After you buy a house, how much time did you spend on it

What I mean is after you buy a house, how much time did you spend decorating, renovating, landscaping, etc. We've always been renters but are so ready to be homeowners, in part because we're incredibly excited to decorate, landscape, renovate, pick out tiles and curtains, etc. But I would imagine all this takes up a lot of time. Once you're a homeowner, does all this become your main extra-curricular activity? I imagine that simply decorating a new house would take months, if not a year or more. And furnishing the whole place! Do you basically spend every weekend on house-related projects for many months/years?

When DH and I moved into our current place, which is twice the size of our old place, it took us about 2 months to decorate and find more furniture for it, and this is only a 2-bedroom apartment, which we couldn't paint or hang curtains in. I imagine furnishing and decorating a whole house is a huge (but fun) time committment.

I'm also wondering about the financial commitment to decorating, renovating, etc. I've been reading a lot about real estate, and we don't want to be "house poor" and then end up with nothing left over to decorate and furnish it. Did you take this into account when deciding how much house you could afford? For us, we're planning to move to a cheaper area to settle down in, because we don't want to end up house poor, which is what would happen in this area, since the real estate prices are still outrageous.

[poky]

We definitely bought on the lower end of what we could afford; didn't want to stretch ourselves, and that got us plenty of house, with plenty of room for upgrading (nothing had been redone except the wall colors and the carpet since the late 70's).

I think in the first year all we did was replace all the fugly light fixtures. When the hot water heater leaked all over the lower level of the house, we replaced all the flooring in that area. We peeled off most of the ugly wallpaper, but didn't do anything with the walls under it (yet). When the water line to the fridge leaked into the insulation in the crawlspace and wicked up into the bottom two feet of the walls between the kitchen and living room, we decided we had to paint (anybody see a pattern here?)....but it still took us over a year to decide on a color for the living room. And now, we're moving out in 2 months, so we're rushing to at least get things livable (mostly lots and lots of new paint and trim).

So, I guess the answer is, it can take as much or as little of your time and money as you'd like it to.

We're probably on the extreme "lazy and decorating challenged" end of the spectrum, though.

[migirl]

So, I guess the answer is, it can take as much or as little of your time and money as you'd like it to.

I agree. Each situation is so different, depending on the condition of the home when you purchase, the existing decor, how much yard you have, etc. Our house was in pretty good shape when we moved in, the first few months we repainted every single room but that was really about it. Over the last few years we've done a few little projects here and there (e.g., basement bathroom redo, backyard landscaping) but nothing that takes more than a couple of days at a time. Yard work probably takes up the bulk of our time, but even that's not more than a few hours per week.

One thing we've learned since becoming homeowners is that you're never really "done". It seems like there's always something else you'd like to do or change, but time/money becomes the constraint.

Its been six year and the house is in constant change. I like to decorate and redo like I change clothes seasonally.

[SuzySunshine]

I agree it takes as much time as you'd like it to. When we first moved in we did minor touch ups like removing wallpaper borders, after almost a year we completed re-did the master bath except for the floor, last summer we spent an entire week tiling in the whole house. This summer we will have someone spend three days to replace the carpet and someone else will spend a week painting the outside.

We haven't put a lot of money into this house but the money we have put into this house are in upgrades that will matter when we sale it in 4 years.

The landscaping that was also already here is low maintenance, all I have to do is trim the old stuff every spring and it grows back. We have a bush that will probably have to come out in the next year but we've done very little otherwise other then the maintenance of mowing.

[DCJenn]

It depends entirely on the house. The last two required new kitchens. This one required a new HVAC. Once you put out that kind of money, the decorating goes to the back burner for a while. Next for me is interior and exterior painting, both of which will require professionals.

Jenn

[Vishenka69]

It really depends on a house. I believe Flynn's came with everything.

[Rapunzel]

It really does depend on the house.

The house we have is not the normal, cookie-cutter style of houses you see thrown up everywhere nowdays. It's architecturally quite lovely and the architect really did a great job designing it so it doesn't need a lot of decorating. In other words, the decorating for this house is kind of "built-in". There's not a lot of empty wall space - any wall space serves a purpose for the most part. And, the owners before us worked with the architect to find an interior designer who selected paints for the interior that are really perfect. There's no need to change the colors - the combine well with the extensive limestone and woodwork in the house as well as the dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows throughout (the view is really our artwork).

Contrast this with our last house (rental in Boston) which needed MAJOR rehab. I drove myself crazy trying to get it to look nice. The floors, the walls, the ceilings - you name it I altered it! I spent about three years working on that place and, when I left, it STILL wasn't up to snuff.

With our current house - it took all of maybe six weeks to have it look perfect. Now, that doesn't mean we're completely finished. We have plans to add an addition on one side that would increase the square footage by about 1400 sq.ft. (and add a three car garage and an outside covered living area). We also will probably spend about a year or two on landscaping once we return from fellowship. But, even with those changes the house itself - as it now stands - is *finished*. I'm honestly VERY thankful for how quickly it all came together.

[Flynn]

It really depends on a house. I believe Flynn's came with everything.

Post training is SOOOO different from training for us.

We've spent a lot of time an energy (money too) on this house.
It's a celebration of being done and having a comfy space to be a family.

[Phoebe]

It seems like we do things in stages, but there is always something going on even if it is something small like hanging a picture. We have done some big things like finish our basement, have landscaping done.

There is usually home upkeep like lawn maintenance, etc. This spring we mulched and planted a few plants. I will add some flowers soon. This year with our tax return we have doing a lot. We have to replace our hot water heater before it leaks like most of our neighbors. We are having our deck and fence restained this spring (currently getting estimates), changing all our brass hardware and fixtures out to satin nickel, painting our family room and half bath. We recently had a faux finish done in our kitchen and added some cabinets into our laundry room.

Our dining room is still empty and we have several other items on our wish list for years to come. However, there are stretchs where we don't do anything.