I bought my first home a year ago this month. Since I’ve moved in, I had a problem with my irrigation system that resulted in much of the grass dying off. Wasn;t much to begin with, since I live in a desert, but what there was is gone. For now. The irrigation is fixed, so I hope to have grass again soon. Other than that, I do what I can to keep the house in tip-top shape.
I rely on the Nazi HOA. Periodically they come around and demand I weed, or paint, or power-wash something so I do it. I have no doubt that without them, the house would be falling down around me.
My family owns our house and it’s in pretty good condition – everything’s clean, and while the roof needs to be re-shingled, we’re having that done this month. (The leaks aren’t from neglect, it’s just an old house)
What. The. Fuck.
From 1989 to 1996 I rented a house; my landlady lived next door. She was usually short on funds, so we only asked her to pay for major stuff that needed attention - replacing the sump pump, or when the furnace went out. Other than that we took care of all the routine maintenance. In return, she charged us very cheap rent and never raised it in the seven years we lived there. Good renters are pure gold!
For home maintenance on a budget, it really helps to forge alliances with handy friends and neighbors for the tasks you can’t (or don’t want to) handle yourself. Being creative with finding used or free building materials through craigslist, Habitat for Humanity and so on helps too. I just had a 10 x 20 deck built on the back of my house…all the lumber was free on craigslist and a neighbor put it all together for under $500. Last year I paid the same neighbor about $450 to put up a very nice shed, with shelves and a new roof - the shed was $50 from Habitat for Humanity. Another neighbor mows my yard for way cheap. I’m a painting contractor by trade so I’ve done painting work for people I know for little more than cost in trade or part trade for services.
Also count me as another 
as to how a 20-year-old house would need to be bulldozed. That’s some serious neglect!
I have a 20-something year old tent. Other than a few applications of seam sealer over the years it hasn’t been particularly well cared for, but I could sell it today for close to what I paid for it.
My place is in need of some repair. I do what I can, even mowing, which is very hard for me because of the slope of our 2 acres, but my husband does not have the energy to do what he needs to do. He is depressed and it’s too hard to work in this heat.
So, we fuss and argue and I am on the verge of just hiring someone even without his approval. I’m pretty sick of looking at the hole in the lower decking. It’s fucking dangerous.
Grrr. Yes, this is a sore subject.
I rent. I keep the house (indoors and outdoors) clean and tidy, but contact the landlord about any maintenance/repairs needed. I think coming home to a messy/untidy house would be quite depressing.
Oh, and new wall to wall 3 years ago. I was asked to calculate our floor area. I did, and told her the answer in square feet. She was shocked by her calculated price and suggested I redo my math, which I did and got the same square footage. Yes, eventually I realized that the cost she was stating per square foot was actually per square yard but it took way too long.
I own and take care of things. Most of the stuff I do myself. I enjoy it. Oh, little stuff often goes overlooked, but we have a new two story addition, a new kitchen and main bathroom done in the last 5 years. New roof too. And I just spread 20 tons of gravel on the driveway (needs it about every three years).
I should have it paid off in less than 2 years. I’m looking forward to that!
I maintain a list of everything big and small that needs attention. The list is handy as anytime I go to the hardware store I can glance at the list. Some items need 10 min attention, some need 10 hours. Over the past 2 1/2 years since I started my list it has something like 240 items on it. All completed. My nature is to let things go so I need lists and systems inorder to stay on top of them. I do most everything myself besides roofing and painting. If I can’t do the paint in 1 day I hire it out.
The house itself we keep in good shape. The yard… well, the lawn stays mowed and the bushes trimmed but we never really do flower beds and all that. The driveway is a hot mess but, frankly, for the cost of replacing it I can’t see the point in doing so until it’s completely unworkable. It needs to be completely torn up and regraded and that’ll cost $5k now while it’s still drivable or $5k when it’s barely a driveway any longer. So I spray the weeds in it once a season and that’s about that. As long as the car can go back and forth on it, I’m not dropping thousands just to make it look pretty.
Our house was in bad shape when we bought ten years ago. We’ve replaced the roof, the water heater, the furnace, and installed molding and carpets as well as adding cabinetry to the kitchen. We removed the weird front porch that was too small and had the brick pointed, and repainted.
