The Actual Joys of Homeownership

[mangosteen]

J and I have had a lot of stress over our condo over the past 9 years, i.e. as long as we've owned it. It's a 125 year old 2-family house that got condo-converted, we were first-time homeowners, our inspector was just okay, etc

Comments

[muffyjo]

Also, when you sell the place, you can claim all that improvement stuff on taxes, I believe. Helps with capital gains parts.

Your next place will be fabulous and a new adventure. I have faith you will love it more.

[surrealestate]

I hear you. We did the roof/chimney, exterior painting, new furnace... Granted, the new exterior does make the place look a whole lot nicer, but I spend a lot more time seeing the inside than the outside. Recently got new granite countertops and undermount sink, though, and it's like we have a new house. Wasn't even that expensive, either. (D sings the praises of the new sink almost daily. :)

[sichling]

Would you recommend an undermount sink vs a drop-in? I'm working on redoing our kitchen...

[surrealestate]

Unless you have a particular love of non-stainless sinks (like farmhouse-style or something), I honestly cannot fathom why anyone would get a drop-in if they could get an undermount instead. Whenever I am in a newly-renovated kitchen with a drop-in sink, I have to hold back from asking incredulously.

Would love to kitchen-geek with you if you'd like. Could bring Tadpole over to play with the kids. :)

[sichling]

Absolutely! I need someone to kitchen-geek with & kids would have fun. Pick an evening :-)

[fiddle_dragon]

That was one of the frustrating things if the "lease to own" contract we were under at the old place. We could see a lot of things that needed to be done, but the landlord wouldn't fix them (or cheaped out)...so that by the end, we knew exactly what we'd have to do to get things improved that we didn't want to inheret his cheapness. Now in the new house, even though we get surprised by little and not so little things..it's nice to be able to know there's an issue, fix it, and improve it in the process (like replacing faucets and toilets). Besides - new faucets are fun :).

[dreams_of_wings]

Because we lucked into a place that had just been renovated our home owning adventure has been, for the most part, a total joy. The money we've put into it has mostly gone into things like having the interior painted the colors we wanted, or building and using the gardens. Just this week, as part of our preparations for the Le Bebe, we had 4 of the 5 closets in the house redone by a professional company, effectively doubling our in-unit storage space, and I'm in 7th heaven about it. With every change I get to feel more and more like this is our place, the place where we are continuing to build the kind of life we want. I really hope that your next place gives you significantly more of that feeling, because it's really pretty awesome.

[deguspice]

The problem with owning your house, is getting the land lord to fix things.