When we first looked at the house we knew that there were going to be some projects, but nothing that was a deal breaker. Obviously. We bought the house. There aren't major ones that needed to be addressed right away, but the kitchen and bathroom both need work. They're functional and
Here's a few things that we've learned over the year. We've agreed that the kitchen will be addressed in about five years.
Here's a few things that I think others might find helpful.
Buy a house at the end of a season. We bought our house in October and didn't have to cut the lawn until the following Spring. That also meant that we didn't have to invest in things like a lawn mower and weed whacker for a few years. Sure, we had to buy a rake for leaves and a shovel for the snow, but those aren't nearly as expensive as a lawn mower is.
Tackle small projects early on. It felt like the day after we moved in, my wife was already making a list of things she wanted to change. I was like, damn woman give it a minute! She is a very visual person, so the first things she wanted done was painting. We got the living room and dining room painted pretty early on in our home ownership. It makes it feel like it's yours just a little bit more.
Don't feel like you need to keep up with the Joneses. Our neighborhood has plenty of small houses and small families. There aren't extravagant houses or any new houses so there isn't a need to make everything look perfect. Yes, you need to keep the grass cut and making sure your yard doesn't look like a yard sale, but as long as your yard looks better than the next guy people won't notice. Right?
Raking leaves is stupid. We have two large trees in our front yard. They made it feel like a never ending task. Especially since one tree lost all it's leaves and the other one waited a couple of weeks after to shed them. Last fall, this was the limit to our yard work. We didn't have a lawn mower, plus the grass was pretty short when we moved in. Raking leaves felt like an on going joke. Every time you looked out in the yard, even an hour after we finished up, there were leaves on the ground. It was dumb. This year we have a lawn mower. I'm all for mulching the leaves this year.
