2018 Life Moves: scheduling and structure
April 11, 2018
We want to make the most of our time together this year but still get things done around the house. There’s a ton of work still left to us, we only paid for work we absolutely needed completed before we moved in.
Despite (or because of) the massive derailment that was last year, we’re taking a more structured approach to planning our year. Admittedly, it’s a bit late in the day to be planning for the whole year, this is the kind of thing I would normally have done in October of last year. Holy dang it’s April already!
What we planned
- Take one at-home home maintenance weekend per month.
- Take Seamus to Fort Funston at least once a month so he can romp and meet other dogs. We’d love to do Point Isobel but crossing the bridge on the weekend is definitely a no go.
- JB gets one or two playdates a month (includes birthday parties).
- Host a dinner with friends once a month.
- PiC and I loosely agreed to using the library’s Discover and Go venues at least 4 times this year. I was all kinds of enthused about this, applying for new library cards for both of us. Ours have been expired since JB’s arrival. Disappointingly, it turns out that almost all of the family friendly locations suck in some way: they require 1.5 hour drive one way, the discount is only for the child and parents have to pay for parking and $30 admission, or it’s in SF proper which means traffic, terrible and $$$ parking and walking miles just to get to the venue thereby burning up my valuable energy before we even make it in the door. This may have to be two weekend trips this year instead.
What we’ve been doing
We’ve done really well with at least one of each of the fun things per month so far. No surprise, the one we’ve been struggling with most has been the home repair. We’ve gotten quotes for the roof repairs and a few exterior repairs, but the professional work is mostly coming in at “wow too expensive” because the contractors in the area all have too much work and so don’t care if they get our job or not.
We’re also doing research for our new water heater and furnace so we can budget for the latter two. Cross your fingers that they either die before the warranty expires or not until 2020!
Research is well and good but we need to lay off the fun stuff on the weekends a bit more and focus on freeing up one or both of us to actually do some work on the home stuff. We are not nearly as motivated as we should be!
As I was telling Windy City Gal, while I’ve lived in houses for a long time over the years, those years were as renters who didn’t know anything about the basic maintenance of the house. Looking back now, with the experience of the renovation under my belt, I’m mortified at all the things we didn’t know to do! I didn’t even know that filters had to be changed regularly! So I’m facing a high level of intimidation with regards to the many things we need to tackle on a regular basis. I know we can, it’s just that I have to actually do it to dispel my pent-up worry about getting things wrong or what else I don’t know we don’t know!
:: How do you manage home repairs or maintenance? What good cheap fun are you into these days?
Hiring contractors out here is such a pain, like where you are they have too much work to care about anything that’s less than 100k (and even then may not care all that much). If you haven’t already, you should sign up for an Angie’s List account. It made researching folk so much easier when we were hiring subs (no GC would take us because our project was too small).
Oh that’s a great idea, I had forgotten about Angie’s List. Thanks!
We have gotten quotes for some projects, but run into the same “wow, that is way more than I think the work is worth” problems as you.
For big things (we will need a whole new roof at some point), I’m hoping an eventual downturn will help, and we just keep the cash set aside and wait for contractors to be less in demand. Ultimately, we may have to pay market rate, but I am putting it off for now. For things that NEED to be done that are beyond our skill set (the tiling in the bathroom), we just suck it up and pay the $$$. For little/medium things, we slowly do it ourselves. T is really handy and good at directing and completing projects, but weekends and some evenings does not make for fast progress. We also don’t do all that much fun stuff, although we spend both weekend mornings taking the dog on a hike which is a serious time commitment.
Our big summer project is going to be tearing out our terrible overgrown untrimmable hedges in front of the house. I got a quote for about $8k for a full service company to do it and replant with natural landscaping…. so this will be another DIY project. We probably will need to hire some help though.
Ooh good luck with that front of house project! And good idea on waiting for a downturn. We wanted to get at least one of these things done this year but everything else could probably be saved for in cash until they actually want the work.
We’re still waiting to get our whole house water filter installed. Supposedly this week, supposedly for $700 more than the original estimate (when they discovered the filter was too big for the water heater closet as currently configured– they’re going to do something fancy and they’ll have to take out the water heater and put it back in). This has been ongoing since last fall. Usually our plumber is fantastic and on top of things so we have been happy to farm out things we could do ourselves for $80 + parts, but this is a much bigger job and does not seem to be a priority for them.
Youtube has been invaluable for little maintenance tasks. DH isn’t allowed to do electrical because he screwed up once and we don’t want him electrocuted. (Why yes, he does have a degree in electrical engineering, why do you ask?)
I hope that water filter has been installed and for much closer to the original estimate!
LOL now you have me second guessing borrowing my EE friend for some electrical…
We need to get some roof repair work done (we have a leak, but it really only shows up in a deluge, but what we’ve done first is (a) order wooden blinds to replace the useless and broken miniblinds in our eat-in kitchen and (b) buy a new quilt for our bed.
Those both seem much more manageable and. Are y’all getting heavy enough rains to make the roof leak an imminent problem?
Home repairs is the one factor I need to be aware of when we eventually buy a home. I think resources like Youtube will come in handy when trying to fix stuff around the house. They have so many videos about how to handle home repairs.
SF has Sunday Streets going on in various neighborhoods around the city. If your interested in going to one of them, I’d suggest going to the one along Sunset/GGP area where street parking is accessible close by and you guys can walk along the Great Highway and/or GGP. We went last year and loved the exhibits they offered especially for the little ones.
Definitely, yes. Youtube is a great resource honestly! And one way or another, some of it will cost money so it’s wise to budget in advance.
Thanks for the suggestion!
I use a phone app to track routine stuff like changing the furnace filters (quarterly for us). It reminds me when it’s due, and I just check it off the list when I actually do it. Don’t forget to schedule duct cleaning on your list too! We budget $2000-3000 per year for maintenance, but rarely do something every year, usually it piles up and we spend it down every 3 years or so. Also be sure to check with your utility company for deals. They often have incentives and rebates for work that lowers energy costs like window replacement, low-flow faucets, and insulation.
All great thoughts, thank you!
[Mod Note: Rude, ignorant, and mean-spirited comments have been replaced with glitter and unicorn farts.]
Ugh…Linda, you decided to chime in here too? She has chronic fatigue and pain…she can’t just stop living because of something that doesn’t seem to be getting better. Her kid is the center of her universe, which you’d know if you actually read her past posts at all before acting like the judge and jury of her motherhood. And she doesn’t choose money over her family, she earns a living just like the rest of working adults. I take it you give shit to every working mom? How about working dads? With your logic, anybody who has a job while having a kid is making the wrong decision. Soooo, money for housing, food, utilities…just magically arrives for you?
Revanche, you’re doing awesome. Haters just gonna hate.
What you should do is refrain from commenting until you learn manners.
Of all the “shoulds” here, only yours lack any comprehension of real life.
Linda: You’re right. I don’t know why she’s choosing to do something silly like work to help support her family. I don’t know why anyone makes money they need rather than abdicating to spend time with their children. Ridiculous!
Also hilarious about your comment is that Revanche has been talking lately about working this hard because she and PiC have set their sights on FI. Which will let her stop working and spend more time with her family. So… Coming and going, your comment makes no sense. But don’t despair — on the bright side it IS myopic, ill-thought-out and petty.
We’re all soooooo foolish! ><