Home Improvement

1. This is one of the few things YouTube is still good for. The channel This Old House is usually a good resource for a lot of projects, but you can find tons of other channels that have good info. Some creators are contractors, so their focus will be on doing things efficiently at scale and might not be as relevant to you, but there's still good information to be found.

2. One of the lessons I learned getting an Accounting degree is that everything around you is constantly degrading. Every object has a limited number of uses, and we can only take guesses at what that number will be. Every time you open or close a door, you are putting wear on the wood of the door and frame, the hinges, and the latching mechanism. Every time you open or close a tap you are putting wear on a valve. Every rain drop that hits the roof is trying to erode your shingles, work it's way into the sealant around fasteners, damage your gutters and downspouts, and erode your land and foundation. So try to be gentle on what you can and keep up on preventative maintenance when you can.

To start off with, you take care of emergencies. Things that will cascade into more damage to your property or health if not addressed. Sewer line backing up and flooding your basement? Emergency. Water leaks in the roof? Emergency. Hot Water tank leaking? Well, the leak is an emergency, but a lack of hot water probably isn't. If you're strapped for cash, you should be able to turn some valves to disconnect it and live with cold water until you can afford to fix it properly. But if you're somewhere cold in winter, that could put those pipes in danger of freezing. (In case you couldn't tell, water causes trouble everywhere it goes)

Without knowing the details of your financial situation, I'm going to assume you're like most new homeowners. Young, probably just starting to get financially established enough to break the rent cycle. Maybe some other car or student loan debt you're trying to pay off. Expecting to advance your career and make more money in the coming years. Assuming your income keeps up with inflation and your interest rate on your mortgage is fixed, from now on your housing costs as a percentage of your income will most likely go down.

So you'll probably have to put things off for the first few years. You'll need a couple of years with mild and extreme summers and winters to get a feel for how much your utilities cost. Try to keep an emergency fund (credit cards can work in a pinch, but they cost you long-term). Some problems might need temporary, cheap solutions. The general financial wisdom most old people gave me was "buy cheap, but twice", but sometimes you just need to "waste" $50 on something janky to last a couple years until you can afford the $5,000 proper renovation. You'll slowly transition from being reactive to proactive over time. First set aside money for an emergency fund. Once you have a couple grand, start setting aside some for cosmetic stuff like flooring and paint (it's less important objectively, but living in a house with peeling paint and stained carpet can be bad for your mental health). You probably want ~$10k in an emergency fund eventually (in today's dollars), but don't feel too much pressure to get there immediately. And don't be afraid to use that money for emergencies either: that's what it's for.

Identify any big, expensive, non-urgent projects: how much will the cost and when will they become urgent? You'll need a roof every 25-50 years depending on the kind of roof and where you live. In today's dollars in the US you're looking at the ballpark of $10-$20k. You will probably be able to finance part of it if you need to.

3. You can't control what the previous owner did or did not do, the corners that a builder cut, or the flaws in the architect's designs. If there's something serious that was legally required to be disclosed to you and was not, you could consult a lawyer to see if you have any recourse against the seller.

You are going to be making a lot of your own repairs and decisions restricted by your budget, equipment, and skills. 10 years from now you might find you're cursing your past self just as much as you're cursing the previous owner now. Either way, there isn't much to be gained from getting upset over what 'the last guy' did. All you can do is try to be nicer to 'the next guy', who may or may not be you.

4. Just some general advice. You'll probably hear other advice recommending that you do not buy cheap tools, but to wait and buy nice, expensive tools as you find you need them. I strongly disagree. If you don't already have screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets, a measuring tape, hammer, etc those cheap kits can be great. Sometimes it's nice to have tools you don't care about for dirty jobs or loaning to a neighbor. I don't want to use the same screwdriver I would use on my guitar or computer on a sewage pipe or my car, for example.

Also keep records. Put together a binder with receipts, warranty cards, etc. If something has a 30 year warranty you need a good resource for how to claim that 25 years from now. And it's a great thing to hand off to the next owner. What year was this roof installed? What was the hex code and brand of paint on the trim in the living room? Is there lead paint that is currently sealed behind newer paint? Did you upgrade the Ethernet to cat6? Does the basement flood once every 200 years, once every 20 years, or once every 2 years? Think of all the stuff you wish the previous owner would have told you and start writing it down for the next person. A house shoukd last a few hundred years, and I would argue that the quality of records should be a factor in buying/selling.