Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The 5 Scariest Things We’ve Experienced as Homeowners (So Far)
This week is Halloween! It will actually be our second as homeowners and, if last year is anything to go by, we can expect at least a handful of trick-or-treaters (after having none at our apartment). But that’s not really what I wanted to talk about. Instead, I thought I’d take this thematic opportunity to discuss some of the scary things — in all senses of the term — we’ve experienced since buying our house. So, here they are in no particular order.
Top 5 Scary Homeowner Experiences
Storm-Damaged Tree
This one wasn’t just scary from a monetary or anxiety standpoint. Instead, it was legitimately dangerous (or could have been).
Earlier this year, a significant storm blew through our area, with wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour! During this event, a sizeable branch from our tree fell onto our deck, which also made a concerning loud noise. I heard said noise from the basement. Looking out my window, I realized that this storm was more intense than I was used to.
When it passed, we were pleased to find that there really wasn’t much damage — and, most importantly, no one was hurt. Our gutters did get dented a bit, but we need new ones anyway. For what it’s worth, another wind storm came through a few weeks later and downed our neighbor’s small tree into our yard, but again, that was about it.
All in all, even if autumn may be the spooky season, I suspect that I’ll actually find springtime to be the scariest part of the year for me.
A Mysterious Leak
Speaking of storms, we’ve found a peculiar issue we’re still too afraid to actually investigate further. We’ve noticed that, if it rains really, really hard for a long period of time, a drip will present itself on our living room ceiling fan and fall onto the floor. Mind you, we’re not talking about a lot of water dripping, but it is enough to notice. What’s more, the path beyond the fan is hard to track.
I’m sure someone is reading this and is aghast that we haven’t sought to rectify this yet. But, in our defense, it’s so infrequent and tame that it just hasn’t been a priority for us. Still, I am perplexed by the whole thing.
The Broken Water Heater
I previously wrote about how the first major repair we had to make after buying our home was a new water heater. That unexpected expense was chilling, to be sure. Although the truth is that it could have been much worse.
Our water heater is located in a small closet inside of our garage. In turn, when it started to leak, we just had a mini, slow-moving river down our driveway. I shudder to think about how things would have been different if it were in, say, our basement instead.
Since this repair, we have had to replace a few other items. Still, the damage this broken item could have caused makes it particularly frightening and, thus, worthy of inclusion on my list.
Those Darn Kids
On this past Independence Day, we looked outside to find that some kids had made their way onto our lawn at 1 a.m. and were attempting to light fireworks. I already find fireworks to be quite a nuisance outside of reasonable hours — but throwing them across an area with power lines and dry vegetation just seems extremely stupid on top of it. Also, before you ask, these weren’t even neighbors that happened to wander a bit too far. No, these were teens who, for whatever reason, took their antics from the nearby parking lot into our yard (which isn’t even that easy to access).
Unlike the My Chemical Romance song declares, I’m not actually scared of teenagers. However, I was worried about them causing actual damage or things escalating from there. More than anything, though, I was just pissed.
By the way, especially with Halloween falling on a Friday this year, I am on alert for more dumbasses to come to our area. However, since July, a monitored security camera has been added to the business’s parking lot, which should hopefully deter any would-be miscreants.
Bugs and snakes
Finally, perfectly fitting the spooky topic at hand, we have encountered a few creepy crawlies in our house since moving in. And while I can’t say we never saw any bugs or spiders in our apartment, it makes perfect sense that an abode with far more exterior-facing space would see a higher rate of intruding pests (and, no, I’m not talking about those teenagers again). I don’t like bugs so this has been an unfortunate side effect of home ownership, but thankfully, we haven’t seen any full-blown infestations or damage done by these insects/arachnids.
However, something we never saw in our apartment-dwelling days were snakes. Alas, I can’t say the same here as my wife happened to spot a small one in our backyard a couple of weeks ago. As for me, prior to her interaction, I saw what I thought was snake skin, but I wasn’t 100% convinced it wasn’t just crinkly plastic. In any case, we did Google it and it seems to be a harmless species. Still, if they could keep their distance, I’d personally appreciate it.
Yes, being a homeowner can bring some scary moments. From frighteningly expensive repairs to the dangers of Mother Nature, it can be a lot at times. Having said that, though, we do continue to enjoy our house overall.
With that, have a happy and safe Halloween!
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