Working around the house

I know people who rent, I know people who own, and I know people who do the HOA thing. I think that all of the options for living arrangements can have their advantages, but I personally like to own. I like knowing that I have equity in my home and I like knowing that any improvements that I make are mine to keep. What I don't like is all the upkeep that is required in owning a home.

I sometimes feel as though I'm at a bit of a disadvantage in that my father died when I was 9, and I therefore didn't learn a whole lot about keeping up a house, yard, and the like. Fortunately I have books and YouTube at my disposal, but it still doesn't change the loss of hands-on experience that would have been valuable to me.

Sprinklers - the bane of a homeowner's existence

I live in the desert. It's not like what you would picture from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I have a lawn and stuff, but it's still the desert. I had a girlfriend from Tanzania and I was driving with her once through my state and I asked what Africa looked like. She motioned to the land outside of the car and said that it just kind of looked like that. I've seen photos of her home in Africa (her parents are rather well-to-do) and they have a nice lawn and stuff, so it makes sense that my part of the desert might look like the area near her home.

While I don't know how they keep a lawn well-watered in Tanzania, I know it's a giant pain in my butt out here. Sprinklers constantly need adjustment and parts are always needing to be replaced. I have a nice green strip right down the center of my back yard, and everything around it is dead. It turns out that station 3 isn't turning on altogether, and station 5 or 6 has two broken sprinklers that need fixing or replacement. Frankly, it's money that I don't want to spend. I'm torn between providing a nice area for my daughter to play, and saving the money that I would spend on endless watering and repairs.

My next-door-neighbor is from Togo (which is in Africa) and he expressed to me one day how watering his lawn is a huge waste of money. So he ripped out about 4/5 of his backyard, installed a concrete pad and a basketball hoop, and put gravel everywhere else. He now just has his front yard and a small portion of grass in his back yard. It looks nice, but it's not for me. I may, however, rip out 1/5 of my backyard and extend my driveway. I'd like to have a shed and I could put a basketball hoop back there to encourage my future kids to play. Maybe my daughter could be the next college basketball superstar!

Weeds

No, this isn't the weed that @rulesforrebels enjoys. Instead, this is clover, crabgrass, dandelions, and a bunch of other plants that I want to get rid of. Clover is the worst! It gets everywhere! Of course, crab grass sucks too. You can't seem to get rid of it. I tried a few different lawn-safe weed killers and nothing worked. Then, I remembered that my late mother was a big fan of RoundUp weed killer, and sure enough it does the trick. At some point, I stop caring about the long-term potential health effects of using weed killers like that and I just want a good-looking lawn again.

Age

Holy crap, I'm an old man. I actually care about my lawn. I might as well start selling propane and propane accessories, I tell you what.

Additional projects

So, it turns out that I live in the fourth most dangerous city in my state. There are a fair bit of shootings and there is a definite gang problem. I'm not afraid to go for a walk at night, but stuff happens. So I've been taking the time to install security cameras and security lighting outdoors. My brother and I installed a motion light in my back yard with a large field of view and I cranked the sensitivity up. Nothing will move across my lawn without that thing firing up.

Here's the thing though: my back yard should be pretty safe. I live up against a storage facility, so I don't have any neighbors behind me. Instead, I have a huge brick wall maybe 10 or 11 feet tall. My neighbors on either side are good, respectable people and I have really nothing to worry about with them. In fact, the nearest questionable house is two or three houses away, and then another a few houses down from that. My backyard should be pretty safe.

That said, shortly after we moved in, there was a party going on at one of the nearby questionable houses. My wife and I were out shopping at the time this incident occurred, but our neighbor relayed it to us when we got back. I guess a couple of the party's guests had made it into my neighbor's backyard, and then hopped the fence into mine before running off. My neighbor had seen it on his security cameras and his dog started barking. This gave my wife a pretty good scare. She asked me to get a gun, a security system, and cameras.

I began installing the cameras not long after this happened. It's sometimes hard to run the wires internally, but I now have 5 out of 8 cameras up and running. One is watching me type right now! The rest are monitoring my porch, front yard, driveway, and part of my back yard. I still have three to install, but we both feel a lot better now that most of our home is covered. Additionally, one of my next-door-neighbors installed cameras on his home, and one across the street installed some on his.

It's satisfying to get these projects up and running, but it's also hard to get the motivation to do so sometimes. Sometimes it takes the wife nagging a bunch to get them done. Sometimes it just takes my brain nagging a bunch to get them done. For example, my wife is part of this "game" group that gets together once per month and plays bunco. It was her turn to host and she wanted to host outside on our deck. This meant two things. First, I had to build a new set of stairs for the deck. Second, I had to rig up some lighting out back. I didn't have much time to do both. Unfortunately for her, I was only able to get the stairs up before her friends started arriving. Fortunately for me, the sunlight lasted long enough for her game to complete.

I managed to get the lights up within the week, and now the deck is a rather nice place to be in the evening. You can grill, play a game, hang out, or whatever. If my hot tub were still operable, that might be fun to do as well. Just another thing to add to the list of improvements that need to be made.

Cleaning carpets

My family owned an industrial carpet cleaner. It was big, heavy, and it got the job done. Then one of my negligent brother-in-laws who doesn't respect anyone else's property decided to break it. This is the same guy who threw out my stereo. Up until that point, we cleaned our carpets annually.

When I was shopping for a home, someone suggested that I get all hard floors and just buy area rungs. I told them no because I had hard floors in an apartment once, and aside from being uncomfortable to walk on, I was always sweeping and mopping. Not to mention that area rugs are freakin' expensive and ugly. I didn't anticipate one thing: young children.

My daughter would sometimes get upset at bedtime and vomit all over. Mostly milk, but also chicken, fruit, and whatever else she had in the previous five hours or so. The smell was so bad even after cleaning up with a rag that I had to go buy a carpet cleaner. Renting a Rug Doctor wasn't going to do it (especially because I anticipated needing it again - and I was right), I needed to buy a consumer-grade carpet cleaner. This is just one more thing that you have to do as a homeowner - clean your carpets with some regularity. The room where I sit needs to be cleaned now, and so does the rocking chair in my daughter's room. So much to do, so little motivation.

Satisfaction

So while getting things done around the house is satisfying, it's also a giant hassle. It never ends. It's like doing dishes or getting a bill. It never ends. On the plus side, you can look at the project you just completed and feel good about it. You can show others and give yourself a pat on the back. I suppose you can also just let things slide and let your home turn into a worthless piece of garbage. It's really your call. As for me and my house, we'll try to keep it up, just as soon as we feel like we can afford it.