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)

  • @Balthazar
    3•1 year ago

    This is all great advice! I would add:

    1. Youtube is great for how-to videos that will allow you to take care of a lot of small repairs more or less for “free”, but it’s not interactive. Sometimes you just don’t know the right term to use in an internet search, and you need to ask people. Use this Lemmy community and/or diy.stackexchange.com to crowd-source solutions to your problems (explain the problem and post a few photos) that you can then watch videos about to get the details right.
    2. In regard to tools, I like the following rule: when you first need a tool, buy the cheapest one that will get the job done; then when it eventually breaks (because you’re using it for new jobs) buy a good-quality one. This way, you’re not spending extra money on stuff you’re only going to use once or twice, and when it comes time to buy something you’re going to have for a long time, you’ll have some experience so you know what features you want.
    3. Laws in the United States allow a lot of work to be done by the homeowner, especially when you’re replacing “like for like” (e.g., swapping out an electrical socket); but if you’re doing more than that, check on whether you’re going to need a permit from the local municipality. In other countries, laws may require licensed contractors perform certain work (e.g., electrical and plumbing).
    4. Take care of emergencies, but then get comfortable. It’s your home, you’re going to spend lots of time there, so you don’t want to be living in a construction zone for a decade. Work towards a standard of living that you (and your family) can not only tolerate but have some level of comfort in.