I am a proud owner of a brand new home. I am in love with it. It's cute the yard is perfect. It is old and lived in hard. And we couldn't afford really nice. Pretty much everything we looked at had some serious issues so we chose the one we loved the most and the one we felt we could handle the issues. I have lots of questions so I will be here a lot.
I have a very basic knowledge of tools and carpentry but very little knowledge about how to apply that to a home ownership. So my first question is can you recommend books, websites, other lemmy communities that are also good resources?
And my second is how do you prioritize your home projects when under budget constraints and they are of equal importance or unimportance?
Last question (for now) how do you deal with the overwhelm/frustrations of previous owner issues or poor workmanship? (I still love it. It's ours and I love it but we are picking up on stuff that we didn't know about ex the neighbor told us there is a sinkhole under our driveway and it had already been repaired but poorly or the fact that we didn't see it empty until after close and it's obvious their pets handled the moving process poorly and have urinated in every room with carpet)
I'm a fan of lists for this type of thing. Include how many hours of work and cost today and the costs and time if you skip it for a couple years. As in peeling exterior paint is cheap today, but if not addressed, you're replacing boards for much more time and cost.
They were trying their best to keep it in decent shape. Just as you will do the same.
There is a product called "Nature's Miracle". It has an enzyme that removes urine smell from carpet. It's sold at pet stores or online. Get the gallon size to start.
natures miracle is a godsend but it if made it through carpet to the subfloor you’re generally fucked unless you absolutely soak the flooring in it.
If you have hard floors, much better luck and a good mopping is enough.
Good luck OP
Yeah, we had a cat who we found was frequently peeing in a somewhat hidden corner of carpet. Upon further investigation, the subfloor has to be replaced for that corner as it was so deteriorated.
I hope that's not the case here. It didn't smell like urine when we toured but they were still living here and some of the spots I am seeing are where furniture was covering. It smelled strong when we did the final walkthrough so I am hoping it didn't soak into the subfloor and was just more recent accidents from stress.
Ah I didn't think of the time cost on stuff. Uff da. I think my list is going to get very long very quick but you make very good points.
And I had no idea nature's miracle came in a gallon! Good stuff and good to know.