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After 13 years of living in apartments and generally not liking apartment living, I decided to buy a house last year and moved into it in November. So I've been in my house for six months now. I love the neighborhood and it's a nice property overall. Very desirable neighborhood. I am a single 36 yo gay guy with no kids and will always be single with no kids. I bought a house because I wanted more space, more privacy and NO shared walls/ceilings. The house is 1700 sq ft with 3 bedrooms. I utilize all the bedrooms for myself (bedroom, office, exercise room).
I love the interior floor plan of the house and love living in a single story home. I have great neighbors. My parents (aged 59 and 61) are helping me with many improvements throughout the house. They spent 13 full days here so far and will spend another day or two until these projects are completed. 13 full days of free labor and more to come. I love being able to turn music loud whenever I want and not having to hear people's lives through the walls and ceilings. It's nice to have an inground pool to use on those hot summer days here in Florida.
But...
I can't STAND all the yard work and pool maintenance. It's insane and makes me kind of regret buying a house. I spend about 2 hours per week on cleaning the pool. The cost of chemicals is insane and it's very challenging to keep the pool chemically balanced. I spend about $100-150 a month on pool chemicals and changing the cartridge filter every few months. Ridiculous. There are trees near the pool, which adds to the stress.
Mowing the lawn sucks, too. I actually don't mind mowing, but after I'm done mowing (which takes about 40 min for the whole yard), my legs are covered in soot because there are many parts of my yard with exposed dirt and tons of mole hills everywhere. So I have to take a shower after mowing, which is absurd. I have a few huge live oak trees that drop all their leaves from Feb through Apr, followed by several weeks of catkins falling down like CRAZY. It lasts for weeks and I have to go outside weekly and spend at least 1.5 hours using the leaf vaccum to clean them all up. It's so strenuous, especially if it's a hot day.
The weeds just never end. I have a rock bed in my yard and a whole area of mulch and the weeds just keep coming. It's ridiculous. The hedges needs to be trimmed every couple of months. And there are constantly twigs falling down from the trees all over my driveway and front yard every day! I have to keep sweeping the driveway, sidewalk and pool deck at least once a week. It's insane. And the crab grass just keeps growing out from the edges of the driveway and sidewalk. Ugh.
Yard work is incredibly strenuous, time consuming and dirty. My socks get dirt inside them and the edges of my toes get dirt inside and my legs, arms and face get dirt or pollen on them and I have shower every time after I do major yard work. And occasionally I get blisters on my fingers and thumbs even if I wear gloves. I hate it!
I also feel less financially secure than ever, owning a home versus when I was renting. The vast majority of my wealth is tied up in the house, which is not liquid. So I have limited cash reserves and less purchasing power now. It's kind of depressing. I can't really take a major vacation for a long time now. I only have $10K in the bank now (but will have $15K on Friday because of my annual bonus). And I get a 9% raise at work effective in July, which helps. The house is still quite unfurnished and I need to buy a bunch of furniture and decor to fill it up more. I also already had my HVAC system fail on me and had to pay $6,600 for a new one. Horrible! I'm dreading that in 10 years from now I will probably have to pay another $15,000 for a new roof and another $15,000 to remarcite the pool! And God knows what else! Sigh...
So, I don't know what to do. I will certainly give it another 6 months and see how I feel. I knew that there would be maintenance, but in reality it's MUCH worse than I had imagined. Strenuous, time consuming and dirty. I am considering hiring a weekly pool service to help out though. Maybe even a lawn care service, too. But I'd hate to throw away $200+ a month on these things when I really want to save money.
I also hate unfinished projects. And I'm not a handy person at all, except for easy minor things. Even after my parents finish all of these improvements, there are still plenty of potential projects that can be done. I don't find home improvement projects fun, exciting or fulfilling at all.
Look, I hated apartment living because of all the noise through the walls and ceilings and having quiet hours and worrying about if neighbors can hear me. I also hated how compressed all the units are and with tons of cars in the parking lot. Just too many people cramped into a small area. Total turn off. And all of the obnoxious, pretentious young people who tend to live in the apartments, too. However, I did not mind all the rules and inability to customize.
After working 40 hours a week, exercising, shopping, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc. the last thing I want to do is yard/pool work.
Should I maybe consider selling my house and buying a condo instead? Or go back to renting an apartment? Give it more time and try to find solutions? I just don't know what to do. I'm still not entirely sure if house living is superior to apartment living. Condo living is unknown. But the idea of NOT having to do any yard or pool work is suddenly appealing. But then again, condos/townhomes have shared walls, which I can't stand. Any suggestions??
