Honestly, it sounds like you enjoy it.
If you are doing it with that frequency I think you just are "into" your house.
It really isn't, and I don't know why so many homeowners act like it is.
I bought my house in 2015. It was built in 1983.
The only things I've had to do are a roof replacement, HVAC upgrade, and deal with a broken water main.
Sure, none of those were cheap, but that's 3 events in 11 years, and the first two I expect to not have to do again for at least 15 years, and the water main was a random one-off thing, and it didn't flood the house. It put a lot of water into my crawl space, but it didn't become a problem.
People who swear by renting will use it as evidence to show that owning is more expensive than renting, but I think they just ignore that those costs are factored into the rent, not to mention the fact that once I noticed my roof had a problem, I had people out the NEXT DAY to give quotes on replacing it. When I replaced the HVAC (Old A/C compressor was frequently tripping the breaker and was underpowered), I was able to choose to upgrade rather than dealing with a landlord who would install the cheapest thing they could find.
But ah...I've digressed.
The point was that home ownership isn't nearly the maintenance burden some owners seem to claim it is, and when there is a problem, being the one in charge of getting it solved, rather than having to harass a landlord into solving it, is nice.
Many homeowners respond to these incentives by doing more improvements.
This is also why many governments (both local and federal) subsidize homeownership. It incentivizes residents to improve their properties rather than let them rot, which has positive externalities for many of the surrounding properties.
Well, about that...
There is a thing called a Compulsory Purchase Order in the UK, with equivalent in the US for example.
Guess which freehold home owner with two thumbs can expect a CPO sometime in the next 10 years?
The USA (and other countries?) equivalent appears to be "Eminent Domain": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain
Home ownership sucks and after selling my previous home I'm so glad to be renting. Just never having to deal with another contractor makes me so happy. :)
- once a quarter clean the pollen off the A/Cs
- once a week clean the pool (okay I pay someone but still its part of maintenance)
- inevitably something on the pool goes wrong
- once a week clean my grill
- Blow leaves (seasonal) off porch
- pull weeds
- power wash the deck
And then most homeowners, no matter how new your house is, inevitably find an endless amount of "projects" to improve their home experience. Wife wants a table for the grill made, I add automated sprinklers, we put new planters for a garden in our backyard...the list goes on..
$500/year for the garden is very conservative, even when you're doing all the labour.
It would be more like $500/month were you to get a gardener in. If you need an arborist (for example cutting back tall trees close to power lines or encroaching on neighbours) it gets expensive very fast.
A pool also costs at least $500/year just in chemicals.
But as far as when I owned my own home, cutting the grass was just part of my routine and at least guaranteed some physical activity instead of working all day during covid.
