Your Average Homeowner
About this site

I'm not a contractor. I'm your average homeowner.

I'm a Gen Xer who spent my whole life in a big city. Now I'm in the suburbs, figuring out which mower to get, why my toilet phantom-flushes, and what the difference is between a $40 dimmer and a $4 dimmer. I'm a software developer, so I research everything. This site is my notebook.

Why I started this

I grew up and lived my whole life in a big city, where someone else fixed everything. Then I moved to the suburbs and suddenly the house was mine to figure out. The first time I needed to fix something, I did what everyone does — I opened ten browser tabs of "best [thing]" listicles and watched a pile of YouTube videos. They all recommended different products. Most of the writers had clearly never used any of them. The Amazon reviews were either bots or angry. The YouTube videos were sponsored. Nothing told me what I actually wanted to know: which one of these would I be glad I bought a year from now?

I'm a software developer, so I research things to death. I started writing it all down for myself — what I bought, what I almost bought, what I returned, what broke, what I'd buy again. Eventually I figured someone else might find it useful, and that's this site.

How I review things

/ PRINCIPLE 01

I bought it.

I don't accept review units. Every product on this site is in my house and I paid for it.

/ PRINCIPLE 02

I show my work.

Every review lays out the products I considered, what I picked, and why. You see the contenders side-by-side so you can decide if my pick fits your situation or if one of the others does.

/ PRINCIPLE 03

Comparison is built in.

Every review includes a head-to-head against the products I almost bought instead. No standalone reviews — they're useless without context.

/ PRINCIPLE 04

I update when things change.

If a product fails after six months, I come back and update the review. Reviews are dated, and I note any revisions.

What the badges mean

What I bought

This is the one in my house. I researched, I shopped, I picked this one. It's the option I think the average homeowner should buy.

If I were a baller

The "if money were no object" pick. Usually overkill, sometimes genuinely worth it. I'll tell you which.

Budget option

The cheap option that doesn't suck. Sometimes the budget pick is what I bought — I'll say so.

Affiliate disclosure

Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, I might earn a small commission — usually a few percent — at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

This affects nothing about what I recommend. If a product is bad, I'll say so even if Amazon would pay me to look the other way. The goal of this site is to be useful enough that you come back; that only works if I'm honest.

Common questions

Are you a contractor or an expert?

No. The whole point of this site is the opposite. I'm a regular homeowner with a job and kids and a list of things I'd rather not do this weekend.

Can I send you a product to review?

I appreciate the offer, but no. Accepting samples changes the math, even when you swear it won't.

Will you review [thing]?

Maybe! If I need it for my house, almost certainly. If you've got a category I'm missing, drop me a note.

How do I contact you?

Email me at hello@youraveragehomeowner.com. I read everything; I reply to most of it.