The Pleasures – and Perils – of Maintenance-Free Living

Dec 12, 2017 Examiner Media

By Bill Primavera

For many years, I lived in a high-maintenance house, as high-maintenance as it could be: an old – really old – early 18^th century colonial, built in 1734, with very few modern updates when I bought it.

In fact, there was still an outhouse on the property when we moved in. I’m really not sure how long it had been since indoor plumbing had been installed, but the waste pipe was held up in the basement by wire hangers, which collapsed our first week in the house.

When I purchased that house, I wasn’t a realtor. Today, I know that home purchases are, to a certain degree, an emotional transaction. But for most normal people, it’s only partially emotional. In the case of my wife and me with that house, it was emotions. We fell in love with its look and history at first sight, and didn’t even ask for an inspection by an engineer. We had been lucky with the purchase of our first house in Brooklyn Heights, which had been beautifully restored by its former owner and there were no issues. Naïve as we were, we walked into our second purchase with the same expectations. It was like lambs going to the slaughter.

When our furniture arrived, the movers hit an overhead chandelier with one of the large pieces, causing a short in the electrical system and the whole house went dark. Our first night in the house, we had a huge rainstorm and the roof leaked, so right away, we had to upgrade the electricity and replace the roof with our first equity loan.

The list of defects went on and on, requiring many upgrades that we did slowly but surely over the years. The boiler, for instance, which had originally burned coal and was later converted to oil (but was covered with a mixture of asbestos and cement) was next to be replaced. Just having it removed from the house was a major project.

The exterior needed to be painted and the windows, not being insulated, needed storm windows installed each fall and taken down each summer while air conditioners were lugged down from the attic and placed on the window sills.

Inside, I did all the painting, wallpapering and decorating. Outdoors, I mowed the lawn and tended the garden, not having the money for contracted services to handle the chores.

But there were advantages to all the maintenance work – it was my exercise program! I was never in better shape than when I did my own yard work from all the bending, lifting, digging and carting. Inside, all the physical activity related to getting up and down on ladders and climbing the stairs from the attic to the basement kept me on the move all the time.

During those years of high-energy activity, I sometimes fantasized about the day when I might live in a maintenance-free situation or I might be able to outsource the work. Slowly, as I got busier and had more income, I was able to outsource some, but not all the chores.

Finally, three years ago, I sold the house and moved into a condo building where, literally, there is no maintenance burden whatsoever on my part. The landscaping is done by an excellent outdoor crew. Inside, everything is new and maintenance-free. Am I deliriously happy? Yes and no.

The perils of maintenance-free living are that I must be lacking in Vitamin D in that I rarely get outdoors for my fair share of sun. Now it is an indirect route to the great outdoors; instead of just swinging open the back door, I must traipse down a long hallway, into and out of an elevator and through a lobby. But now I must be decently groomed and clothed to pass the concierge desk without embarrassing myself as the unkempt person I sometimes was when I sauntered out of my single-family house and stumbled down the driveway half asleep, sometimes still in my pajamas, to pick up the morning papers.

When I exercise now, it is in a beautiful gym. But then, I must be motivated to enter its portals. When my exercise came from lawn and garden work, it was the prospect of being embarrassed if my property didn’t look its best.

Should I have been more careful about what I wished for? Not necessarily. I accepted a long time ago that when it comes to home living, everything is where it’s supposed to be at each stage of our lives.

While Bill Primavera has enjoyed a career as a publicist, he is now a Realtor® associated with William Raveis Real Estate, specializing in upper Westchester and Putnam Counties. To engage the services of The Home Guru to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.