isn't shemaiah fabulous? i wish i had had more time with her when i was in L.A. good quality friend-time is one of the most important things to me. i'm glad you've gotten the opportunity to have that recently.
while i've owned 2 homes, i am the first person to say that home-ownership is highly overrated! i love my house, but i don't think you HAVE to have one to feel like you are "home".
shemaiah is totally fabulous. i'm very glad to have her and JG in my cg.
i think people don't really THINK about why home ownership matters to them. it's just something that many of us grow up expecting or feeling like it's expected of us.
Re: totally.33shadowDecember 24 2006, 22:32:39 UTC
I think for me it's partly that I am tired of all the rules about what I can and can't do, since I don't own the house or apartment. No remodeling, can't put holes in the walls, etc. Yes, it's nice that we can call the office for maintenance, but I will only enjoy that for 5 years.
Also, it's a matter of needing space. Larger apartments simply cost too much money, and we don't need to live in the city anyway. Right now it's fine, since we don't have kids yet and our jobs are in the city. But once we have kids ready to enter school, we want jobs in a small town and our own house with about 5 bedrooms.
Mostly, we want a place our kids can grow up in all the way through high school, and even then maybe come home to once they're in college. At that point, it makes more financial sense to own a house, instead of renting an apartment. But if you're planning to move every 5-10 years, you may as well rent!
*I* wouldn't live in Tukwila either! But I also couldn't live in the city. I like it up here because we can live away from the city, but downtown Everett is still close enough that we can go to the nice library and the museum without any trouble. I didn't mind living in an apartment when it was just me and John, but with the kids it would be really hard.
I guess I didn't articulate it well in my post (and the wheels have continued to turn since I wrote it), either. So how can I expect you to respond to something I didn't really say? But what I think I mean by "engaging the city" is being IN some of the things that aren't easy. What burdens are we called to bear as Christians? What part of being "salt" also involves being in places that aren't the most comfortable?
None of this is really directed at you, personally, I'm just thinking out loud here. :D
I hate to say this definitively, so just consider this me thinking out loud too... but I think that even in the places we're called to be salt, the places that are sometimes uncomfortable, God provides some compensation as well. There are things that you and Lee both really like about living in the city, right? So some of the difficulties are weighed out by the compensations.
I lived in rentals for so long, and apartments for so long, and I spent years not feeling at home. I figured out one time that I have moved an average of once a year for my whole life. Having a house means security for me. I think God has given us this because he knows I need someplace I can put down roots, and he knows how much I want that for my kids
( ... )
*pauses for a moment's reverence of a barlow_girl post*
I'm often slightly weirded out at how the weather over here and over your way seem to be running off the same circuit so often. It's been crazy stormy here this month, unusual even for Scotland.
I loved city living in Glasgow, being in the heart of the buzz in the summer and Christmas periods especially, walking past street performers or through Borders on the way home for a peruse, having 24hr groceries round the corner etc. and not being liable for anything more monumental than a month's rent. Of course, the housing market being in overdrive here (one of the most densely populated countries in the world you know Britain) investing in propertly while it's attainable for a first timer also has its benefits. I plain could not have bought any of the flats here if I had waited until now. They've gone up in value 30-40% in the three years since I moved in here. £80,000 for a 2 bed apartment nowhere near the city.
funny weather convergence! i wonder if we're on the same latitude. or longitude. or whatever. i get those mixed up.
city living is great, for a lot of reasons. i do like that there's always something going on. i also really like that in Seattle, people walk a lot, so they see each other and have a chance to speak and become acquainted. i think we underestimate the value of interpersonal connection.
as for ownership, i see your point. the market is ridiculous here, too. i guess my question is - why own? i'm an accountant, so i know the usual arguments. i just wonder if they apply as often and as universally as people seem to think.
