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.
Learn how to fix things in your house and it will give you the confidence to stop worrying about every little thing or sound.
Plus I find it’s so damn satisfying when you fix something, truly one of the greatest dopamine hits available
Is this a typical feeling? I’ve been planning to buy a home soon…
Not for me. I… Don’t have leaks? I know where my water shutoff is if I need it.
I like owning.
This is absolutely normal when you first buy the place. I bought my place in 2017 and was super anxious over the first year because I suddenly had basically no savings and all my equity was in this building. I didn’t know anything about home repair and couldn’t afford to hire someone who did.
The thought of something going wrong enough that it would ruin the place gave me an anxiety attack more than once.
Then, after a couple years and a few things needing fixed, I realized that things don’t go wrong that often and most of the time if they do, they are easy to fix.
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.
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.
My advice is to spend more time out of the house! The more I stew in the epicentre of the entropy and problems the more overwhelmed I feel by them and the harder it is to tackle them. Getting out can help to get some perspective and make you appreciate what you do have.
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.
If the hose-to-drain route isn’t feasible, many dehumidifiers come with a built in pump, so it will pump water out when the tank is full. These can go against a hydraulic head, so you could even put one in a basement with no plumbing, and run the drain line upstairs to a drain.
Also, you probably know this, but for anyone else, don’t bother with any dehumidifiers that run on a Peltier element instead of a compressor. They will be slightly cheaper, but they’ll use the same amount of energy for like 1/20th of the capability. They advertise them as “quiet” or “compressor free”, but just don’t do it.
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.
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.
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!
So many people who are mentally and cognitively bankrupt own houses. They never do any maintenance on them, or if they do, they never do it right. And yet, their houses aren’t (always) falling apart.
Houses are more sturdy than our anxieties convince us. Fix things little by little as they come, prioritize what comes first. Your house won’t fall apart or blow up. This is what I tell my wife when she gets nervous about something creaking.
Remember this is a marathon and not a sprint. So think in long terms for fixing things. Even if you sell the house having something done correctly will increase the value. Fix something and maintain as best as possible to keep it working or as high value. This feels best if you do it room by room so you can enjoy the things you fixed.
Do a task everyday.
Making sure to keep working on a fixer-upper by doing something everyday will help reach the goal of maintaining rather than falling behind. Focus on things that can get worse faster. Leaks and shorts would be a top priority that should not wait. KNOW HOW TO TURN OFF MAIN WATER AND POWER. Make sure this can be done quickly.
Learn/Improve your DIY skills, most things that need fixing around the house are actually pretty simple to do yourself
Bought cheap and underestimated the effort needed to make it your ideal. At least that’s my experience. It can get overwhelming at times but I find a certain peace I’m taking it as the demon you know. I get a lot of bugs in the spring when the weather starts to warm and it’s damn annoying, but know that when the weather gets more stable they’ll leave and I can get back to normal. It’s sort of a zen thing to recognize that it’s almost 100 years old, so yeah, there are going to be some annoyances, can’t call it unexpected.
Basically just make it your own, and do what you can when you can. Unless you’re rich and have all the resources/time in the world there’s no point in getting in a panic that it can’t all be done at once.
I don’t see enough people mentioning this, but preventative maintenance can save you a lot of money.
Another thing I would recommend is to be familiar with the systems in your house, what fuel does your furnace use? What type of water heater do you have? how old are the fuses in the fuse box? Does your electrical panel have a surge protector? Do you have a water pump should your basement begin to flood? Do you have a generator panel? Knowing how these work can save you money on trouble shooting.
For example, if you live in an area with lots of squirrels, it might be worth putting up chicken wire on any entrance to the attic from the outdoors. Ex: air vents. If I would have done this, I would have saved $900 from chewed wires that could have started a fire.
