Category: Home Ownership

I can’t say that’s a phrase I ever wanted to use. A furnace certainly wasn’t on my top ten things to shop for list. But I knew it was coming.

I had hoped my boiler would limp through one more winter. Last winter, it gradually lost water over a period of three to four weeks, with no obvious leak. That implied the leak was somewhere in the pipes to the radiators, but those pipes are buried in the foundation throughout the house. I learned how to bleed the system – drain the water and the build-up of air into the garage work sink to allow the water to replenish – buying functionality for another pair of weeks, until the room temperature variances started again.

As with all home improvement projects, I did my due diligence and requested estimates from multiple companies. Ultimately the one I chose was not just because they included a maintenance package and removal of the boiler, but because their sales representative explained what he was looking at in the house and attic, and what they needed to do for each piece of the puzzle.

Switching from a boiler and window air-conditioning meant there was no ductwork in the house yet, so we spent four long days with people crawling around in the attic and hammering away in the garage. I pulled what little I store in the attic down, moved furniture around in the garage, and parked outside for a week in December.

When they were done, I had a working furnace, a smart thermostat, and more importantly, peace of mind.

And an air-conditioner. Because I have ductwork now, and it will be far more efficient than window units.

This isn’t my first work from home rodeo. You’re going to notice things in your house and neighborhood that were outside your scope of awareness before: the thunk the washing machine makes as it switches to the spin cycle, the water running through the pipes if you have a boiler, the creaking as a strong wind pushes the house, the way one cat announces before she uses the litter box and the other howls as she prepares to produce a hairball (typically while I’m working out).  You may wonder why the small cat makes a thump when she jumps onto the counter, but the large one only thumps coming down.

Even in these strange times, you’ll notice things about your neighbors too.  You’ll find out which ones hire a lawn service (and wonder why everybody on the block hires different ones), notice when the truck that always leaves at 5am is home or gone, and wonder why the curtains across the street are still closed this morning when they’re usually open before you head to work.

You may hear the guy who talks to himself – loudly until he notices somebody outside – as he rides his bike, or see the couple that takes morning walks year round, even in our winters.  You can watch the birds at the bird feeder as they alternate with the squirrels, observing the different visitors as spring advances.  If you look carefully later, you may see the evening visitors… woodchucks, raccoons, and skunks.

When you inevitably return to normal office settings, you will know so much more about your home and neighborhood if you take the time to look and listen now.

One of my goals for the year (that I didn’t list here) was to demolish and replace the shed that came with my house.  We’ve known since we moved in that it would have to go eventually – the base board is supported by a few bricks rather than a foundation, the doors didn’t quite fit together when they closed, and one side of the roof had retained moisture to the point where it grew mushrooms along with other molds.  And that wasn’t the side where water dripped in!

When I opened the shed in the spring, I discovered that somebody had been living in it over the winter, courtesy of a hole dug through the far wall.  This, on top of the many hard to spot hornet or yellow jacket nests (all abandoned by this point) was the tipping point.  The yellow jackets were a problem the first summer here, leading to this little tidbit one morning:

“So this morning, I took a big bucket of soapy water outside after layering up really well and proceeded to totally whiff when flinging the water at the shed door.  I aimed too low.  On the plus side, I didn’t disturb any of them, so I was able to refill the bucket and try again.”

The yellow jackets had built nests on the inside of both shed doors, which made retrieving gardening supplies … nerve-wracking.  Having discovered them just after a trip to Menard’s, I looked online for options other than bug spray, and found out that soapy water adheres to their wings and prevents them from flying, even once it’s dry.  And the water dissolves the nest.

Now, three summers later, we finally reached the demolition stage.  The upper left photo shows the roof after I started peeling shingles off – the wood was damaged enough it was breaking during the process.  The upper right photo was taken during the fun process involving a pry bar and sledgehammer, with a controlled approach to make sure the shed fell into the garden rather than the neighbor’s fence.  The bottom two photos are the remnants, with the smaller pieces lined up against the wall waiting for the city’s semi-annual trash day; the big pieces will take a couple people to move.  The base board will come up as well – there’s a rotted section just before the bricks.

The bricks?  Yes, those came with the house too, hidden behind the shed… who knows how long they’ve been stored there.  I have plans for them, though not for the rolled up fencing that’s entangled with raspberries at the moment.

Owning a home thrusts you into a constant process of making difficult decisions. When a problem starts, do you fix it yourself or call a professional? Do you repair it or replace it?

At times, that decision is obvious.  When I bought this house, I knew the windows would need replacing.  None of them were broken, they were just an older model of casement windows that weren’t particularly good at insulating the house.  Newer windows are all double-paned, and the frames are meant to last longer.  Additionally, the casement windows were a pain to open – I had to remove the screen, unlatch the window, push it open, then put the screen back in. 

This summer, my dryer stopped spinning.  Looking at the notes from my home inspection (always get one before buying a house!), it stated that the washer and dryer were dated and should be replaced at some point.  While I debated between a replacement and repair, I improvised a stand for my clothesline and started air drying my clothes again.  The dryer has since been repaired – the belt had broken, which isn’t a terrible expensive repair – and when I had my water softener serviced for the year, that guy commented that you can’t get durable machines like my washer and dryer anymore.  That made me feel better about my decision to repair them. 

