Money for Upkeep
Today’s post does not have a very sexy topic, but home renovation is more often boring and tedious than you would be led to believe by all of the beautiful rooms on Pinterest. I am not sure how so many blogs are able to regularly show such stunning before and after pictures.
This post is all about preventing damage when possible. Thus my second quote for quote challenge is… “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” – Benjamin Franklin.
It has been my experience that owning a home means spending a lot of time and money on things that no one will ever notice. For example, last week we spent $400 to seal our driveway. Does it look amazing? Not quite. It looks exactly as it did the day before.
I did get to take a picture of the southern side of our house. Normally our tenant’s motorcycle is sitting there, and I rarely photograph this angle. This will be a good semi-before shot for my mosaic project.
Speaking of the mosaic, that was another item that took up time if not money without much to show for it. The final step for this portion of the project was to seal the grout. I did that the other day, but you would never know that anything had changed.
I’m sorry that I do not have a more exciting post for you today, but I think that it is important to acknowledge that home renovation is not always dramatic or flashy. I will have something more interesting for you on Friday.
It is also my plan to add a couple of pictures to these fore-scheduled posts of our trip to Costa Rica. I am not sure how successful I will be since we will be in a remote area with little access to the internet, but I promise to do my best.
Reminder: This post was written earlier and scheduled to post today. I am in Costa Rica and will not have regular access to the internet. Please, DO leave comments but understand that I will not be able to respond to them immediately. Also, feel free to extend your condolences to Douglas, Kahlua and Crème, who have been left behind to guard the fort while I am away.
Happy Homemaking!
I am a teacher, traveler, artist, writer, homemaker and a whole lot more. In January 2009, I bought the Cape of Dreams. It was the second house that I had ever owned, but it was the first that I bought by myself. I now live in the house with my husband Douglas, our dog Kahlua, and Crème de Menthe, the cat. Because, what life is complete without a little Kahlua and Cream? I love arts and crafts of all kinds, and I refinish furniture as well. We are slowly redoing our entire house. You can read about my projects on my blog www.CapeofDreams.com
Money spent on invisible but necessary systems (like digging up our drain field to prove it wouldn’t interfere with the new addition)is no fun, no fun at all. I like spending money on flashy items like tile and fixtures and lights, not so much on labor but since I’m not very handy and have limited stamina we’ve spent mucho dinero on hiring the help we need. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
No fun, but necessary. At least we still have the creative projects to keep us interested.
Ugh–this reminds me of the thousands of dollars I spent last winter on our stinky sewage leak!! Yes, the glamor side of home ownership! But your driveway looks very smooth and … amazing! 🙂
Ugh! That sounds awful! We had a sewage leak in our basement a couple of years ago, and those are the worst.
so much of home ownership is unglamorous. and costly! but it all helps keep the value up, so it’s good, right? your driveway looks great!
Paying for maintenance is always preferable to fixing something that has gone disastrously wrong. I guess I cannot complain too much.