can say is whoever ends up with this house next will be lucky to enjoy many peaceful years of their own DIY-retirement.
As I was relaxing on the couch last night I realized something—all those years of renting and living in condos had changed me. Being able to easily differ work to others in some ways made me less confident. This house, as troublesome as it's proven to be, has given me something I didn’t expect at this stage of life. A renewed reminder of what my dad taught us all those years ago.
A home isn’t just a shelter from the storm it's something that needs to be cared for. Through the act of properly taking care of it it rewards you with confidence of knowing you can face more than you think, fix it with your own hands (or with the help of the next generation), and leave it better than you found it.
All for now. Make this a wonderful day.
(Gif sourced from Giphy.com)
Oh my heavens, that's terrible!!! We bought a house at the end of '23 and the first thing we did was replace the main valve in the basement. The inspector didn't say anything about it, but when my nephew came by he said it was read to go (I think he's a construction engineer). We then went through the house and replaced any electrical outlets that looked questionable...we wanted to make sure they were all three prong (grounded). We had to get the garage roof patched, but I know we're going to need a new roof pretty soon
I think when you move in you expect to have stuff to do. Have to leave a little capital for those renovations, but what happened to you is a nightmare. I'm glad you have the skill to deal with it. We would have to call the handyman. We have a great company called Handyman Express that does all kinds of repairs.. licensed and insured company. So far the handyman has put up a sliding barn door in the living room, grab bars in the bathroom and a rail on the front step. Can't do the roof, though :))
I hope your trouble with the new home is over. I remember your renovation was beautiful.
It's been quite an adventure for us! I'm glad your nephew spotted that issue. I'll do a lot more vetting the next time we need a home inspector. The particular one we hired just came recommended by our real estate agent. We were in a hurry to get it done, so the seller didn't move on to the next buyer, so we agreed. There was a long list of things the inspector missed—expensive things that we could have used to negotiate a lower price.
It's good to have contractors you know and trust because it's a total crapshoot dealing with any individual or company for the first time. Online reviews are basically useless now as so many companies hire services that will write them hundreds of positive online reviews for a fee.
Most days I take this all in stride. Occasionally it feels as if it's too much, depending on my general mood and patience level. Thankfully, we've had both the time and money to deal with it. I tell my wife all the time that I'd have no idea what we'd have done if we had to work outside of the home. I don't think there's an FMLA clause for a troublesome home. : )
We just about have the house renovated as we wanted it, aesthetically. We only have the master bath to renovate and we plan on waiting another couple of years to do that.
That, I learned in retrospect, in not a good idea.
The real estate agent and home inspector can be quite cozy. It is in the interest of the agent for the inspector to give a house a clean bill of health. We hired our inspector independently. When we showed up and it appeared he was friends with the agent I was a little skeptical. I'm only one paycheck for him, one job. That agent is key to many jobs for him, so he is not going to be motivated to find issues with a house she/he is selling. Anyway, that's what I think.
When we sold our house (the one we moved from in order to buy our current house), it needed work, but there were no hidden issues. No pipes, heating system, electrical, roof or foundation. The man who bought it wasn't interested in the cosmetics. He said he was going to get a contractor in as soon as we left. Turns out, that was his business.
Here's the house in '23 before we sold it.
And here's the house with workmen crawling all over it after we sold it
We were lucky he wanted to live in that neighborhood and that he could do the work himself (his company, anyway). If not for that we probably wouldn't have gotten the asking price and probably wouldn't have been able to afford the house we have now.
One of the hardest things I've done in my life, selling that house :))
That's all good advice. We're definitely going to be more choosy the next time. I think the next time I'd like to buy some land and build a brand new place. I'd even consider some of the newer pre-fab buildings that are delivered onsite.
What was the real estate market like when you sold the house? It was a sellers market when we bought this place. We had to compete with so many other potential buyers for every home we made an offer for in 2024. It's such a nerve-wracking process—especially when you're trying to time the selling of the old home and buying of the new home. We were extremely lucky both times we've sold (2015 and 2024). The second time our condo sold in less than 24hrs.
