Joys of Home Ownership

Owning a house can bring you much joy. Owning a house can give you a headache. Owning more than one house, what can I say? It can be challenging.

I currently own and live in two homes. Not simultaneously of course! Let me tell you challenge is just the tip of the iceberg! Most days I don't know why the heck I'm doing this. Then I remember that my son really wants to live in our home in New Jersey, which was purchased by my grandparents back in 1924. I remember how my mother gave me the opportunity to live and rent that house. I want to give my son that same opportunity. But it isn’t easy!

To start with, the house in New Jersey is over 100 years old. It has many challenges, as homes of over 100 years do. There are plenty of cosmetic issues that I've been willfully overlooking for the past 20 to 30 years. There's the plaster that comes off the wall. There's peeling wallpaper in the bathroom. There's the driveway that is cracking. They should all be fixed. I haven't fixed them.. 

Then there were the larger problems. Like the plumbing issue that I had earlier this summer. That was a big pain in the you know what! Thankfully it was resolved (for the most part) relatively quickly. But it left behind another gift for us to deal with.

In our basement (which is not the nicest of looking), there is a hot water heater, a boiler, a washing machine, a dryer, a mini fridge, standalone freezer, and various other junk. I don't go down there very often.

When my husband and I came from the Poconos to New Jersey this week, I thought about the freezer and the basement. Since we have moved predominantly to Pennsylvania there isn't much in it. I don't have much use for it like I did previously. But I thought there still might be frozen lasagna in there along with a few ice packs. Since it was going to be cooler this week it might be a good time to pull out that lasagna and have it for a family meal. That was what was in my mind when I went downstairs upon getting home Monday evening. 

Now if I remind you that I had plumbers in who did some major work about a month ago. Can you guess where this is going?  I opened the freezer door and was assaulted by a horrible smell. The freezer was not on. What no one had noticed (and why would they?), the plumber must have unplugged the freezer and never plugged it back in. So now there were wet melty ice bags and a frozen lasagna that was not frozen but disgusting and gross. Yes, with the door open it smelled really bad. No, it was not fun Monday evening. Again, one of the joys being a homeowner. 

 But my joy is not limited to just the hundred-year-old house in New Jersey, then there's the newer house in Pennsylvania. Yes it is a wonderful house. It makes lots of weird noises. There are still things that I don't know about it.  What I do know is that it has a beautiful yard. We are surrounded by trees and lush plant life. There is no lawn. That's a plus. It is also a challenge. 

 When we purchased the home we inherited a landscaper that the previous owners had used. They really didn't use him all that much as they were both outdoor plant/gardening people. I am not so much so. So, I tried to encourage the landscaper to come more frequently. That didn't happen. He would come but sporadically. As a matter of fact, the last time he came in 2025 was right before Thanksgiving when I asked for a fall cleanup. He did not complete the cleanup but got about 85 to 90% done and said he would be back. He never came back.

In late winter or early spring, he contacted me and said he would no longer be able to maintain our property as he was being deployed overseas. However, he assured me that he had passed my business on to another landscaper. I contacted that landscaper; first via his website, and when that yielded no results, I called him. As you may recall if you've read this blog before, while there was still some snow in the ground he came out to assess the property. Everything seemed good I waited. Spring came. He didn’t. I called again. While I was working in New Jersey, he came out with another person and looked at the yard again with my husband. He said he'd be back. 

After numerous calls and excuses, he and his men DID come back. They spread bag after bag of mulch. I didn't know we needed mulch! I don't think we ever discussed it. They did some trimming but not all of what was needed. This happened over several days with them being there for an hour or so each day. Then they disappeared. 

I called and texted and called and texted. Finally in early June he assured me that he was coming that Friday. This was after I texted him every day for at least 3 days. Friday came and went and guess what? He didn't show. 

It was time to move on. I first contacted a rather large landscaping company directly in town. I contacted them via their website. I left them a message on their answering machine. No response. I know they are still in business. I know they do beautiful work because I have seen them hard at it at Skytop.

Perhaps Skytop is their only client as he is such a large place. That would make sense but then I would think they would say we are not taking on new clients at this time. Maybe I expect too much. 

With the recommendations of several people on our local social media board, I got a large list of landscapers. I selected those that seemed like they did more than just lawns.

One of the first places I called answered right away. The owner said he could come by that afternoon/evening to look at the property. I was hopeful. He did come by, with his wife. We walked around. He said he could do it and would go home and come up with some sort of proposal. The next day he emailed me apologizing and saying he could not take on such a large project as he didn't have the time. I was annoyed, but I appreciated his honesty. 

