The Unexpected Costs of Homeownership: How One SaverLife Member is Keeping Repair Demands in Check With Her Dreams
Images by Liz Terry Photography
SaverLife member Alicia doesn’t view homeownership through the lens of financial health; instead, she considers the time it demands. After a decade in her home, she sees ownership as a constant cycle of remodeling and updates. This reality became even more challenging when her family faced a severe flood that left their home damaged and in urgent need of repairs.
Now, Alicia is dedicated to transforming their home into a safe and welcoming space for her three children. However, this journey demands even more of her time, energy, and financial resources. How is she moving forward? By taking small, manageable steps each day and finding creative ways to maintain her family’s financial health. Discover how Alicia is navigating the challenges of homeownership, addressing unexpected expenses, and supporting her family as they strive to thrive.
Building a home where everyone can thrive
Alicia is a Kentucky native, and she, her husband, and their three children live in a rural mountain town. When they’re not moving between school or extracurricular activities, the family likes to spend their free time watching movies, hanging out at home, or taking advantage of other affordable activities. “We try to have a day once a week where we just go out to the park or to the sports place,” Alicia describes. “Something to try and reconnect.”
Alicia and her husband inherited their house 10 years ago from a close family member. They love their property because it’s quiet and removed from the hustle and bustle of town. There are frogs and crickets that chirp at night and a creek that runs through their property.
The only challenge the family has found with their house is that the water contains high levels of sulfur. Alicia has contacted the local government to see if pipes can be installed to pump city water to their home, but because there’s only a handful of other houses in their holler, the government won’t pursue it. “They told me, in order to get the city water, I would have to go sit at so many meetings and petition for it,” she says. “It could take five to eight years to get city water.”
Even so, Alicia values their home and the peace it brings her family. Her husband qualifies for permanent disability and one of her children lives with nonverbal autism. Having a safe and welcoming space where she can support them is extremely important to Alicia, and she strives to create this environment every day.
The lasting impact of unplanned, severe weather events
In 2022, Alicia and her family experienced an extreme flood that left their house severely damaged. “President Biden called it a one-in-a-hundred-year flood,” she explains. The flooding had a deep and lasting impact on her entire town: it rained several inches in 30 minutes, resulting in millions of dollars in damage and 33 deaths in their county alone. “We had to dig ourselves out, literally, with my husband’s tractor. We cleared the road because the county couldn’t get to us,” Alicia says.
The aftermath posed even more challenges to Alicia and her family. The pillars supporting their house were washed out by water, leaving the foundation uneven. Their floor was ruined by water, and additional moisture settled in the walls and degraded their insulation and electrical work.
Unfortunately, Alicia and her husband didn’t carry insurance on their home at the time. While they’ve technically inherited their house, it’s listed under Alicia’s mother-in-law, who’s still living. Because of this, they don’t qualify for full coverage on their home — just renters insurance. This means they only qualify for renters insurance, which covers personal belongings but does not protect against significant structural damage.
To compensate for the lack of insurance coverage, Alicia reached out to FEMA and other support agencies to request emergency grants for or assistance with home repairs, but she received little to no response. One organization offered to tear down the remains of their home for free, but there were no additional services to rebuild their house afterwards. The damage was especially devastating to Alicia and her husband because they had just invested in updates to their floors and roof. “It was like they never happened,” she adds.
This experience highlights a significant issue many renters face: the difficulty of securing adequate flood insurance. For many, the cost of flood insurance can be prohibitive, and it often doesn’t take financial priority — especially for those who don’t live in designated flood zones or areas typically prone to flooding. We’ve seen this with other SaverLife members like José who faced difficult choices about the amount of insurance to invest in.
The damage from the flood has also had surprising impacts on other aspects of Alicia’s budget. With damaged electrical work and insulation, she’s seen an increase in their utility bills month over month. This makes her nervous to run their heating system in the winter, even though she knows the house will be colder without the heater on. Additionally, the road to their house is full of large and unavoidable potholes that have caused increased damage to their truck. She’s had to replace eight wheel bearings on her truck in two years, and Alicia doesn’t see this problem going away until the city fills the potholes.
Weighing home repairs against financial health
Following the flood, Alicia decided that the best choice for her and her husband was to start remodeling their home on their own. Because they couldn’t afford a contractor or other repair services, they began researching ways to fix their foundation, electrical work, and flooring. Alicia is grateful because many of their family members have since pitched in to help with the work. But she’s also discouraged by the money and steps required to get her house back to normal: every time she fixes one problem, another one arises. “It’s got to a point where [the damage] is just normal to our family,” she describes. “I hate to say that, but it’s never done. We’re always fixing something.”
Accounting for repairs has also disrupted Alicia’s monthly budget. She’s had to make hard decisions between repairing their home or paying for other necessities: a reality that leaves her feeling stressed and frustrated. At times she’s even had to let their internet and phones turn off in order to pay for other costs. “When you’re on a budget like us,” she says, “You’ve got groceries to pay for. Then you’ve got your utilities, your gas, and your insurance for your vehicles. It’s a lot to cover.”
To combat these feelings, Alicia works hard to research and find deals that will save them money on repairs. Finding affordable materials and appliances for their home empowers her to keep making small changes where she can. Most recently, she found a brand-new industrial sink that was discounted from the previous year for $30. She was excited and proud to install it by herself, giving their kitchen an instant facelift.
Alicia also copes with her concerns for the future by focusing on her children. She’s already planning her daughter’s upcoming birthday party and thinking about potential Christmas presents for the family. She’s proud of her children, and wants to make sure she celebrates their successes every day.
When homeownership takes money and time
When asked how Alicia feels about homeownership, she explains that she sees it as constant repairs, maintenance and upkeep. Whether from a flood or normal wear and tear, owning a home means spending time and money to keep it up to date: a reality that she has very mixed feelings about. However, she looks forward to finally finishing the house and living out the dream that she originally had for it. She explains: “I thought being a homeowner would be enjoying more of everything: getting to spend time with my family, getting to plant my garden and flower beds, and stuff like that. Just having more time overall.” To Alicia, being a homeowner — with a safe and comfortable house — means enjoying more of her life, and not just getting by.
She also hopes that as she makes progress on her home, her financial health will also come more into balance, reducing her overall stress about their savings. Alicia concludes: “Financial health to me is just taking everything day by day — doing what you can, and then hoping for the best. To still be able to afford gas to get back and forth, to still be able to eat our food: having those things as constants would be great.”
(We extend out gratitude to Melville Charitable Trust for their generous philanthropic support, which has made it possible for this important story to be shared.)