Seriously, IIRC, didn't everyone warn you about all this stuff that comes along with homeownership?
Nothing you wrote about would come as a surprise to anyone, and stuff like "taking a shower" after mowing hardly seems like a travesty.
But if this is your experience...perhaps a RENTAL SFH would be a good option, one where obviously it's the landlord's responsibility for all maintenance?
Based on what you've written I suspect you'd hate a condo.
We don't have many pools out my way because you can only use them a couple of months out of the year. Can you drain the pool and just cover it with a cover or something? Do you use the pool?
Hire a yard service twice a month. You do alternating weeks to find a better balance between saving and homeownership requirements.
My nice suggestion is to ask if you can find a community with single family houses but with zero lot lines where the HOA community takes care of all the exterior maintenance. You would have to share a pool though.
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My not so nice suggestion is really not very nice at all so I will just whittle down to some main points. You cannot have it all, so figure out your priorities. Home ownership is an investment. If your vacation is more important, maybe you shouldn't own a home.
Your two hours a week on pool maintainance is roughly 17 minutes a day. Is 17 minutes a day not worth it to you to have a private pool? If you are spending $150 a month on pool chemicals, you are doing it wrong. Take a sample of your pool water to a pool supply store and they will test it for you and tell you what you need to add. This should be an occassional investment and last months.
Yes, yard work makes you dirty and smelly. Wear long pants and tuck them into your socks. Yes, there are critters. You live in Florida--your growing season is extremely long. Why would it be otherwise? Yes you will get blisters. They will heal and eventually your hands will toughen up and you will not get blisters anymore.
You really need to think about if your privacy is most important to you or if you will sacrifice your privacy for living more a more leisurely life.
BTW, many of us work and homeschool and exercise and grocery shop and raise children and still have to do all these home chores. It's part of being an adult.
Seriously, IIRC, didn't everyone warn you about all this stuff that comes along with homeownership?
Nothing you wrote about would come as a surprise to anyone, and stuff like "taking a shower" after mowing hardly seems like a travesty.
But if this is your experience...perhaps a RENTAL SFH would be a good option, one where obviously it's the landlord's responsibility for all maintenance?
Based on what you've written I suspect you'd hate a condo.
Most people I know who rent a house are responsible for a lot of the exterior work - mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, pool maintenance (if there is an individual pool for the house). I realize that individual leases will vary on this, but it is certainly not guaranteed that renting a SFH would mean no maintenance by the OP
As for the underlying question - I'm in a similar situation, where I found out that I didn't actually enjoy the maintenance. I have a small yard so I eliminated the grass (put in a deck for part, and put down decorative rock and landscaping for the rest of it). I have a teen son so for now, he does some of the rest of it, but when he goes off to college, I've resigned myself to hiring it out. And once he's done with school and settled somewhere, I'll be selling and downsizing into a condo or a patio home. For me, even with shared walls and whatever, the upside of that scenario far outweighs the downside
Most people I know who rent a house are responsible for a lot of the exterior work - mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, pool maintenance (if there is an individual pool for the house). I realize that individual leases will vary on this, but it is certainly not guaranteed that renting a SFH would mean no maintenance by the OP
Oh, poor OP. They just realized that owning a home involves maintenance and actual work. Just wait until you need a new roof, re-wiring, painting, new windows or a new kitchen, to mention just one of many things. Honestly OP, from the overall tone of your post, I don't think home ownership and adult responsibility is for you, and I mean that sincerely. Time to look for a condo or go back to renting and letting someone else take responsibility. Check back with us in 10-20 years....
Oh, poor OP. They just realized that owning a home involves maintenance and actual work. Just wait until you need a new roof, re-wiring, painting, new windows or a new kitchen, to mention just one of many things. Honestly OP, from the overall tone of your post, I don't think home ownership and adult responsibility is for you, and I mean that sincerely. Time to look for a condo or go back to renting and letting someone else take responsibility. Check back with us in 10-20 years....
Of course I knew that home ownerships involves work and responsibility. But it's more than I had imagined. Much worse.
Get a service for the pool and the yard. Give yourself a pass.
I hope one or both of those services will provide substantial relief for me at a reasonable cost. Maybe that's the key to happiness. I don't mind doing some yard/pool work but doing EVERYTHING on my own is a little too much.
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