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I'm interested in a home. Having trouble finding a decent sized lot. They seem to be usually either tiny yards, which is unacceptable to me, or very large.
So this house I'm interested in is one with the larger yard. Great yard. No fancy edging and such in the back yard, which is HUGE.
I would either hire it to be mowed & edged (very little edging), or I would get a riding lawn mower and give maintaining it myself a try (my relatives seem to think that's no big deal and the way to go in the long run).
I can handle it now. But what about when I get to be 75 or 80? My dad still maintains his half acre yard himself; he's 85 or 86.
Has anyone done this? I don't want to have to move at an advanced age, until and unless it's a situation where I have go in a nursing home (just shoot me first, though, in that case!).
I'm 63 and my DH is 75. Two years ago we bought a house with a huge back yard. We pay for a yard service to mow and do fall cleanup and trim shrubs. I hate yard work and I would never want to do all that myself.
I think it comes down to whether you love to do lawn care and yard work. Like if you had totally free time, is that what you would choose to do with it? If your answer is yes, then get the riding mower and have fun (after all, if your physical situation changes, you can always sell the mower and hire the lawn service).
But if your answer is no, then just save yourself the headache of always feeling either guilty that you aren't doing it, or put upon because it's a lovely day and you'd like to be sitting on your deck with a book and a lemonade, but instead you have to go mow the stupid lawn.
There is also the issue of watering a large lawn. If you don't have sprinklers, you will need to move around a hose with an attachment to get the entire lawn watered.
I had a large lawn a few years ago and it was a lot of work to maintain. If I were to keep a house like that for many years, I'd consider keeping the first half of the backyard a lawn, then the back half of the backyard fill with fruit trees and cover the ground around them with a weed barrier and mulch.
As I aged I got rid of my mower. There are many other Seniors in my area many of which are in the grass cutting business. They are cheap. No need for me to be out there in the heat.
Last edited by longneckone; 01-14-2017 at 02:55 PM..
At age 60, I quit mowing and pay $120 per month for 10 months of service. At 75, quit taking care of pool, cost $140 per month for 10 months. Shrubs and trees trimmed two time per year, between $250 to $300. This, for a corner city lot, with a 3200 sq ft one level house, plus garage. Landscaping, plating flowers, shrubs, mulch, is extra.
There is also the issue of watering a large lawn. If you don't have sprinklers, you will need to move around a hose with an attachment to get the entire lawn watered.
I had a large lawn a few years ago and it was a lot of work to maintain. If I were to keep a house like that for many years, I'd consider keeping the first half of the backyard a lawn, then the back half of the backyard fill with fruit trees and cover the ground around them with a weed barrier and mulch.
No sprinklers needed for this yard. If anything, there's too much rain in this area.
Taking care of that 1/2 acre may keep you out of that nursing home! A new riding mower will have a lot of safety features that will help. If the weight comes off the seat, the mower shuts off, for instance. If you put the mower in reverse, the blades shut off. Very safe compared to some of the older ones. If you have any slopes, though, plan on staying off of them. Plant some type of ground cover on them.
We have .6 acres in suburban Las Vegas. I am now handicapped beyond yard week. Can no longer walk well enough. The lot is extensively landscaped with lawns and beds and large mature trees. Oaks and Palms in the back. Towering Mesquites in the front. Landscaping costs around $300 a month including maintaining a twelve run irrigation system. Other costs are few but can be considerable. Just had heavy trimming on the big mesquites for $3,000. But that sort of thing occurs only once or twice a decade.
It may eventually become too much...but we will almost certainly make it into our 80s without giving up.
Our pool has an electric cover which has the interesting characteristic of greatly limiting pool expense and work. No economic savings. We need very few chemicals, almost no pool pump hours and little service. That savings however is eaten by the $3000 pool cover every 5 years.
My father is in his early 80s and he does his own lawn care. His front yard is small and the back is only about a 10th of an acre, but he uses a gas mower and a leaf blower for leaves and shovels his own sidewalk and stairs after a snowfall. As long as you take it easy you can even just do half the yard one day and the rest the next.
Thanks. I'm a hearty, healthy female used to physical activity. I can handle gas cans and such quite easily, at this time.
As for leaves, I have a different view of them. They don't bother me at all. I had my lawn done in my prior house with .27 acres. The lawn crew would always bag my leaves, which I tried to use as mulch. I told him not to bother...that the leaves don't matter to me. But he was in a routine of bagging, so he still did it.
My dad finds my view odd. He hates leaves lying around. To me, they will just disintegrate and become fertilizer into the lawn. Although there are some leaves that are a problem, like Magnolia tree leaves, which are large and thick and heavy.
I have mulching blades on my self propelled mower and have been mulching leaves on our 3/4 acre lot for 26 years. Mulched leaves are great for the lawn and I use them to build up planting beds.
Get mulching blades for your new riding mower, at least you'll make your Dad happy!
We have a half acre and currently hire out for just about everything. We're younger than you, but probably once we hit retirement age we'll sell the house. A half acre isn't large compared to acreage properties, but it's not all that small either. we have to pay extra for services because it's bigger than your standard subdivision lot. We have landscaping front and back plus there's eight large trees, each dumping leaves at one time or another. trying to do rake up leaves yourself will get old quick. my mom's realtor has discouraged her from such lots and I don't blame him.
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