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8 Things I wish I knew before buying a home

what i wish i knew before buying a house

It’s been almost two years of blissful homeownership and I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. I seemed to have been under the impression that the hardest part about being a homeowner was becoming a homeowner. It turns out, that was the easiest part.

Here are some things I’ve learned since we moved in:

The buck stops at you.

I’m the first to admit that our old landlord was completely useless, shady, and belonged in IRS/code violation jail. But, he was still someone we could call and blame. Now it’s just us. All us. No landlord, no facilities management. Just us.

It’s expensive, and It’s more than your mortgage.

When you think of your mortgage, usually taxes and homeowners insurance are all wrapped up in that monthly number. But what’s not accounted for? Gas. Electricity. Garbage. Water. Cable. Internet. Air filters. Leaf and lawn trimming bags.

It’s full of surprises.

Surprise you need a new furnace… Now! The furnace will not wait for you to save enough money to purchase it responsibly. And because it’s just cheaper to get the furnace and new air conditioning unit at the same time, why don’t you just tack on a new AC while you’re at it?

No, you still can’t blast your favorite tunes.

Just because you are enclosed in a home doesn’t mean that you can listen to loud music. This was a huge disappointment to my dorm and basement apartment living self. I longed for the days to listen to my music as loud as I wanted. Unfortunately, neighbors.

Your neighborhood is like the real world. You’ll hate most of them.

I’m just being honest. I run the opposite direction every time I see my neighbors. Why? Because I’m still a horrible person in the comfort of my own home. There’s no Desperate Housewives bond, unfortunately. This may or may not be because one neighbor is a single man and I’ve only actually seen the other neighbor’s wife like once. But still.

You age ten years every time someone walks through your yard or speeds down your street.

DO THEY NOT SEE THE SPEED LIMIT? There are children on this street!

You’re going to LIVE THERE… for like, a long time.

I point this out because when we first bought our home, a four level split sounded fun. Two years in and it’s not that fun to be upstairs in the bedroom and have to go not just downstairs to the main level, or even downstairs to the lower level, but downstairs to the basement and back up again just to get some socks. What happens when I’m old and have bad knees? Or better yet, when Lola is old and has bad knees?

Anxiety is real.

Did I close the garage door? What is that car doing parked across the street? Will our house burn down while we’re on vacation? Am I going to be robbed? Questions I think about on a daily basis.

Thankfully through all of this I have a husband who handles just about everything. He’s a rock, and was seemingly made for home ownership. If it weren’t for him my body would be found years from now rotting in the corner of my basement in the same position I sat in the first time it rained and our basement flooded.

xoxo.

Living Room Makeover

house, our home

Buying our first house was a trip. We went back and forth between getting a fixer upper or a house that was move-in ready, but ultimately decided on move-in ready. What no one tells you is that move-in ready doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be doing any work. Quite the opposite, at least for us, two picky peas. We’re almost two years, eleven gallons of paint, 377 trips to Home Depot, and three boxes of bandaids in on this home, but not yet finished fixing it up.

Thankfully, after spending some time fixing up our main level living room, we are one step closer!

The before:

(Please note, that the realtor’s camera adds 10+ feet.)

And this is where we are today:

What we did: Painted! A lot of paint! The paint we used is Universal Grey by Glidden. It took us a long time to finally decide on this color, but we’re both super happy with it. It isn’t too green or blue, and truly is universal. Ryan replaced all of the trim around the windows, doors, as well as the floorboards. We also got a new patio door, which isn’t super vital to the living room — but is to the kitchen and dining room which is previewed above, but not complete.

In the second picture you can also see that we are in the process of fixing up the entry way. Ryan replaced the old, brown, weird tile with marble tile. We removed the built in planter box that separated the living room and the entry way in order to have a bigger landing space. He also added some awesome trim around the entry way. It looks great! We just need to add a bench, table, and a few decor items to our entry way before you’ll get a full before and after!

xoxo.

Bedroom Makeover

house, our home

When we were first looking for homes, we thought we would get a fixer upper. It didn’t take long for us to decide a fixer upper was not the best option for two busy people in their twenties. It also didn’t take long for us to realize that no matter what house you buy, it will be a fixer upper in some sense if you want to make it your own. Unless you build the home yourself and pick everything from the paint in each room to the water faucets in the bathrooms, you will be making changes to the home and “fixing it up”.

So no, we didn’t buy a fixer upper. What we bought was a great home that didn’t need work, but we wanted work. Starting with the bedroom. A bedroom is supposed to be your oasis, and the orignal room was anything but. The picture below is how the owners had it. White walls, wood trim, and what we interpreted as no life. It just was not our style.

The first house project we did was paint the walls, replace the trim, and replace the wood doors with white doors. Just a coat of paint made the world of a difference. Slowly we started replacing our old furniture with new furniture, and what we’ve found is the perfect place for family cuddles and Netflix binging.