My dad was a general contractor so I used to hear those words a lot growing up. Well, I’ve been hearing them (and saying them) a lot lately too…

Since Brittany and I bought our house in June 2022, we’ve been to Lowe’s 94 times over the course of about two and half years, or about once every 10 days. My personal record was five trips in one day when I was trying to figure out the right size pipe and fittings to install a new sink (fifth time was the charm).

Cost wise, we’ve spent $6,075.84 at Lowe’s since buying the house, according to our credit statements. That’s about $65 per trip, however that average was skewed by a few large purchases including a new oven (~$1200) and 15 gallons of paint to stain the fence (~$600). The median of $31 is probably a better representation of our standard trip to Lowe’s.

To be clear though, our house wasn’t in bad shape by any means when we bought it. However we’ve been trying to flex our DIY skills as we’ve learned how to do routine maintenance (like taking care of the lawn), basic repairs (like changing the garbage disposal), and also some tasteful upgrades (like updating the bathroom). Take a look at my last DIY blog to follow along with some of the projects we’ve tackled.

While spending $6,000 over 2.5 years sounds like a lot, homeguide.com estimates that home maintenance costs between 1-4% of a home’s value per year. We’ve certainly had to spend money at other places (i.e. 14 trips to Home Depot costing a total of $779.71), however we’re still probably on the lower end of that spectrum given that we’ve done a lot of the work ourselves. Rather than money, we’ve paid the price with our time… and trips to Lowe’s.

So next time you hear someone talking about the “joys of home ownership,” it really just means going to Lowe’s.

Can you guess where on the graph we bought the house?