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I have never owned a home, but it seems to me like if a homeowner has a full time job, especially an unmarried homeowner, he or she either has to
(A) take off vacation time just to be home when contractors make repairs, upgrades, fixes, do maintenance, etc. (assuming the contractors don't work on weekends)
(B) Bite the bullet and let the contractors work unsupervised, essentially trusting total strangers with your home and its contents, or
(C) attempt to DIY virtually everything, which requires a lot of background knowledge and a lot of time invested. I would think this might risk making it tough, after both full time employment and work on the house, to have any free time left for social life, volunteering, self-improvement, or dating .
What am I missing here, and how do most home owners with full time jobs (or couples with two full time jobs) manage? I want to be able to own a home some day and just would like to know how people pull it off.
You're missing that in the grand scheme of things it's exceedingly rare to have contractors that need to access the inside of your house. And if they do need to access the inside, you hire someone that's licensed and insured, with a decent reputation.
I have never owned a home, but it seems to me like if a homeowner has a full time job, especially an unmarried homeowner, he or she either has to
(A) take off vacation time just to be home when contractors make repairs, upgrades, fixes, do maintenance, etc. (assuming the contractors don't work on weekends)
(B) Bite the bullet and let the contractors work unsupervised, essentially trusting total strangers with your home and its contents, or
(C) attempt to DIY virtually everything, which requires a lot of background knowledge and a lot of time invested. I would think this might risk making it tough, after both full time employment and work on the house, to have any free time left for social life, volunteering, self-improvement, or dating .
What am I missing here, and how do most home owners with full time jobs (or couples with two full time jobs) manage? I want to be able to own a home some day and just would like to know how people pull it off.
I agree.
I have had 2 bathrooms total gut, 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom partial remodel. My husband's schedule allows him to be there more than I would be so I trusted him. Big mistake. There are detail people in the world, and then those who are lucky to get shoes on the correct feet and never mind matching. I should have known.
The first time I trusted him, bathroom turned out *ok* but would have been better had I been there for a couple of things. However, there was a leak from the new shower pipe into the living room about 2 weeks later.
Kitchen turned out well, but was just counter tops really, we changed handles, paint, etc etc ourselves
Bathroom gut remodel- TOTAL DISASTER!! Worst contractor ever and took 3 months. Hubby and I almost got like 9 divorces over it, as it cost every penny I had ever saved in my life and is completely awful. Not me being picky awful, I mean really awful- broke my window, broke my granite, put screws in the front of the cabinets, and don't get me started on the tile work, plus he never finished the job. Now I am saving up for the remodel of the remodel, and apparently cannot trust my husband to over see it, so I will probably have it done when I am purposely "between jobs"
I agree- never leave the contractors there alone. Even Tarek and Christina have issues with their contractors sometimes which (it appears on the show) they have used for many many flips. If you have a job that you can possibly work from home a lot, maybe that?
I have never owned a home, but it seems to me like if a homeowner has a full time job, especially an unmarried homeowner, he or she either has to
(A) take off vacation time just to be home when contractors make repairs, upgrades, fixes, do maintenance, etc. (assuming the contractors don't work on weekends)
(B) Bite the bullet and let the contractors work unsupervised, essentially trusting total strangers with your home and its contents, or
(C) attempt to DIY virtually everything, which requires a lot of background knowledge and a lot of time invested. I would think this might risk making it tough, after both full time employment and work on the house, to have any free time left for social life, volunteering, self-improvement, or dating .
What am I missing here, and how do most home owners with full time jobs (or couples with two full time jobs) manage? I want to be able to own a home some day and just would like to know how people pull it off.
This is a really flawed premise, unless you're talking about a complete fixer or project home.
Here's what a typical year looks like for me. I've got a full time job, kids, GF, travel 40% for work... plenty of stuff going on.
January - Last leaf roundup of the winter, approx 2-3 hours on an early Saturday AM with the rakes and yard vac. Also, AC Filter change (maybe 30 seconds of time).
February - nothing, unless I have a bigger project going. A couple years ago, I built a patio set - but that was more for fun.
March - HVAC tuneup/inspection/coil clean. I outsource this, so I come home early that day and try for the late afternoon appointment. Maybe 2-3 hours total.
Spring yard prep. This is usually 4-5 hours on a Saturday AM. Mulch the flower beds, trim back some bushes, put down fertilizer, etc. I DIY, but you can easily hire someone to do this while you're at work.
April - September. I skip the gym Saturday mornings and spend an hour or two mowing the lawn and/or cleaning the garage.
October - HVAC inspection, heater test run, again 2-3 hours. Usually the yard work is down to every other Saturday. Also, I do the windows and lube the garage door rollers and track.
November - Fall yard prep. 2-3 hours.
December - The big leaf roundup. This is an all-day affair, and the only real PITA one. I guess I could outsource, but I bite the bullet.
So - regular maintenance I figure it comes down to about 2-3 hours a week at most. hardly an impingement on my life.
Some one-offs from this year:
Replaced 9 fence posts due to storm damage. This took quite a bit of time. Maybe 25 hours all in with repairing and rebuilding fence panels, along with the lumber trips.
Chop up and place for collection the 1/3 of a tree that fell in the same storm. 6 hours.
Replaced a garbage disposal. 15 minutes on Amazon, approx 30 minutes on the install...
