Having (And Keeping) A House
We're coming up on four years that Mrs. Lock and I have been living in our house, our first house. Upkeep of a house isn't easy or cheap. I'm really wondering if it is cheaper to invest in a house or if you're not just better off paying rent for the rest of your life. If you think about the amount of interest you pay in a mortgage plus maintenance, which costs more?
Within two months of moving in, we had to replace the refrigerator. It went out on Thanksgiving Day. Since then, we've replaced the stove, the dishwasher, the garbage disposal, had to disable the water filter system (I don't have $1000 so haven't bothered replacing it). We've replaced the blower in the furnace (not cheap), the water heater, a billion light bulbs. We tore down all of the wallpaper in the house and painted it to increase it's value (very necessary). That was all the stuff that had to be done.
Things that still need to be done: Some areas need to be touched up with paint but there's no such thing as painting one little spot. We have to make a nursery for our impending arrival. Most of the sinks' water flow have degraded severly. I'm not even sure how you clean that out. We need a new screen door, new track, everything. We need to repair one of the windows that is leaking whenever it rains. A new screen for another window. The trim on the house is in dire straits and needs to be painted badly. Carpet is ruined in a couple of rooms (we run a farm). The lawn is mostly green but that's because of all the green weeds. Some of the posts holding up the backyard fence are leaning and pretty much broken off at the base. We've replaced sections of the fence already on several occasions, but it's turned into a game of dominos.
After all of this, the house is still seemingly in good condition. We're trying to keep it up but good grief. There is a ton of little stuff and it's only the two of us living there! There are no kids tearing stuff up (yet)!
Thankfully none of the really big stuff has broken (roof, siding, ceiling). I am now knock, knock, knocking on wood - with a vengeance.
