Seems about right to me (the article, that is). We've had to do one major thing each year we've owned this house:
Instal insulation in the roof (underfloor insulation is on the 'to do' list - but not this year)
Replace sewerage pipes (tree roots)
Replace main water line in (City required the upgrade, and paid for parts but not labour)
Complete rewire (house built in 1949. some of the original wiring was disintegrating). We moved the meter to outside the house at the same time, which almost doubled the cost of this job, but was worth it to not have strangers needing access to my house on a bi-monthly basis. And by combining the jobs it was cheaper than making it two separate jobs.
Replace guttering (was galv steel, rusted through in many places)
Replace storm water drains between house and street (were completely blocked, leading to major flooding in the cellar)
Paint/resurface concrete tile roof (tiles have been up there since 1949. they were pretty porous and not in peak condition)
Re-paint all exterior woodwork (house is brick, but window frames and doors were well overdue a paint - like maybe 20+ years)
We've been here 7 years. Each of those cost between about $800 (the guttering) and $7k (the rewire). (NZ dollars)
The house had been well maintained in its early years (we bought it from the estate of the widow of the original builder, who built it for themselves), but since the mid-80s (when the owner became widowed and was quite elderly), very little had been done aside from a cheap kitset kitchen remodel and a bathroom conversion to a wet-floor shower. So there was a lot of catching up to do.
Also, in NZ, only an electrician is allowed to do electrical work, and only a plumber can do plumbing, so the scope for DIY is a bit more limited than in most States.