We got a full price offer a few days before the open house so we are going to start all over again.
Own and maintain. But in say 10 years screw it. No matter how much I put in it, or neglect it, my house is worth about X and that won’t change. I also don’t have any kids or anyone who will think of it as the “Old Homestead” and want to live in it. So once I’m sure the major issues will outlive me I’m done putting anything else into it.
Overall, the house is in better shape than when we bought it- renovated the kitchen, and had some exterior repainting and fix-it work done. We also had our foundation leveled, which has ended up causing as many problems as it solved. We also had 3 balky sliding glass doors replaced with insulated French doors with the blinds inside.
OTOH, there are things that need work- one toilet is installed off-center, a bathroom faucet is a little loose, and we have cracks in our tiles from the foundation repair. None of them is critical- everything works, but it just looks kind of cruddy. We’re talking about having the bathroom renovated which would cover the toilet, and I can replace the faucet in the other bathroom if I get motivated. We’re going to have the foundation guys out again (warranty) and after that, have the tiles fixed.
Relatively new homeowner (26 y/o, 2 years in home). Wife is moving from Canada but she’s not here yet. No plans to have kids, etc. My wife and I plan to hire out most things that will need done. I can bang in a nail, change mower oil, throw on a coat of paint, but anything beyond that is getting done by professionals.
I basically try and pay attention to the biggies. Roof, furnace, A/C, foundational cracks, leaks, etc. A loose sink faucet or bath faucet that drips when the shower is on is not even a blip on my radar.
I mow and trim the yard regularly. There are a few flowerbeds with perennials that are mostly surrounded by weeds. I’ll spray some weedkiller 2-3 times a season and call it a day. A few of the decorative beds need more white stones but I can’t be arsed.
We have a gutter helmet so things no need to clean them really (so far).
Basically I’d make myself sick if I bothered to worry about the little things.
We’ve lived in our house for 20 yrs and not only maintain, but improve it on a regular basis. There was a period of time where we weren’t sure what we were going to do with the back yard and it became a bit overrun with weeds, but nothing to call the authorities about.
Ours is neglected but it isn’t an eyesore. My mother couldn’t afford to do anything except basic repairs/replacements. We can’t afford to do anything except really basic things like replacing a screen door (which we did last month) or having an electrician replace our ancient circuit breaker which went klabooey when the neighborhood transformer went out a couple of weeks ago.
Partial list: We’ve got old water damage on one side of the house from the still-unusable bathroom on that side. Both the electrical and plumbing need to be brought up to code. Eventually we’ll need a new oil tank and burner, but for right now they’re OK. Ditto roof. Ditto deck, front stairs, and front door. We keep the lawn mowed and trim the bushes, but that’s it.
The house is in my name. I can’t afford any of this and I don’t have friends/family who are handy with any of this. I can’t burden myself with a loan, so…I guess we’re waiting until everything falls apart?
I worked in facilities maintenance for many years and know what can happen if you neglect or defer maintenance. So no, I don’t neglect my own home. I recently chastised one of my sons for letting his house accumulate repair issues.
I have let my home deteriorate to a great degree but it’s kind of a unique situation. My home is in the path of a major road project that has been going on for at least ten years. No one will ever buy or live in my home after me. At some point in the near future the gubmint is going to buy and demolish it. So I have kept it at the bare minimum for habitability.
On the other hand, I own another home that I will be moving to that I am working to rehabilitate because the previous occupant let it go.
We’ve been living in our new house for 3 years now. It’s over 100 years old and we not only do constant upkeep, but improvements too. Frankly, it’s kind of cool to learn how to do (and not do) things as we’ve been going along. How to replace just one glass block on a basement window. Sure, it probably could have been done in 30 minutes by a pro, but the 3.5 hours I spent doing it was…well, kinda crappy. We just finished having our kitchen remodeled professionally and installed a water feature that all of our neighbors love (nothing like being sweaty and dirty and exhausted then suddenly getting 20 questions on what’s happening right in front of their faces).
To me, what was interesting, is that we just did a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin. That house is two years older than ours but is in such disrepair for a maintained property that the differences are just glaring what craftsmanship is about.