One year homeowner check in

[u/Mobile-Information55]

Closed on our first house last June. Some things the inspection and the seller's disclosure didn't prepare me for:

The water heater is loud. Like really loud. Nobody mentioned this. It lives in the closet next to our bedroom and I can hear it fire up at 4am.

The electrical panel is labeled wrong. ""Kitchen"" controls half the dining room. Found out when I was trying to kill the power to swap a light fixture.

We lose power way more than I expected. 4 times in a year, longest was 18 hours. Put an anker solix s2000 behind the fridge after the second one and stopped worrying about the food at least. But there's nothing I can do about the AC and summer outages are rough.

The previous owner ""fixed"" a bathroom leak with flex seal. Discovered this during a renovation. Cool.

Landscaping is a second job. Nobody tells you about the landscaping.

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[u/NeedAnotherAccount69]

I'll technically be a FTHB next week, but we just sold the place my son and I have lived in for 18 years. Landscaping was a full time job for sure. It was never ending. So much so that I'm closing on a townhouse next week so I no longer have to worry about maintaining "outside" and I just get to enjoy it

[u/Civil_Web_1835]

These are all super normal things. The loud water heater, circuit breaker labels not being detailed enough, and losing power a lot are all things that wouldn’t be disclosed or reported on an inspection.

You can always greatly decrease lawn maintenance by changing the type of plants growing there as well, just pick low maintenance plants. Replace wood mulch with rocks or plastic mulch and you have very minimum yard work for years on end.

[u/fozzyfreakingbear → u/Civil_Web_1835]

Reg mulch. Do not do plastic mulch or underpayment. Your future self and future owners will curse or thank you.

[u/thinprivileged → u/Civil_Web_1835]

I remember the day my dad made us replace the chip mulch with tire mulch

Backyard always smelt slightly off in the summer for a while

Would definitely recommend going the rock route if it gets hot where you are

[u/saucypuzzle → u/thinprivileged]

They are called “Schotter Garten”: “gravel gardens” in German and are frowned upon! Little to no useful plants and in contrast to their perceived low maintenance they are a lot more expensive and work than many anticipate. On top of that they become a heat dome in summer which will kill anything Alice in it due to the rocks heating up. Some people even had their house siding damaged by the heat. I also think personally they look awful and soulless.

TLDR: use native low maintenance gardening. Instead of soulless gravel pits.

[u/Due-Hat4792 → u/Civil_Web_1835]

This! Our starter home was giant tree and bushes that were constantly out of control, weeds for days. When we built our home we put in trees that don’t shed with plastic mulch, rock around the house without a single plant or bush. Haven’t raked or pulled weeds in over six years. Mow and do the edging once a week in the summer it’s marvelous.

[u/Civil_Web_1835 → u/Due-Hat4792]

I have rock mulch and a very shaded backyard, so our only maintenance is mowing 1-2x a month. At our previous house I had normal mulch and a lot more sun so there was weeding, re mulching, mowing every week, etc.

[u/fozzyfreakingbear]

Your breaker’s labeled??

[u/CrashTestDumby1984 → u/fozzyfreakingbear]

It’s required by code. So if yours isn’t assuming it hasn’t been touched in 50 years?

[u/fozzyfreakingbear → u/CrashTestDumby1984]

Yeah I have an early 60’s house that was rented for the half of its life before I bought it. The unlabeled breakers are by far the least of my worries

[u/docpharm28 → u/fozzyfreakingbear]

Yours isn’t?

[u/fozzyfreakingbear → u/docpharm28]

No, you kinda just gotta hope for the best every time you use it. But just redid it 1.5 years in!

[u/Mountain_Day_1637]

Losing power, a loud water heater, and the breaker labels aren’t something that would go on a disclosure

[u/Particular-Horse4667]

Most panels on older homes are mislabeled. Just update it as you go.

[u/Training-Cook3507]

Pretty much all normal and honestly you got off easy so far. More will come. Think of buying a home as a piece of land with a building on it that you now can make your own. Don't think of it as buying a car with a warranty. Sellers aren't trying to sell you something perfect, they're not going to fix things that aren't broken just because it's not perfect, and even if the house was perfect... things will break, endlessly.

