[konanoileaski]

I don't own a home but... try Xeriscaping? Doesn't look boring like a lawn and you spend less on water.

[zabiqapara]

Lawn care service

Perhaps I'm too cheap...

[tipokot]

Two words.

Rock Gardens.

[sbgctsa]

Hmmm... Rock gardens... Are there plants in rock gardens? (Other than those in arid places.)

I think the Japanese are into those.

[SHaEFU0i]

buy a modern house. ideally you're the first owner. otherwise you get the skeletons in the closet from the previous owner.

My experience (in Australia) has been the opposite of this. A 40 year old house is likely to have had any serious faults that were going to arise arise and been dealt with (or not, and be obvious) while a new house has yet to go through that process. Also, and again this is the Australian perspective, tradesmen are much more rushed and less skilled than they were 40 years ago. I see a lot of quite young houses falling to pieces because of poor workmanship.

Quite apart from those issues, a premium is paid for a new house, which depreciates, while an older house has already done its depreciation so you're going to get much better overall capital gain from an older house.

[marketheal]

My experience (in Australia) has been the opposite of this. A 40 year old house is likely to have had any serious faults that were going to arise arise and been dealt with (or not, and be obvious) while a new house has yet to go through that process. Also, and again this is the Australian perspective, tradesmen are much more rushed and less skilled than they were 40 years ago. I see a lot of quite young houses falling to pieces because of poor workmanship.

Quite apart from those issues, a premium is paid for a new house, which depreciates, while an older house has already done its depreciation so you're going to get much better overall capital gain from an older house.

Agreed. Except here, there's little depreciation from a new house. Size and location drive the price, age is relatively irrelevant.

My house is ~ 100 years old. Mostly fine.

[prmwsinfo]

100 year old houses in the UK are a lot better than the new ones

[Buincchotourbss]

Hmmm... Rock gardens... Are there plants in rock gardens? (Other than those in arid places.)

I think the Japanese are into those.

There are japanese-style rock gardens but you dont have to be that esoteric.

[CHEAPPoem]

I bought a house that was, at the time, 6 years old. That meant it was pretty new and thus didn't need expensive upgrades but was old enough to have shaken out any new house issues (for instance, foundation settling/cracking, which the 1st owner had repaired). This is good, because I'm nearly hopeless with tools (I've improved from totally hopeless). My method of dealing with repair work is to start calling contractors for bids on the work. It's nice to have a civil engineer for a father-in-law, though See if you can swing that!

I can't comment much on low-maintanence lawn care - I have a big lawn and a rider mower. It is what it is. I'm happy to let the forest encroach and reduce the lawn, but I've taken no active steps to reduce the lawn myself. I let the lawn grow as it will. I have a friend who waged war with crabgrass. I won't. It's grass. It's green. Whatever. I don't water it or fertilize it.

-Arrian

[pedFlicle]

Wildflower meadow.

[dumadegg]

By the way, why do the English carpet their bathrooms?? It's ridiculous. When I complained about this to my landlords, one poured concrete on top of the carpet, the other landlord just looked at me as if I was nuts.

[chppjdf]

That's still miles ahead of my experiences with old UK houses. No proper isolation, noisy, wooden floors. Worst case was a house with a 13th century foundation, on the beach. Nice views, but when the tide came up all the woodlice would crawl up in order not to drown in the floorboards...

Yeah... there is a slight difference between 100 years and 800 years old...

[genna]

I can't comment much on low-maintanence lawn care - I have a big lawn and a rider mower. It is what it is. I'm happy to let the forest encroach and reduce the lawn, but I've taken no active steps to reduce the lawn myself. I let the lawn grow as it will. I have a friend who waged war with crabgrass. I won't. It's grass. It's green. Whatever. I don't water it or fertilize it.

-Arrian

Many things are like this. There is a core of maintanence that you will have to do, but that isn't that much. If you want things to look "perfect" or do a lot of upgrades your time investment will go up accordingly.

You don't specify your situation, but in many cases the extra work is not chosen by you, but it must be done by you.

[11Pecepebra]

They are only weeds if you regard them as such.

I prefer the term, "welcomed native flora".

and the 74 gremlin on cinder blocks in the front yard is an "American Motors provided Nature Preserve".

[cindygirl]

Work really hard for a month, get everything in shape, and take pictures of your perfect lawn. Post it to all your social networking sites and put it as a background on all your computers. Never invite anyone over to the house. Then just pretend that's how it really is from then on

[Aqgkvwzm]

with the isolation as it is, imagine what it would be like if they did not carpet everything... bloody freezing igloo

[bredkumanfirst]

The only thing I actually put effort into is our vegetable garden. There's a payoff there: food. Tomatoes, mostly, but also basil, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, strawberries and asparagus (not much though, this is only year 3).

Well, I did recently do battle with underbrush (small trees and a TON of prickers) in the forested-but-within-the-fenceline area out back. I love that area, because the dogs can do their business there, not in the lawn itself. They're pretty good about that. By "doing battle" I mean going out there with clippers and spending ~2 hours laying waste (note: not timed. Betcha it was 1 hour). That's battle for me, after which I have clearly earned the right to drink tasty beer.

-Arrian

[Yswxomvy]

You mean laying pipe?

[u8MmZFmF]

You mean laying pipe?

I'm the bawdy butcher, give you dick by the pound.

[occalmnab]

When I complained about this to my landlords, one poured concrete on top of the carpet

Ah, that's my kind of DIY.