Your Money_ The Missing Manual - J. D. Roth [107]
Just as daily exercise and a sensible diet keep your body healthy and help you avoid costly medical bills, regular home maintenance keeps normal wear-and-tear from developing into problems, and problems from turning into emergencies.
As a rule of thumb, every year you should set aside about 1% of your home's purchase price for maintenance and repairs. So if you bought a $300,000 home, figure about $3,000 for annual upkeep. Of course, this is just a guideline—some years you'll spend much more, and some years you'll spend nothing at all.
When we bought our new house in 2004, the home inspector told us that for every dollar we spent on maintenance, we'd avoid roughly $100 in future repairs. He wrote in his inspection report, "In my experience as a professional home inspector, I have looked at hundreds of homes in all age ranges, and I have seen thousands of dollars of damage to homes that could have been avoided by spending $5 to $10 and just a few minutes of work."
If you make a point of doing as much maintenance as possible yourself, you'll save money and develop confidence and know-how. It can be intimidating at first, but with time, you can learn how to do most common household repairs. Here are some things I've learned over 15 years of playing handyman:
Don't panic. Stay calm and relaxed when making repairs. Rash actions can turn a small problem into a disaster.
Act quickly. Take care of problems as soon as possible. I once put off repairing a leaky roof. Can you guess how that turned out during a rainy Oregon winter?
Use a reference. Shelling out 20 bucks for a book like the Reader's Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual (2005) can save you thousands of dollars over the years. And the Internet is a great place to find answers to common home maintenance questions, including downloadable videos and PDFs; just make sure to get your info from reputable websites.
Work methodically. Be orderly. Follow instructions. Measure twice, cut once. When you take something apart, neatly set the pieces someplace safe (and label them if you don't think you'll be able to remember where they went). If you have a digital camera handy, take pictures of how things are assembled before you dismantle them.
Don't make assumptions. Some of the most frustrating—and dangerous—do-it-yourself experiences happen when you assume things. For example, don't assume the power is off before you replace a light fixture; test the wires before you touch them. Don't assume a pipe is a certain diameter; measure it before you drive to the hardware store.
Pay attention. You can never tell what piece of information might be important, so as you work, notice details. Are the electrical outlets you're replacing two pronged or three pronged? How big were the screws on that gizmo, anyhow?
Be safe. Some tasks are dangerous, and things like electricity and chainsaws can kill you. Which brings us to the next item in this list.
Know when to call an expert. Many nuisances around the home can be solved with patience, research, and elbow grease; don't be intimidated by replacing a light fixture or a garbage disposal. But be willing to call in a specialist for dangerous or complicated projects.
Tip
If you're interested in improving your DIY skills, take classes from your local community college or attend seminars at a home-improvement store.
Because routine maintenance is so vital, it can be helpful to draw up a checklist of annual chores. Here's one from the Mississippi State University Extension Service: http://tinyurl.com/MS-homelist. The National Center for Healthy Housing has a good list, too: http://tinyurl.com/NCHH-homelist. And for you old-school Internet fans, check out the Big List of Home Maintenance Tasks from alt.home.repair: http://tinyurl.com/USENET-homelist.
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