For years I've been intermittently browsing a StarTribune blog entitled The Home Inspector, written by Reuben Saltzman to harvest information about ice dams, snow on the roof, and other home-ownership hassles. Saltzman is a home inspector, and he writes well, with excellent illustrations; see for example this masterful blog post about why you should have a house inspected even when buying a new home.
For the video above he compiled some of the most egregious home construction/maintenance/remodeling mistakes he found during the past year.
Home ownership is something that young couples jump into with little awareness of the complexities involved; I think most people have little or no relevant training or experience in even the necessary routine maintenance chores.
If you don't have time for the six-minute video, the content is displayed in this post with still photos and brief captions.
The biggest problem of home-ownership is getting qualified help fixing things. It's a jungle out there to get a decent contractor that will do what needs to be done without ripping you off. Too many contractors overcharge, make the job bigger than necessary, or refuse to come out for a little job.
ReplyDeleteMy tip: Stay friends with a decent realtor. They have dozens of contractors they can recommend. And as the contractors know future jobs depend on the quality of the work, they'll do a good job.