On the other hand, I have a wooden door out the side of my attached garage with a crack in it.  And while it’s neat to look at the light shining through it and make Doctor Who references, come winter it will reduce the efficiency of the heater in the garage.  The garage is home to my washer, dryer, well pressure tank, full-size freezer, hot water heater, and boiler, plus occasionally my car, so maintaining a proper temperature in the winter is somewhat essential.  So that’s on the replacement list. 

Meanwhile, the lock on my front door just needed a bit of WD-40 when the key wouldn’t go all the way in.  It’s a never-ending process of updating the house, the garden, or both, along with deciding whether to do it yourself or hire a professional. 

I had two experiences recently that reminded me how a good customer service experience results in repeat business. In both cases, the business will be infrequent (I hope) due to the nature of the services they provide.

Last week, I had my annual eye exam. I went somewhere new – closer to home, even walkable when I have the time to spare.  I found the location through my vision insurance website; the fact that is probably the closest eye doctor to my house is a bonus.

When I called to schedule, Park Family Eye Care was able to get me in the same week.  While I appreciate that, it’s more lucky timing than customer service… they happened to have openings in the near future.  I went through the usual pre-tests with an assistant, and then the vision test with the doctor.  After a brief chat with the doctor, he walked me back out to the waiting area.

Anybody who’s been to the big chains knows this is where you normally get handed back to an assistant, as you agonize over which frames to pick and they upsell you on as many things as they can.  That didn’t happen.  In fact, the doctor helped me select frames, adding on just the extras needed based on our discussion.  He then wrote up the itemized bill, took the appropriate measurements for the glasses, and only when that was done, passed me off to the front desk for payment.

In a similar vein, I had my dryer serviced this week.  To be more specific, my dryer stopped spinning a couple weeks ago; fortunately the weather is nice for drying on a clothesline.  I logged onto Next Door and asked for recommendations, hoping that I wouldn’t need to buy a new dryer quite yet.  I received several recommendations, including one from a person who had experienced the same issue; I went with her recommendation and called West Suburban Appliance Repair.

When I called to schedule, I was told the diagnostic visit fee would be applied to the repair if I opted to repair the dryer with them.  That was a good start.

The repairman assessed the problem fairly quickly – a broken belt – and happened to have a replacement for my make and model in his truck.  He informed me of the cost before even checking his truck for the belt, then verified that I was approving the work at that price after confirming that he had the necessary piece.  I know, that all seems super reasonable, but sometimes repairs around the house end up with surprise costs.

What caught my attention was the details at the end of his visit.  Instead of just handing me the work order and running my credit card, he explained the details of the work order, including the manufacturer’s warranty on the part and the company’s warranty on the work.  He literally went through every piece of information written on the work order… I’m not sure I’ve seen anybody do that before.  He’s certainly at the top of my list to call if I need appliance repairs… though I hope not to.

When you buy a home, at least in this country, some assumptions are made by the bank and your neighbors, and to some extent, by yourself. Your neighbors assume you will maintain the property, particularly the visible bits, in a way that will maintain or increase the value of the home.  In some areas, this is enforceable – the city will warn you if you fail at certain maintenance work, such as keeping your lawn and weeds below a specified height, or unrepaired parts of the exterior that are unsightly.  More so if your house is  in a HomeOwners Assocation (HOA); their rules are stricter. 

I don’t have a problem with that concept, it seems a fair part of homeownership and belonging to a neighborhood.  I managed to avoid buying a house with an HOA, though I did look at a couple when I was house-hunting.  (That was not the deciding factor.)  The exterior maintenance I’ve done has really been for my own comfort – the big projects have been improving the ventilation to the attic, adding insulation, and replacing the windows.  One of my long term projects is to replace the siding on the house.  The current siding is an older style which is no longer produced, so it needs to be fully replaced when it goes. 

And therein, we come to the discussion of ethics.  Last summer, a hail storm hit the area fairly hard.  A good chunk of the neighborhood replaced roofing, siding, or both, as a result of the storm.  In the first week after the storm, I had over a dozen companies stop by with business details, offering to inspect both my roof and siding for damage.  One was the company that installed my soffits, gutters, and attic insulation; I let them check for damage.  After a cursory walk around the house, they reported that they found no new damage. 

Here were are, nine months after the incident, and I’m still getting the occasional drive-by visit from companies that want my insurance’s business of repairing the roofing and siding.  This last one bugged me. Their flyers – pre-printed – said “YOUR ALUMINUM SIDING and/or ROOF HAVE HAIL DAMAGE!  YOUR INSURANCE WILL PAY US TO REPLACE IT WITH BRAND NEW VINYL SIDING!!”.   The flyer ends with (still in all caps, and really, I have limits to how much of that I want to see) “You’ve been paying insurance your whole life, now is the time to finally get something back!!”  The guy at the door reinforced this – he told me that if he could find even one section that appeared to be damaged from the storm, the insurance would pay to replace all of it. 

I’m all for using insurance when something happens that requires it.  Health insurance covered the birth of a child and my appendectomy, both of which would have been painfully expensive without insurance.  My car insurance came through for me after my accident.  But I’m not going to abuse my insurance simply because I want new siding, knowing that there wasn’t significant damage to the siding from that particular storm.  I’m also not going to pick a company that reminds me of ambulance chasers to do the work.