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Whenever I am able to fix things myself, I feel a good sense of confidence.
Definitely!
It's definitely an investment that you don't always see the return on right away. I've gotten to the point where I know what I can handle and what I should probably leave for the professionals.
Same here. I took on jobs I probably shouldn’t have when I was young. I would’ve hired a plumber if our son couldn’t have handled that part.
Anything more than a faucet or a garbage disposal I leave to the professionals! :)
Those are some great looking tiles on the floor. I do a lot of DIY myself and sometimes it's mostly the motivation to not spend so much, that just makes us do it. Although there are some people who enjoy just doing it.
Thank you! You certainly can save a lot of money doing things yourself!
Sorry about the mold issues, it can be terrible. I do a lot of DIY myself and sometimes it's mostly the motivation to not spend so much, that just makes us do it. Although there are some people who enjoy just doing it.
Thanks! Mold can so easily spread if it's not taken care of.
Yeah 1996 is 30 years ago... You have to replace most things after 10-20 years, thought water pipe issues are not that normal in my experience. That is one reason we like buying brand new homes, those are without any issues and any defects get taken care under warranty.
The three homes we sold I spent upwards of 100K each and I am sure I didn't fix all the structural issues, but at least most of the stuff that my inspector could find. Homes are something that needs regular maintenance and major updates at a certain interval...
Absolutely. The tricky thing in our case was we weren't sure what work had been done and what hadn't. The furnace wasn't original to the home and neither was the hot water heater. Just a case of bad timing, I suppose. We've found out that they did cosmetic fixes to previous water damage in the lower level ceiling to hide the damage and I believe this latest plumbing issue was left by them as well. It looks like they forgot and left the supply line to the spigot on during a freeze and the water expanded and burst an elbow near the exterior wall then just shut off the water supply and probably never used it again. That was on our home inspector though—he obviously never tested that spigot. Buying a new home might be our next move. It'd be so nice to have everything warrantied and not have those worries. The maintenance is never ending with a used home. I do have to say though our old 1923 Sears catalogue kit home was FAR less maintenance than the newer homes we've lived in. Before computer modeling they probably built them way more robustly than they needed to be.
This is a good story that reminds us that we should endeavor to learn some skills so that some minor problems can be fixed instantly
Thanks!
I've done my share of fixing things, but feel less like doing it these days and will pay someone for the trickier jobs. A house always has the potential for things to go wrong. In our previous one a pipe burst and the ceiling below collapsed! I hope yours gets sorted.
Same. There are certain things I just won't tackle anymore. I think as we get older we're more astute about our "known unknowns". Oh no! Thankfully our ceiling didn't collapse but it probably would have if we didn't gave someone put a tarp over the chimney right away when the crown failed. Thanks!
Oh my goodness I had no idea you've been going through all this! May this last water event be your last.
This reminds me of an astrology reading my husband and I once had done for a new business. The astrologist said, and I will never forget her face as she said it, "I see a lot of water." It had 1920's plumbing. I'm certain the previous owner, had these problems, too or he wouldn't have sold it. We regularly had water raining down from various ceilings in that building for the next thirty years. I sold the thing one year ago, and boy am I glad I did. Karma? I sold the building to the previous owner's son.
Thank you! I haven't shared much about the problems we've encountered but there have been so many! Wow, that astrologer was spot-on! That sounds like a complete nightmare to have battled those kinds of plumbing issues for thirty years. I'm a little fearful of the durability of "newer" construction after living here. We had FAR less problems in the entire eight years we lived in our 1922 bungalow that we've had in less than two years living in this home built in 1996. As, Seattlea said though in his comment, it's probably a timing-issue as just about every mechanical thing has about a 20-30 year lifespan.
See! Karma is real! Lol. It's interesting how so many NYC real estate investors are families who've done it for generations.