A Place to Call Home
Well, if anything could bring me out of my slump, I guess it's buying our first home. Above are pictures of the outside of the place that we intend to buy. Our offer was made last night and accepted this morning. I won't disclose the price because I'm still suffering from sticker shock. I will, however, share that I'm actually excited about this place. For one thing, it's literally down the street from where we live now - we can walk there in two minutes. That means we already know the neighborhood and I don't have to learn a bunch of new streets and find new places to shop. No, it's not a conventional house, but we have to start somewhere. The inside is pretty original, so we'll be replacing flooring and getting walls painted before moving in. We have plenty of space - almost 2000 square feet, which is bigger than any of the houses we'd been looking at. There are three bedrooms, two and a half baths, and plenty of room. This sounds really silly and petty, but I'll be so excited to park in a garage - no more fighting for decent parking. It's not that I'm lazy, but I'm always lugging a bunch of crap back and forth, and it's harder to do from further away. K will be happy because he will continue to have his own room, and the complex has a pool. Directly across the street from us is a small park and playground, which we will definitely be using since we have no yard. Best of all, we can quit pissing our money away on rent, even though we will definitely hurt for the first year or so. Guess this is just the kick I needed to boost my motivation. Whether I'm ready or not, there's plenty to get done in just a month!
posted by Notta Wallflower at 7:05 PM
20 Comments:
Congrats on the house. It looks wonderful. I know what its like to piss away rent money. You are just paying someone elses mortgage that way. Yikes. We had just bought our house in Sept and we are trying to refinance. The preapproval papers have been drawn up and signed so now all we have to do is wait for someone to take on the loan. Hopefully by the middle of June we will have this done and a locked in interest rate and a lower house payment. Just take it easy being pregnant. Take care and congrats again.
Thanks Tweets. :-)
Congrats! Looks beautiful.
That's a perfect sized house: not to much to heat, cool, or CLEAN! You're gonna LOVE the garage. We've only had ours a year, but I wonder how we ever survived without it.
Congratulations!!
Bearette - Thanks! I don't want to take inside pics until we get some stuff done. It's pretty rough inside.
TSHS - H laughs at me for being so cranky about the horrid parking in our complex, but it really just pisses me off. I've usually lived in places where it's not an issue or had my own garage or at least driveway. Plus, this garage has shelving, so we can actually store stuff and fit our cars. Yay!
Nice! I love all the green. We bought a condo two years ago, and even though it's not drastically different from apartment living, it's great to own.
SME - We specifically told our agent that we won't look at condos. I can't stand anyone living above me. Our current apartment is townhome-style, which is nice with only neighbors to the side. We would have rather bought a house, but we had to start somewhere. :-)
I dont see anything wrong with what you bought. Its nice and you have room for everyone. Esp the new baby on the way. You will be in and settled by time he/she gets here. You can always sell in a few years and get a bigger house or just a plain old house if you wish.
I can't wait till we do that. Congrats!
Tweety - Oh, I know there's nothing wrong. It's just that, for the same money, we could have bought a house, but in a less desirable area. But you can fix things in a house. You can't change a location of a place. So we opted for the nicer location.
Laura - Thanks! Best wishes to you! I think it will be worth it, but I'm still scared a little.
2,000 square feet is huge! enjoy! the house we just bought has 1300 something.
the garage parking will be even more of a big deal once baby arrives, as you probably realize.
it looks beautiful, and enjoy that on-site playground and pool.
What a Beautiful home! Congratulations and may you begin many new memories there! It looks very nice!!
Carrie - That's the only reason why we decided to look at townhomes seriously. The square footage on most of them (for roughly the same amount of $) was way more than we'd get in a house, but in a better area. Of course, you factor in no yard, but still. I'm so looking forward to the garage! The pool actually looks like it's decently kept up, so it will be usable.
Michael - Thanks for the well-wishes! We'll be enjoying this place and are already planning on how to use the space.
Sticker shock is a fact of life being in California, especially the Bay Area. As I told you before, your taxes will go down significantly.
Good luck, and congrads. It looks like a nice area.
More good news, any equity is untaxable up to $250k if you're unmarried, 500k if you're married. That was Bill Clinton's doing, so I'll give him full credit for that.
So...if your house goes up 200k in the next five years, that money is all yours.
ZS - Sort of hard to tell what the housing market will do. I do know we bought a place with fixable problems, at least. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I'll just be happy if the market doesn't crash.
Congratulations on the new house! 2000 square feet is huge! When my husband and I were looking to buy a home we looked at a house that was only 680 sq ft. It was dinky and our apartment at the time was bigger. Instead of buying our little house we sent my butt back to school with the hope that we could get a bigger house in a better neighborhood. Your new home is beautiful and I am glad you have a garage. There is nothing more annoying than carrying stuff to your place where the walk is long and your neighbors just stand back and watch you struggle to your door.
Well, I never expect any help from neighbors. Hopefully we can round up enough help. I would have done the same thing you guys did - I can't function very well in under 1000 square feet. We knew that and purposely would not look at anything small. You have to be able to picture yourself in a place for a while for it to be worth it. Plus, moving is a pain in the butt. :-P
Notta - Housing rises and crashes in this state. Just a fact of life.
The thing is, you need to live somewhere. If you hold that house for 10 years, I'll guarantee you that you'll have at least 100k in appreciation. it might drop 50k in one year, then go up 70 or 80k 3 years later. You just have to ride it out.
Ten years from now, you'll be very glad you bought a house. A much better investment than stocks because for one, first 250k (or 500k if you're married) is tax free, and for another, you have leverage. There's no leverage in stocks.
ZS - Yeah, we sort of figured we'd need to stay put for at least 7-10 years to make it worth our while. We're even figuring that the market could either slump or remain flat for the first year or so.
I've never invested in stocks because I don't trust my ability to make money that way. One thing this investment will do is make me think about where every penny is going.
Hey there. Just wondering how things are going with the house? I mean have you closed yet or getting there? Sorry for the ambush of questions.
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