What did you think you were going to love about your new home, but now wish you didn't have to deal with? (wood floors, roof)

[Pivot Point]

My husband and I thought we were going to love taking care of the gardens and doing yard work. One month into the new house, we're looking for a lawn maintenance company. We had no idea it was so time-consuming and backbreaking.

[JanuaryGirl]

We thought we were going to love having a wood burning fireplace in the 50-year-old home we bought this summer. We decided to get it cleaned/inspected before winter, turns out there is $3000 worth of flue tile repairs/flue replacement to be done for it to be safe to use! Needless to say, since the house was under 100K we won't be putting that kind of money into the fireplace. It will be "decorative."

[PhotogGal]

One of the reasons I chose my home, as opposed to others in my subdivision, is because of the tall pine trees on the other side of the fence that I can look up at through the fanlight window in my sunroom. The homeowners association is supposed to handle outside maintenance. At our first homeowners association meeting, I learned they only plan to clean the gutters once a year in the fall. Well, mine get cluttered up with pine needles and sometimes even small branches on my roof a LOT more often than that. Guess I'll be calling my stepson to help out or paying for a gutter cleaning service in addition to my maintenance fees.

[fjtee]

We also had this beautifully landscaped yard that turned into my own personal nightmare. All I could do was weed, weed, weed. In the spring, I'd weed for 3 hours a day on each weekend, then go to bed and dream about weeding. There were still weeds everywhere. I eventually agreed to weed whack a lot of the gardens, because I couldn't tell the difference between plant and weed.

[onevthoki]

I thought the 6-inch wood floors were nice. Until I realized there is a deep grove between the planks that dirt LOVES to fall into. The only way to get them out is with a vaccuum - UGH!!!

[Greenchili]

Let me count the ways............or stuff I should say.
Thought we would love the garden tub. NOT. Cant stretch out in it.
Lots of little stuff.so I wont mention them. But, I think I can safely say
there are NO perfects homes. At least I havent had one yet.

Greenchili

[rubytue]

Count me as one who fell in love with a yard (3/4 acre, mostly grass with about 12 large trees). Mowing only takes about 90 minutes with the riding mower, but the leaves... the leaves! Last year, we tried to blow and rank them. This year, I've taken to using the mower to mulch them and leave them in place. At least so far, we are only about halfway through leaf season.

[raising3boys]

I see a common trend with lots us!

We too fell in love with the yard, little did we realize that it was going to be a HUGE task with the upkeep. It WAS landscaped beautifully and the previous owners had pride and joy in it. We thought we could keep it just as nice. Well, we just couldn't compete. It is A LOT of work.

I am so happy we are passing our landscape "dream" on to someone else in two weeks! ( We are closing on our house.)Our next home, I won't be so idealistic about the yard.

[gizmobizmo]

One of my old houses had a huge, beautiful yard but it sure was a headache to keep up with all the yard work it required. We thought we would like all the pretty fruit trees but they attracted huge numbers of bees and when the fruit fell, it made mowing the yard loads of fun!

Also, the custom cedar fence we had installed required regular maintenance to keep it looking nice.

At our other house, we thought living on a "court" as opposed to the main street in the subdividion would be more quiet till we found out it was a playground for the neighborhood kids.

Apartments start to look good after a while. Oh well, we learn as we go along, don't we?

[the painter]

Yard work is fine with me but now the hugh inground pool is another story! Since no one uses it anymore it is a money drain. And then the maintenance on the giant back deck, geeze.