If You Do Your Own Home Maintenance, Do You Adjust For Your Age?

Discussion in 'Home Improvement' started by Ken Anderson, May 28, 2021.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I went to welding school and was, once, a certified welder, at the lowest level. At night, working the graveyard shift, I welded every piece of metal I could find in the scrap metal bin while practicing.
     
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  2. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    If you did get a machine it would probably be like riding a bike for you. As for me, I’m still at the tricycle with bent rims level.
    Wire speed and heat levels are a problem for me but then again, it’s just not something I have a lot of practice doing. It’s like everything else I guess: There are no quick roads to perfection.
     
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  3. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Hubby still has his welder but seldom uses it anymore.

    We really need to downsize around here.
     
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  4. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    If it goes bang, pop, whir, brum-brum or cuts, shaves, is basically dangerous and has knobs and switches especially shiny knobs and switches, no man would dare let that go!
    Some men would give up spare body parts than let all that wonder get away!
     
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  5. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    LOL probably right but I can try.
     
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  6. Teresa Levitt

    Teresa Levitt Veteran Member
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    our bodies and pocketbooks will make all these decisions for us....
    ain't gonna need this house much longer
    i 'm a gettin ready to meet the saints
     
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  7. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    No but may need some of its contents. just want to get rid of things we won't be needing or using again. Like some furniture ,auto parts, canners , jars since we can't find good Ball or Mason lids now.Bikeswe don't ride, just household items aand stuff sitting around.
     
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  8. James Hintze

    James Hintze Very Well-Known Member
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    I think I've written about this before, but wife and I have a 4 figured number of books in our small abode. None of them are less than 30 years old. Wife is a voracious reader, but makes a weekly trip to the very good county library. I read quite a bit, but mine is old stuff, most of which is available on the internet. I even re-read stuff in my collection because I have a hard time with the small print. Many of the books are technical dealing with my research and teaching, and they are dated. They are all available on the internet. Why don't I get rid of at least some of my collection? I don't, because it makes me feel good just knowing they are there. I also have some tools that I'll never use. Same feeling.
     
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  9. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    I don't like clutter but hubby likes to save things and sometimes it has came in handy.he'd say ' see I told you we would need it someday'lol.
     
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  10. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I save things like old cords and attachments, and it's true that whenever I do decide to toss a bunch of stuff that I can't imagine needing anymore, I'll need it, and then I'll be on eBay or Amazon trying to find a cord or whatever.
     
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  11. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Thats usually the way it goes. We still need to do some serious downsizing here though.
     
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  12. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    Yes, I do and have to. There are things that I contemplate on whether to hire a professional or not and usually I go to Youtube to see if I am able or even want to do it. If I can come up with an alternate solution I'll do it first and see how it goes. My oldest son now helps me with the more strenuous jobs since Johnny is unable to. Which is a good thing he may choose to live in this house one day. Today we did patch work on stucco areas around the house.
     
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  13. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    There are times when I wished I didn’t do my own maintenance but alas, I do it anyway.
    Here is an example of what I am presently facing at one of the rental houses.

    Here’s a room I renovated once before and this is how it looked when I was finished: yeah, it’s sideways.
    Just noticed that the before and after pics aren’t the same room but it doesn’t matter. The whole house was beautiful and now it’s totally trashed. It’ll take me at least 2 months to get it back the way it was.

    bobbypic.jpg

    After the renters left:
    0E1A30DE-7A91-4C34-B12B-893746F81C96.jpeg

    -- not sideways anymore -- Ken
     
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    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 2, 2021
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  14. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    When I was in between corporate jobs (and still had a mortgage to pay), I cleaned up rental units in between tenants. It is a side of "humanity" I hope to never encounter again. Exactly who dumps used diapers in the middle of the living room floor and heaps 2 feet of trash on top????? (I can answer that question.)

    My mother purchased the house next door to the one we grew up in (and that she was still living in) and rented it out. She rented to "a nice looking couple." There was no laundry room, and the woman wanted a washer & dryer in the place. So the guy literally drilled 3 holes through the exterior walls and ran water supplied and a drain out the side of the house, down to the basement window, broke the glass in the basement window, ran the pipes through and plumber them in. When you looked at that side of the house there was plumbing running down the outside and into the basement!!!!

    I got other stories (like housing a special needs sibling in an attic with an active bat and squirrel infestation.) So do you. It's not so much the physical labor as it is the emotional drain of why the labor is required in the first place. At some point it gets to "Under advice of counsel, I invoke my rights under the 5th Amendment of the Constitution..." You are to be commended for not doing that which should be done. I'd acquit...or at least I'd nullify.
     
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  15. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    Renter stories!!!! My best renter left the place infested with fleas because his dog was dying and...
    But I found a great handyman a few years ago. He has back problems so can't work a normal job. Sometimes he can handle his pain and sometimes he can;t come to work but he is fast and efficient and great with machinery. Today he calked two bathrooms and kitchen sink and fixed two lawn mowers. My daughter helps a lot with the thought of renting the farm, come March.
    I might have to clean my house after all as that will be all I will have to do if she does.
    I am working on some new exercises to get me back in form. I can still do stuff but very slowly.
     
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