I contacted several more landscapers. One seemed very promising and came out and spoke with my husband. But before he did anything he wanted to talk to me. It took a while, but I did get a hold of him. Things seemed pretty good, but I could feel a sense of uncertainty when we spoke. I wasn't sure if he had the time and manpower to do the job and I think he wasn't sure either. 

Then there was another local company whose son of the owner contacted me and said his father could come out and look at the property. However, his father was on vacation at the time and wouldn't be back for another week and a half. I am a firm believer in vacations (even though I don't take enough of them myself), but it seems to be a busy time of year for landscapers and not the ideal time for vacation. I kept his name in number but put him on the back burner. 

Finally, I contacted another company that was not quite so local. The owner came out and looked at the property. It was a little strange as he was wearing glasses which I believe were Google glasses which I believe recording as he walked along.  He never said anything about it. (I guess I should have asked) That made me uneasy, however, within a couple of days his office manager contacted me with two proposals. One was for the cleanup and the other was for monthly maintenance. While I wasn't that thrilled with the owner it seemed like this company kind of had it on the ball. The clock was ticking.  Summer had arrived and it was past time for maintenance. I signed the contract for the cleanup, gave them a deposit for the work, and anxiously waited for them to arrive in early July (which was their first available time). 

This Monday was the day. It was the day after the weekend from hell. The weekend where power came on and went off and came on and went off. The weekend where my home generator went for 18 hours straight. The weekend where trees were down all over the place. The weekend where a local house practically burned the ground. But they were going to come, right? 

Amazingly they did show up before 9:00 a.m.! in addition to the owner who I had met there were their workers and the man who I assume is the office manager who also so happens to be a plant expert. It was lightly raining outside as we walked around the backyard and once again they assessed what work needed to be done. 

I had three priorities. Number one: cleaning up all the overgrowth so I could actually walk in the yard. Two: cleaning up overgrowth so that the yard lights could actually be seen. And finally, number three: weed whacking around the front edge of the island which separates our driveway from the street. Most of all I just wanted to get things cleaned up. 

They finally started on the front yard. I wasn't thrilled with that because the backyard is where most of the work needs to be done but nonetheless I could hear work being done and that made me happy. About an hour into it the drizzling ring turned into a downpour and they disappeared. However, the office manager (who was turning out to be my best buddy), texted me and said they were just sitting in the truck waiting for the rain cell to pass. The rain kept coming for over an hour.

 Our front doorbell rang. It was the office manager. He said they had hoped that the rain would let up but it didn't look like that was going to happen. They were packing it in and would come back the next day. That was fine except for the fact that we would not be there the next day. I told him as much, but no one had a problem with it. 

As I headed to work on the bus on Tuesday I texted the office manager. (He’s an early morning guy just like I am an early morning gal). He responded quickly and assured me that they would be there that morning. 

Thanks to security cameras I could see that they had arrived. I watched as they cleaned the front of the house. Unfortunately, after brief amount of time, the backyard camera went offline. I could no longer see what they were doing. However, the office manager/ plant expert was good enough to continue to provide me with updates, asking questions about what I might want done, and providing photos.

He wanted to make sure that I was satisfied. As far as I can see, I am. It's hard to tell from the photos how things are in reality. And I know that by the time I get back to the house everything that was pristine will no longer be so. But for the most part I am happy that they came, did the job, and listened to my concerns. When I mentioned that I wanted the front island weed whacked around the edges, the office manager said they had left already but they sent somebody back to do that that day. Again, that gives me a good feeling. I have also been assured that if I get back to the Poconos and don't like something I see I can call them and they will come out and take care of things. I'm pretty confident that they actually mean that. 

So, my long landscaping nightmare is finally over, right? Well... 

One of the first things the office manager texted me when they got to the property was this note. “Did this tree come down before or after you left for New Jersey?” My heart dropped. Maybe he was referring to the tree that was down on the road by my neighbor's property?  I replied with: Tree? He sent me a photo.

It appears that another tree has fallen across the road right by the entry to the far side of my driveway. My driveway is accessible, but it needs to be taken care of. So, there's another joy that I will have to deal with in the coming days. The only “good” thing about all of this is that it will make it more difficult for people to speed down the road thinking that they can get from point A to point B because Google tells them it's a through street and it is not. As my neighbor's daughter said, Mother Nature is trying to tell us something. This is nature's way of keeping people off the drive!  And there is no way anyone who decides to drive down the street is going to be able to turn around in my driveway and or use it as a speedway. At least until I get the tree removed. 

The joys of home ownership. They never end.