By: Revanche

Home maintenance projects in 2020

October 26, 2020

If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?

Current total: Lakota, $1,905.47; Rural libraries, $346.69.

NOTE: I started this post many months ago and added to it as I researched options but events 2020!! got the better of me.

Item 1: water heater

After a grueling weekend of social obligations that had my legs seizing up, I drew a bath for myself for the first time in 2 years. No joke. And by the time the tub was partly filled, the water was tepid. Disappointment.

Now that the furnace installation, oh luxurious furnace bringer of warmth and comfort inside, is well behind us, I’m looking ahead to another old appliance that we knew was on its last legs when we bought the place. To be honest, I was hoping it would crap out in the first year when we still had our warranty purchased by our agent.

Of course it chose not to oblige during the warranty period so I’m debating whether it makes sense to replace it before it dies or if we should just use it til the bottom falls out. I’ve skipped many a comforting and soothing bath because it’s just not warm enough for my bones but I sure would like a real bath.

Linda ventured into the world of the tankless heater a couple years ago, and our former neighbors were talking to us about them before we moved too.

My internal debate has gotten this far:

Tankless pros: smaller footprint, lower energy needs
Tankless cons: PG&E doesn’t give rebates for tankless water heater units, it won’t work during a power outage, it’s 3-4x as expensive as a traditional tank heater.

They did offer incentives for solar water heating which would work alongside conventional water heaters, but we live wreathed in fog most of the year so I’m a bit skeptical that this could work for us. They state: You might get a rebate of up to $4,366 and a 30 percent federal tax credit. We already missed the boat on the 30% federal tax credit, that expired Dec. 31, 2019, but it looks like there are lower tiers of tax credit through 2021 according to TurboTax.

I’m pondering if it makes sense to have solar alongside tankless, would that help us with the power outage non-availability of water? Though thoroughly inconvenient, I can deal with multiple days of power outages if we still have hot food and hot water. I’m not so sure of my equanimity without. I don’t want a solution that requires us to give up more room in the garage then we already do with the existing old style water heater though.

Does anyone have experience with replacing water heaters? Are you using solar, tankless, or conventional heaters?

Item 2: The Exterior

Our front and back yards are a travesty and not at all useable. We also have a TON of other exterior work to do:

– Bolt and brace
– Replacing dryrotted boards
– Replacing our gutters
– Fixing the drainage problems
– Painting
– Functional landscaping to remove and prevent the resprouting of the jungle that has sprouted after all my efforts at weed eradication last summer

PiC has a lot of aesthetic interior projects he had wanted to tackle this year in addition to the functional stuff, painting and putting up hanging hooks and suchlike, but it’s been too much of a year to get into it. I have zero interest in painting, myself. He did commit to some hanging hooks though.

We drew up a master list to figure out our priorities because we needed to budget for maintenance spending and still hold back some cash for the inevitable surprise something happening, but honestly, I have no clue what we will be able to get done this year considering we will need help for the bigger things. Getting a contractor / sub-contractor has proven to be nearly impossible.

I’m also not prepared to have PiC risk himself on a high ladder to do gutter work during this period where our city is again becoming a hotspot for COVID.

Item 3: The Interior

We had some big ticket items on the list.

The (used when we bought it) sofa was aging badly.

I love our bed but the mattress was at the end of its life for me (my pain issues are very affected by mattress quality) and we just don’t have enough real estate. I had lobbied for a king size bed when we had to replace this mattress but it wouldn’t have fit. With me the size I am, and with the back pain ramping up to a high screech, the need for more bed had my tiny voice squeaking I TOLD YOU SO.

We spent money on both bed and sofa at the same time which was a heck of a hit but well worth it. Not that the sofa has actually ARRIVED *glares at Joybird*.

I’m still thinking about how long we can get by with this washer and dryer. They each have issues but they still work so I’m hoping to push replacement well into next year. 🤞🏼

:: Did you have any must-do maintenance around the home this year? Did it get done? How are you prioritizing?

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