The main reason for me after having lived in 5 different apartments for 6 years was having somewhere I could settle into creatively and make my own. The designer in me has to be applied to my surroundings to be truly at home and with most rented accomms you aren't allowed to put a lick of paint on never mind lay laminate or new carpet or paint one wall volvanic splash red never mind remodel the bathroom. So I knew I'd need to own in order to have full creative reign. I have had very little in the way of maintenance/repair costs probably because this is a new build. Nothing's broken yet *touch wood*.
When I read your post (hi by the way), it confirms to me that you two are meant for the other and will make decisions based on the season you happen to be in together. Whatever comes. And you will make a decision based on the right things. :D
that makes me happy. i have the same thought quite often - new ways that Lee and I think the same - or sometimes new ways that we teach one another something - that make me know it's right and good.
i was near Greenlake running errands today and almost called. hi, stalker. :P
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while i've owned 2 homes, i am the first person to say that home-ownership is highly overrated! i love my house, but i don't think you HAVE to have one to feel like you are "home".
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i think people don't really THINK about why home ownership matters to them. it's just something that many of us grow up expecting or feeling like it's expected of us.
Reply
Also, it's a matter of needing space. Larger apartments simply cost too much money, and we don't need to live in the city anyway. Right now it's fine, since we don't have kids yet and our jobs are in the city. But once we have kids ready to enter school, we want jobs in a small town and our own house with about 5 bedrooms.
Mostly, we want a place our kids can grow up in all the way through high school, and even then maybe come home to once they're in college. At that point, it makes more financial sense to own a house, instead of renting an apartment. But if you're planning to move every 5-10 years, you may as well rent!
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I guess I didn't articulate it well in my post (and the wheels have continued to turn since I wrote it), either. So how can I expect you to respond to something I didn't really say? But what I think I mean by "engaging the city" is being IN some of the things that aren't easy. What burdens are we called to bear as Christians? What part of being "salt" also involves being in places that aren't the most comfortable?
None of this is really directed at you, personally, I'm just thinking out loud here. :D
Reply
I hate to say this definitively, so just consider this me thinking out loud too... but I think that even in the places we're called to be salt, the places that are sometimes uncomfortable, God provides some compensation as well. There are things that you and Lee both really like about living in the city, right? So some of the difficulties are weighed out by the compensations.
I lived in rentals for so long, and apartments for so long, and I spent years not feeling at home. I figured out one time that I have moved an average of once a year for my whole life. Having a house means security for me. I think God has given us this because he knows I need someplace I can put down roots, and he knows how much I want that for my kids ( ... )
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and the idea of the "wrong sacrifice" is very interesting.
i'm going to be chewing on this one for a while.
thank you for your thoughts. you're my friend. :o]
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I'm often slightly weirded out at how the weather over here and over your way seem to be running off the same circuit so often. It's been crazy stormy here this month, unusual even for Scotland.
I loved city living in Glasgow, being in the heart of the buzz in the summer and Christmas periods especially, walking past street performers or through Borders on the way home for a peruse, having 24hr groceries round the corner etc. and not being liable for anything more monumental than a month's rent.
Of course, the housing market being in overdrive here (one of the most densely populated countries in the world you know Britain) investing in propertly while it's attainable for a first timer also has its benefits. I plain could not have bought any of the flats here if I had waited until now. They've gone up in value 30-40% in the three years since I moved in here. £80,000 for a 2 bed apartment nowhere near the city.
Reply
funny weather convergence! i wonder if we're on the same latitude. or longitude. or whatever. i get those mixed up.
city living is great, for a lot of reasons. i do like that there's always something going on. i also really like that in Seattle, people walk a lot, so they see each other and have a chance to speak and become acquainted. i think we underestimate the value of interpersonal connection.
as for ownership, i see your point. the market is ridiculous here, too. i guess my question is - why own? i'm an accountant, so i know the usual arguments. i just wonder if they apply as often and as universally as people seem to think.
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i was near Greenlake running errands today and almost called. hi, stalker. :P
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