@ bluemower - Thanks very much for reply! Absolutely would be easier to decide on this, if I had better knowledge of the old mower's "ailments" :). The challenge is finding a person/shop local to me who knows Hondas and is willing to honestly assess the condition of my mower for the problems you listed above. Some big shops in my area don't have the best reputation with customers. They tend to push sales of the equipment they carry, rather than stand behind decent repair service. Contacted a few smaller places I found via Internet searches today, which say they can service any mower make/model. I'm asking directly whether they can repair/rebuild older Hondas. Hope #1 is for the HRM215 to be repaired at affordable cost - and before the front yard becomes a meadow. :-) I do agree with what you said, that the old mower is several notches in quality above most of the basic push mowers available. Decision-making is tough since I really want to avoid being "penny-wise and pound-foolish" and end up with a new mower which turns out to be a throw-away in a few years' time. However, we've only had two mowers since 1987 (a Craftsman and then the Honda), so I don't have any experience on how quality's changed among the different brands. Labor outsourcing, materials used, all those things have been impacted while the companies chase profit margins... If a new TB130 or 7021P would run me $250-$300 before tax, what's the prudent "break point" on repair costs for the Honda to where you'd say, go buy a newer mower? If the repair expense tipped the decision, what push mower would you steer me toward? Is there a middle price range that significantly pops up the quality, or is there a lot of hype in the mix? I know residential-grade mowers lack the sturdiness of their commercial "big brothers", but perhaps there's a brand or two which has more consistency throughout its product lines? I'd be grateful hearing whether there are particular features that you'd swear by paying more $$ for, which help performance or life-span of the equipment, vs. optional stuff that creates more maintenance hassles than it's worth.

Honda may have good engines, but the plastic decks on their more expensive consumer line would be a deal breaker for me. I would much rather buy an aluminum deck Toro or Lawnboy or a steel deck Snapper. I use to work for Honda as an internal auditor and audited Honda Power Equipments plant in Swepsonville, North Carolina. The plant management told me Honda made the switch from aluminum to plastic to cut costs. I got a Honda Harmony mower for my brother at a company discount. Even though he only uses this mower sparingly as a trim mower and is careful with his equipment, the deck cracked. To top it off Honda delivered this mower without an air filter element and my brother did not catch their mistake until he was doing preventative maintenance, approximately one year after taking delivery. A neighbor bought a plastic deck Honda Harmony a few years ago and did not like its maneuverability and lack of mulching power and gave it to his mother. He bought a much cheaper Troy Built and likes it much better. The Lawnboy Insight Platinum, the Toro Super Recycler, or the Snapper HI-VAC would be better choices than the plastic deck Honda mowers and the Toro and Lawnboy are significantly less expensive. I would choose the Toro if you primarily mulch and the Lawnboy or Snapper if you primarily bag.

I don't know about the rest of the tiller, but I do know something about the GX31. The Honda small engines can run at all position BUT it can't sit on the side or up side down!!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!. It has a oil chamber to whip the oil into mist so you can run in all position. But when the engine stop, oil is going to go to the lowest level due to gravity. If the engine sit side way or up side down, oil will sip through the rings and go into the combussion chamber. If you leave it sit long enough, the engine not only hard to start, also it will smoke for a while. But it will clear up. That is the reason the foam filter soak with oil. So do not just tear the engine up until you run more test. You might want to clean the carb. I just did one on my GX31 and is not that hard. But If you can start the engine, I don't think you even need to do that. Just wash the foam filter with soap and water, put oil and put it back. Change the gas filter and check the plug. You check the oil but putting the engine with cylinder upwards, on flat level. Remove the drain plug and make sure the oil just not overflow. Start and let it run for a little while, the smoke should clear up. Then you can continue testing whether it has power. I am not saying the engine has no problem, just say the smoking is normal if the engine sit in wrong position.

This is the kind of question that is difficult to answer. Can you dump this joint and get a comparable one in better condition on a similar piece of land for less than you are paying to update it? My guess is, probably not. Think back to the house hunting that you did. Were there homes situated on similar plots, with layouts that you liked, with homes in good condition? What did they cost? Sometimes, we chose a home in a lesser condition than we would like because of where it is located, the land it is on, or something about that land that meets our needs. We drove up to this house where we now live and parked on the side street next to it. Being a corner house meant that it had a neighbor only on one side, so fewer possible issues with our three dogs bothering neighbors. The home behind us had its garage side wall facing our back yard, and not a single house window overlooking it. That made our back yard seem more private than the small space we actually have suggests we should have. Even the issue of having dogs who might jump up at passersby along the fence by the sidewalk was solved for us. The fence was lined with a privet hedge, then with a second, interior fence that insured that the dogs could get nowhere near people on the other side of the fence. So before we even saw the front of this house, we loved it. So, one might guess that we would overlook interior issues in order to get it. Sooner or later, all systems have to be replaced. Norms for how a crawlspace is kept, change. You might find yourself buying a house advertised as having a waterproofed crawlspace, only to find that the visqueen sheet that someone laid down there ten years ago is no longer holding back the moisture. So you might even buy something that is supposedly already waterproofed only to find a minimal attempt to do that was done, and it now has failed. In your case, you probably had no claims made about that crawlspace and you have a Cadillac waterproofing job now. You will not have to think about it again. With that oil tank, you may have a case that the previous owner did not disclose the issue to you. (I do not know anything about RE law, so check with the lawyer you used to close on the house or another lawyer who knows your state's RE disclosure laws.) As for the front porch and the issues yet to come, did you have a good home inspection done before you bought the house? They are very difficult to find. I read here in the Buying and Selling a Home forum about how a home inspector is supposed to give such a complete view of the home you are contracting to buy. You are supposed to learn from that inspector when there is an obviously poorly constructed porch or other visible construction. I have yet had one tell me anything that I could not figure out for myself, and they have always missed anything important. Just on the chance that you did have a good inspection, do you have an idea of what else is coming down the road? If you did not have an inspection, do you know of any contractor who you can employ to give you a heads up, doing a walk-thru and watching for issues that your house is showing signs of needing further work, who can look for construction problems, and who can look at the major systems and tell you how much lifetime they have left? Maybe two different inspectors, one a HVAC guy for the systems, one a construction guy for the house itself? These are the only means I am aware of to look ahead to determine how much more money your house is going to cost you. Remember that you always must compare what you learn against the cost of a well-kept home on a similar lot. And that the well-kept house might use low quality materials that you don't like, or that it could be done in a style that you don't like. There is a value in having brand new improvements, too. Some might choose the low-priced fixer-upper on good land and make the home of their dreams all nice and new in their stye with the materials that they like. Others want everything already done, and will wait until the house that meets their criteria comes on the market.