Home Ownership Year 1

Hayley and I are nearing our 1-year anniversary of buying our condo and I’ve been reflecting on everything I’ve learned over the course of that first year. Everything from failed projects to stunning victories, and there’s been plenty of both. So it’s time to start sharing some of those, probably over a few posts so none get too long. We’ll see. My short attention span might kill it after just 1.

Now that I have an actual yard (front AND back), I have a new appreciation for what goes into growing a nice carpet of green grass. As in, I haven’t quite gotten there even after all of my work to date. I’m far from a yard pro and didn’t really know anything about growing a decent yard when I started. And the former owner didn’t do me any favors by letting the entire front yard become nothing but crabgrass and the backyard become very thin and patchy (with a good dose of crabgrass). I have managed to significantly improve the backyard with constant re-seeding and watering, but resigned to just re-starting in the front. I raked out all of last year’s dead crabgrass, turned over the soil, and started from scratch. Now I’ve got a patchy collection of grass going up there, but at least it’s a start. It’ll probably be another year or 2 before it’s filled out and ready to battle weeds on its own. The back yard is slowly but surely getting better. There are still quite a few thing spots, but those are filling in little by little. I still need to rake out some dead weeds from last year to give the new grass a better shot at growing. Poor seeds can’t see any sun! And of course I spend lots of time pulling new weeds. Until the grass thickens up a bunch more it won’t be able to choke out weeds before they can get a foot-hold. But that gives me a great excuse to go outside and play in the grass on a sunny weekend afternoon. And I just scored a free electric lawnmower! Thanks again, FreeCycle Watertown! So now the taller weeds that could evade the “reel mower” don’t stand a chance. That means I’m much better equipped to prevent this year’s crop of crabgrass from going to seed.

The biggest thing I’ve learned is that every project takes at least twice as long as I/we think it will. Some of that is due to inexperience-driven estimation problems. Some is due to my still-growing pool of tools and skills. Growing up my dad instilled in me pretty much everything I needed, tool and knowledge, to tackle minor repair jobs and basic things. How to properly use pretty much any tool, painting, drywall repair, etc. But being able to apply those basic skills as a part of a much larger job is trickier. And many of those skills are a bit rusty from not needing them in years, or even decades. So while I know how to do various things, it takes longer than normal because I haven’t done it in so long. However, a very important factor I’ve picked up is that spending a little extra time planning and thinking beforehand pays of in triplicate later. Sometimes it’s hard to go slow and it seems like you’d be better off doing instead of planning, but you never regret that later. I learned that when my dad helped with the dishwasher install, and applied that with the hardwood floor install. Being very diligent about cutting and planning each row of flooring definitely paid off in the end. And it came in handy last weekend when I installed the water line to the fridge for the ice maker/filtered water output. No leaks, no mistakes, no extra holes in the floor, no busted pipes, nothing. Just clean, cold water and ice comin’ out the front of the fridge.

So until a possible next time….done and done.