Featured Story
Moving into MY New House!
In late June of the year 2019, I closed on my first-ever house! Yes, at 36 years old and after years of saving for a down payment, it finally happened.
For me, it was an especially big deal because it is the first time I have lived in a house since 2003. I have rented since the day my parents moved from our childhood home into a condo. This happened while my brother and I were in college. I guess with there being no children at the house and me 700 miles away, they wanted to do away with obligations like mowing the lawn.
Renting became, for me, a reality that continued from 2003 to now (2019). I lived in 6 different apartments over the years. I feel I don’t need to go over the annoyances of renting as most people have been there. As you rent, you start to accept the things that are out of your control. I suppose I decided to take the plunge into home ownership when I realized that I couldn’t finish my 30s not being in control anymore.
I wanted to leave my landlord. While a nice guy, he’s not a pro and does annoying stuff like insist we try home remedies before calling in a professional. Toilet clogged? Please try baking soda and vinegar before I call a plumber, he would say. The biggest frustration I remember was problems with neighbors. I’m afraid I’ve many times been the perpetrator of neighbor resentments as my family and I are a loud bunch. It’s hard to not to be noisy on a top-floor apartment with a small child.
When the offer on my house was accepted, I started to tell my friends and family. Everyone who never bought a home told me congratulations and celebrate. Everyone who had a house said congratulations on the bittersweet occasion. As the closing day approached, I remembered these words.
It took a few days for me to see what they were talking about. I don’t care if your new home is a new construction or many years old. I don’t care where the house was purchased or for how much. The truth is problems will creep out. This is why the sentiment of homeowners across the world are so uniform. We all know the joy, the freedom, and the struggle.
When we moved in, several weeks had passed since we had seen the house. The owners were having work done to comply with our inspection contingency for a couple weeks. As time passed and each contingency was fulfilled and it became obvious we would get our mortgage funded, the house stopped being maintained and sat for most of the month of June. The grass grew to about 2 feet high and there were mid-summer insects everywhere. Getting into and out of the house became a precisely timed affair to make sure the bugs didn’t come in with us.
It became obvious from the get-go that much of home ownership was simply defending the house from being overtaken by nature. Overgrowth of vegetation in the front and back lawns became the hangout for all the neighborhood insects. Eventually, some of those insects made their way into the house and had squatted until our arrival. I let a Dyson vacuum cleaner reclaim our dwelling from various 6 and 8 legged creatures. Similarly, I let my new, reluctantly-purchased lawn mower take care of the critters in the yard.
We moved in no more than 4 days after our closing date. I naively thought that $2000 for a sofa and dining room table were all we would need. After all, we were bringing much of our old furniture, which included a couple sofas, desks, chairs, and more. However, we had fewer rooms back then. The new house, after all was moved in, left a lot of empty space and bare floors. As much as I wanted to adhere to my initial plan of furnishing as I could afford it, going home to an unfinished house was simply not satisfying. It nagged at me because I’m someone who likes to finish things. The unfinished state of what I called home did not agree with my sensibilities.
As a result, I saw my initial budget balloon five-fold. As I saw my credit card balance grow, I resigned myself to my fate. In rapid fashion, the house filled with more furniture, wall decor, more carpets, more decorations. I also quickly realized that I had omitted key basic items for any house. I questioned my own intelligence when I realized I forgot major things like curtains, tools and a lawn mower. I naively thought that somehow those would be taken care of by generous benefactors or something. But not so.
Then there were the other necessities that popped up. Simple stuff like having enough bathroom towels or a place to hang your toilet paper. Stuff like the old clothes dryer that worked fine during the home inspection suddenly broke down. In what seemed like the fates trying to needle me, I had the misfortune of having my flatscreen TV stop working exactly 2 days before the move.
I’ve discovered that a house dictates much of your life. Much like a pet or a small child, the house has its needs but not the ability to satisfy them. As a homeowner, it’s all on you! You opted for the responsibility, so this is what it looks like! Having a house forces you to get handy. Obviously, no one wants to call in someone every time there’s an issue. So, using internet articles and YouTube, I learned to do a variety of things.
I’m finding I don’t mind doing those things, though. There’s a great sense of accomplishment one gets when they hook up their own gas dryer, or sets up their own security camera system. I guess as a software developer, I enjoy the moments when my work has tangible results. After fixing a water leak with some epoxy, there was great satisfaction seeing a leaky pipe turn into a non-leaking pipe. It’s something different than seeing a web app I created functioning as it should on a computer screen.
I’m glad to say that after a couple months, everything is about as done as it’s going to be. Sure, there’s stuff that could be done, but it’s not pressing enough. I’m writing this in September. The school year has started, my wife and stepson are learning to drive, and we’ve all developed a nice rhythm. The house still demands my time regularly. There’s more to clean, there’s a yard to consider, and there’s always things that pop up.
Overall, though I’m happy I bought my house. I love having my freedom back. It’s something you don’t realize is lost when renting. I feel extremely lucky and blessed.
