Becoming a steward of your property

I've been thinking a lot lately about the idea that we not only own our property, but are, in fact, stewards of this piece of land.  We are the second owners of this house and property and plan to be here for a long time, but our lives are finite.  I'm not saying I'm going to kick the bucket tomorrow, but someday we might decide to move on and sell this property to someone else.  Most people talk about that in terms of resale value.  Am I doing things that someone else will like?  Usually you don't want to do something like remove a bathtub and replace it with a shower because the next owners might have kids and want a tub.  Those ideas are valid, but that's not what I'm talking about here.  

I'm talking about making the right decision now even if you won't see all of the benefits right away, or ever.  If you make the right decision on something now, the next people that own the house won't have to.  It is quite literally the opposite of kicking the can down the road.  Sometimes we hear the words, "the next person can deal with it."  The problem with that argument is that the next person is probably my kid, or someone else's kid.  Or, in extreme cases, my kid's kid.  Wow, that was a lot of kids... 

Anyway, my point is that I was taught to pick up the trash in the hallway and not walk past it for the next person to deal with.  We think that, if we possibly can, we should make the more sustainable choice on the small stuff and the big stuff.  You will likely see some benefits now, but there will probably be long term benefits for someone else.  In fact, maybe that's your resale value.  You've done all of these things that benefit the next buyer.  Perhaps you can command a higher price because your house is "Zero Energy Ready"; because every time something in your house needed replacing, you made the most efficient, low energy decision.  You might not be able to afford solar panels while you are living there, but maybe that's the contribution the next person can make to the property. 

I'll give one example:  We bought our house for the blueberries... The previous owners planted about 50 blueberry bushes.  It likely took 20 - 30 years (possibly longer we aren't sure) for the bushes to grow to their current size.  They probably got plenty of benefit (in the form of blueberry harvest) while they were living here, but we, as the next owners, also get that harvest! (About 130 pounds this summer...)  It really was a big selling point for us.  The house on the other hand was... rough.  There were lots of bad decisions made for the longevity of the house.  We are trying to be better and make good decisions going forward, i.e. upgrade the electrical service, convert the heating system to electric, fully insulate the walls.  It isn't easy, but we'll get there.

-Nate

P.S.  For your enjoyment, here are some of the decisions we or the previous owners have made for our home with an eye on stewardship.

In addition to blueberry bushes, the previous owners also planted apple and pear trees.  We aren't the only ones that benefit from that decision.

Old electrical panel with our home inspector's understated comment...

He also said, "I've never seen one like this before." He has been doing this for 30+ years.

New electric panel with plenty of room for future expansion.  

It also has a 50amp circuit for:

New Chargepoint car charging port.

The blueberries... 1/4 of the daily harvest in July.

Turkeys among the blueberry bushes