Someone please save me from this money pit! I knew my old house needed work when I bought it, but I also paid less than market price in exchange. A similar house had sold just a month prior for $25,000 more, making my place seem like a relative bargain. But fast forward several years and all of our houses are worth much less than we paid for them. It’s bad enough being underwater, now I have to shell out tens of thousands of dollars just to keep the place inhabitable.
The plumbers showed up promptly Wednesday morning to start the repipe job, but not an hour later I got a call – trouble. Apparently the drain lines are not in great shape, one is leaking and the entire system should be replaced. Additional damage - $3100 plus another day of work and disruption. I don’t have the money in our house repair fund so it will have to come out of savings. The grand total for the plumbing work - $7000.
Next week the electrical contractor will get started. We are having a new 200 amp service and main panel installed along with completely re-wiring the house. My tiny house has 4 separate breaker boxes, yet is only 1 circuit? It will be simpler to start over rather than try to puzzle out what is going on with the current system.
We are also bringing the electrical system up to code, which means adding additional outlets. As if that were not enough, we will also add additional lighting to both the interior and exterior of the house. For example our back stairs are currently a death trap after dark, we need some lighting back there. The front porch light fixture doesn’t work, neither does one of the bathroom fixtures. I estimate we will spend at least $1000 on new light fixtures in addition to the wiring work. The contractor’s estimate, not including fixtures, currently stands at $5200. Hopefully that job doesn’t grow in scope like the plumbing did. I don’t have enough saved for the electrical work as it is, like the additional plumbing I will have to dip into our savings to cover the cost. On the plus side, it will be no problem earning that bonus on our new credit card!
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4 comments:
Holy cow that is a lot of work to get done.
At least you have savings. It isn't so awful, right? :)
That is some shocker of house maintenance you're going through. Hopefully it will all pay off in having a good working home. If you stay in the house long enough, you'll probably recoup your expense. Is any of it a tax deduction? Maybe.
Oy vey! This is the kind of stuff new homeowners should read about. Housing costs don't end at PITI. Thanks for the education. Although you may dip into savings, at least you're not going into debt to pay for these repairs.
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