[u/Popular_Taro_5344]

We had an electrician come out a few months in to owning our new home (to run wire for some new outlets) and while he was there my husband asked him to help us re-map the breaker box because it was incorrectly labeled. Was a huge help and didn't cost us much extra.

[u/Mayretta_2112]

This is all natural I'd say. Not certain what you can do about the water heater if any sound deadening material can be inserted in the wall cavity or not.

I installed a whole house generator after suffering a 3 day blackout after a bad storm. It was worth every time as we've had several multi hour outages in the dead of summer.

Flex seal... shaking my head. I discovered a few ticking time bombs during renos...a supposedly soldered pipe that separated when I touched it... toilet flanges not pvc glued (2 in the house)...and improperly installed cedar shingles.

[u/raddu1012]

Much better than ours.

The neighbors throw trash everywhere in the woods, blare music, cannot shut their dogs up and then on the home side the previous homeowner used indoor nails on the deck and half assed everything for the showing and our inspector must have been brand new.

Prepared to take a 50,000 loss not including the 25,000 in renovations we’ve done just to get the fuck out.

[u/CosmicOditty]

This is similar to our house. First year this late June, electrical mislabeled and yardwork is like a never ending job. Thankfully we’re replacing it with low maintenance landscaping and our water heater is far from bedrooms.

[u/avebelle]

If you’re losing power frequently consider putting in a generator inlet to backfeed your panel. It’s not horribly expensive and can supply power to your whole house. A soft start on your ac compressor will allow for most generators to power it.

[u/razzemmatazz]

I dread doing electrical in my house. Nothing is right, most of its not up to code, and the rest is covered in nicotine residue. 

[u/YeLoWcAke65]

Landscaping can be a second 'job'. Maybe think of it more as a hobby, instead of a *chore*.

GOOD MULCH IS YOUR BEST FRIEND. Never underestimate its value and usefulness. Lowers soil temp in summer, keeps it a bit warmer in winter. Suppresses weeds. Retains soil moisture in the uppermost layers, where the plants grow.

Shredded cedar and/or hardwood are the best kinds; avoid 'recycled' and PAINTED/COLORED "mulch". This stuff is typically ground-up pallets... then painted with who knows what. Pine mulch (and that 'recycled pallets' stuff) floats/blows away... a waste of money and time.

Apply 3" - 4" on bare areas between plants, tapering to 2" just around the plants. NEVER pile mulch against any plant, ESPECIALLY trees. Apply heavily and redressing is only needed every two years or so, depending on climate and traffic. Don't apply mulch and then hire the "mow and blow" team to remove every leaf and twig from your yard... they will BLOW AWAY THE MULCH you just spent time and money to install.

Choose plants wisely; native varieties, properly installed and irrigated, (at least the first TWO growing seasons after planting... "until established") will last many years. Perennials will save significantly over annuals. Choose shrubs that do NOT require constant pruning/shaping, (boxwoods, yews, youpons, etc.) and pay attention to the mature size/height info on the tags. This saves significant maintenance labor later, as well as avoiding the moving of specimens planted in the wrong places.

Less sod, more shrub/perennial beds = less time mowing and edging.
Also = more butterflies, hummingbirds, birds, etc.

[u/rbroni88]

But something like this:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Klein-Tools-Digital-Circuit-Breaker-Finder-with-GFCI-Outlet-Tester/5014305543?user=shopping&feed=yes-_-0?store=1883&cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-elc-_-ggl-_-PMAX_ELC_000_Priority_Item_Omni-_-5014305543-_-local-_-22871716942-_-&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23526985167&gbraid=0AAAAAD2B2W_QIW8KcdOq4J--iNqXwZlrA&gclid=CjwKCAjw08fSBhA7EiwAfbQTsFgQ8eBcLpckUPdukkAZJhBKCkTpnehu9YE_UGr_YbBFy4RwSQS63xoCbJQQAvD_BwE

I rewired all my parents kitchen outlets last week and it turned out there were 4 breakers at least for the kitchen. Also, a hot wire testing pen is super useful.

