I am starting a new weekly series based on the maintenance of your house. This includes the home, as well as the items that require routine maintenance that are within your residence, I’ll call this household maintenance. Home Maintenance is essential not only for the preservation of your house, but to ensure that it is operating at maximum efficiency.

I have now had the privilege of owning three different houses, all with different maintenance needs as I lived in them. The house that I currently live in is by far the easiest to maintain, because it is the newest of all three. Many of the items in the home haven’t had time to wear down, wear out, or stop working.

But, what if you live in an older home? Older homes have a tendency to require more maintenance, mostly because they are old, not because of the lack of quality. The first house I owned was well-maintained, requiring minor repairs and fixes along the way. It was an easy house to maintain because someone had consistently followed through with all the little things as the house aged. I moved from this house because it was small (792 sq ft), and while well-maintained, didn’t fill the needs of our family.

The second house I owned and lived in the longest seemed like a good house. After living there for much less than a year, it was evident that the house had not been maintained over the years. There were many issues and small fixes that had to be done to the house that should have been done over the years to keep the house well maintained.

Our current house is about eleven years old, and while it is not showing evident signs of wear and tear, the maintenance is what keeps the house in good condition so that major repairs are avoided, or not required. Routine maintenance may seem costly at times, but avoiding the maintenance may result in more costlier repairs down the road.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 1:22 am and is filed under Frugal Home Ownership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.