All in, I'd say there was maybe 9 hours of total time that would have required me to be at the house if I didn't DIY the disposal. Everything else was outside.
What am I missing here, and how do most home owners with full time jobs (or couples with two full time jobs) manage? I want to be able to own a home some day and just would like to know how people pull it off.
It's not generally a problem. In my area there are a lot of families with stay at home moms, so they are around for that stuff. Even if my wife was still working, it wouldn't matter too much, I work from home.
As others have said, learning how to do basic maintenance is something that I think just about every homeowner should know how to do. I think a homeowner should be able to install a ceiling fan without assistance if there's already a light/electrical installed. Basic plumbing is also something a homeowner should know... if you have a home, you need to be able to turn off the water to it yourself. Know how to reset a circuit breaker, etc.
When you have young kids, you don't go out a lot during those years, so on weekends we're home and that's when we can do things around the house that need to be done.
Things that we don't want to do ourselves or that isn't worth our time we pay someone to do.
I have never owned a home, but it seems to me like if a homeowner has a full time job, especially an unmarried homeowner, he or she either has to
(A) take off vacation time just to be home when contractors make repairs, upgrades, fixes, do maintenance, etc. (assuming the contractors don't work on weekends)
(B) Bite the bullet and let the contractors work unsupervised, essentially trusting total strangers with your home and its contents, or
(C) attempt to DIY virtually everything, which requires a lot of background knowledge and a lot of time invested. I would think this might risk making it tough, after both full time employment and work on the house, to have any free time left for social life, volunteering, self-improvement, or dating .
What am I missing here, and how do most home owners with full time jobs (or couples with two full time jobs) manage? I want to be able to own a home some day and just would like to know how people pull it off.
This didn't suddenly become an issue.. people have owned homes for centuries and have had to "figure it out".. I'd suggest you do the same or just rent forever.
This is a really flawed premise, unless you're talking about a complete fixer or project home.
Here's what a typical year looks like for me. I've got a full time job, kids, GF, travel 40% for work... plenty of stuff going on.
January - Last leaf roundup of the winter, approx 2-3 hours on an early Saturday AM with the rakes and yard vac. Also, AC Filter change (maybe 30 seconds of time).
February - nothing, unless I have a bigger project going. A couple years ago, I built a patio set - but that was more for fun.
March - HVAC tuneup/inspection/coil clean. I outsource this, so I come home early that day and try for the late afternoon appointment. Maybe 2-3 hours total.
Spring yard prep. This is usually 4-5 hours on a Saturday AM. Mulch the flower beds, trim back some bushes, put down fertilizer, etc. I DIY, but you can easily hire someone to do this while you're at work.
April - September. I skip the gym Saturday mornings and spend an hour or two mowing the lawn and/or cleaning the garage.
October - HVAC inspection, heater test run, again 2-3 hours. Usually the yard work is down to every other Saturday. Also, I do the windows and lube the garage door rollers and track.
November - Fall yard prep. 2-3 hours.
December - The big leaf roundup. This is an all-day affair, and the only real PITA one. I guess I could outsource, but I bite the bullet.
So - regular maintenance I figure it comes down to about 2-3 hours a week at most. hardly an impingement on my life.
Some one-offs from this year:
Replaced 9 fence posts due to storm damage. This took quite a bit of time. Maybe 25 hours all in with repairing and rebuilding fence panels, along with the lumber trips.
Chop up and place for collection the 1/3 of a tree that fell in the same storm. 6 hours.
Replaced a garbage disposal. 15 minutes on Amazon, approx 30 minutes on the install...
All in, I'd say there was maybe 9 hours of total time that would have required me to be at the house if I didn't DIY the disposal. Everything else was outside.
Run over the leaves with lawn mower many times, then vac up what little is left. I mulch every lawn client I have other then one big yard full of oaks. Those leaves get blown into the woods which takes about 7 hrs and gets a bill for $700.
I have never owned a home, but it seems to me like if a homeowner has a full time job, especially an unmarried homeowner, he or she either has to
(A) take off vacation time just to be home when contractors make repairs, upgrades, fixes, do maintenance, etc. (assuming the contractors don't work on weekends)
(B) Bite the bullet and let the contractors work unsupervised, essentially trusting total strangers with your home and its contents, or
(C) attempt to DIY virtually everything, which requires a lot of background knowledge and a lot of time invested. I would think this might risk making it tough, after both full time employment and work on the house, to have any free time left for social life, volunteering, self-improvement, or dating .
What am I missing here, and how do most home owners with full time jobs (or couples with two full time jobs) manage? I want to be able to own a home some day and just would like to know how people pull it off.
Purchase new construction and you "should" not have to worry about repairs, upgrades, etc. for a good 5 to 8 years. That is what I did.
Purchase new construction and you "should" not have to worry about repairs, upgrades, etc. for a good 5 to 8 years. That is what I did.
Oh, you mean:
* The water leaking into the living room from the master shower that showed up at the 18 month mark?
* The sump pump that died at 5 years?
* The condensation leak from the master bath exhaust duct? And, then you discovered that 5 ceiling joists were missing proper insulation.
* Dealing with high water table issues that only cost $5K to fix?
* Two Delta faucet cartridges dying?
* The bathtub drain knob that broke and is no longer made?
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Really?