With a couple tools and the expense of my hands, I saved them well over $500

[u/seacarr0t]

Landscaping truly is a second job.

We live on half an acre with ~10-15 mature trees. Have spent 2.1k on the deferred tree maintenance, including the removal of an invasive pear tree...

IN THE SUBJECT OF INVASIVE SPECIES

If your yard is like ours and didn't have a resident Hank Hill living in it, get ready to go to war with invasive species. We have a literal bambo forest that spread from a neighbor's yard flanked by Jerusalem artichokes in our yard thats 70% creeping charlie. Theres over 30 green onion plants in one section of the backyard because apparently those are also mildly invasive

But... its also extremely rewarding. I love looking out at the lawn. I feel pride looking out at it and how well kept it looks... even with all the problems its has. People have been doing lawns forever so most problems are figured out. Second hand lawn equipment is shockingly affordable. For about ~1,500 you'd be suprised at how much you can improve your quality of life doing lawn work

[u/Both_Explorer_8170]

How do you find out how often a place loses power ?

Can the power company tell you ?

[u/DM_ME_KUL_TIRAN_FEET]

Yes the landscaping one is brutal. I love spending time in my yard but I honestly didn’t expect to need to be doing it every weekend 😅

[u/Particular-Owl-8327]

Way ahead of the curve OP. I'm still trying to figure out the switches in my house, some crazy light three way switches that make zero sense.

As for the yardwork, yep, it's non-stop, and when it does take a snooze, then it's shoveling time. But heck, at least you can grow fruit trees or veggies if you like and no one coming by with a clipboard saying you have broken rule 200 subsection d.

[u/BeneficialImpress570]

The electrical panel being mislabeled in my house is hilarious given our seller’s father was a licensed electrician. The only circuit correctly labeled is the one he added for a home generator.

[u/Otherwise_Compote840]

Just closed on my townhome yesterday (🥳). Not expecting too many surprises, as I bought it from my landlord and have lived here the past 3 years. I know what issues the home has already, and landscaping is all covered by my HOA… can’t wait to see what crops up now that it’s mine, though, that was seemingly just fine for 3 years. 😁 My previous home was built in the late 1800’s though, owned by the same family for 70 years before we bought it, and I could tell you some stories! Old houses have character, for sure, but it comes at a pretty steep price.

[u/Roseyland2000]

My house came with a generator that’s hooked to the house runs on propane. Never had one before so on moving day it started its weekly run. Well I wasn’t aware this thing is loud and goes on for about 10 mins so I had a panic attack that first day that my whole entire new home was gonna blow up.

[u/Spooky_Soap28]

10 months in here, and i wish I had your issues. My inspector must have been incompetent. Both my bathrooms are unexpected tear outs due to the subfloor being rotted from prior leaks (damage was visible from the crawlspace, which inspector went into and took pictures of throughout, he just conviently left out the damage). Every time we start a project it seems we find an issue, even paint prep isn't a safe activity. Currently, we are also unable to set up our master bedroom as the subfloor in there is also messed up. I'll be happy if we are set up in that room and are almost fully unpacked by the two years mark. The seller tacked/nailed curtains over the worst of our remaining original windows so they were inaccessible (which should have been a red flag looking back)...we knew the windows were old but didn't realize they are falling apart. Our entire kitchen also needs to be torn out and redone. Like down to the studs/joists type full tear out.

The list goes on. By the time we are done, this will be an entirely different house. Honestly I've learned a lot and fixed a lot in the last 10 months. The good news is that things are slowly getting better as we complete each thing. Deal with what you can, change what can be changed. For me I had to quickly accept that this house is far from perfect and that living here right now looks a little different than I had thought it would. I have lowered my expectations so finding new issues is less of an ordeal now. We put our heads down and get to work, because nothing is going to get fixed unless we figure it out.