I am a proud owner of a brand new home. I am in love with it. It’s cute the yard is perfect. It is old and lived in hard. And we couldn’t afford really nice. Pretty much everything we looked at had some serious issues so we chose the one we loved the most and the one we felt we could handle the issues. I have lots of questions so I will be here a lot.
I have a very basic knowledge of tools and carpentry but very little knowledge about how to apply that to a home ownership. So my first question is can you recommend books, websites, other lemmy communities that are also good resources?
And my second is how do you prioritize your home projects when under budget constraints and they are of equal importance or unimportance?
Last question (for now) how do you deal with the overwhelm/frustrations of previous owner issues or poor workmanship? (I still love it. It’s ours and I love it but we are picking up on stuff that we didn’t know about ex the neighbor told us there is a sinkhole under our driveway and it had already been repaired but poorly or the fact that we didn’t see it empty until after close and it’s obvious their pets handled the moving process poorly and have urinated in every room with carpet)
Congadulations on your home! Best advice I can give is go slow. All the DIY stuff has loads of YouTube videos to help you so just take it easy. Anything you can hook up to existing infrastructure, you can tackle easy. Installing new lighting, painting, redoing flooring, new faucets and toilets, etc.
Start top down. Roof, plumbing, foundation, grading, electrical, fixtures, cabinets, counters, paint, flooring. Water is your worst enemy, so deal with all water related problems first. Hire a licensed and bonded tradesmen for any major projects, such as roofing, electrical boxes, water heater or hvac. They will be able to work with permitting. If it’s old enough, a secondary concern will be cloth wiring, which is a fire hazard, also have your insulation checked for asbestos and your paint for lead. You’ll have to hire professionals for abatement.
These all can be done as they come up, but before any major changes are done. An example would be, if you have a boiler and radiator setup, and you want to change to central heat and air, you’ll need to have the wiring changed to handle the new load.
Thank you. I am going to do my best to remember to go slow. I’m just so excited and want to be able to get in and live here but I feel like there is a lot I want to do before moving in since it is easier.