So this is mostly just me, rambling about nothing late(ish) into the evening. I tend to do that lately, stay up too late. There is so much to do during the day and so much emotion that is required of me and really the only break I get is after 8:30pm. But then there are clothes to be folded, dishes to be done, toys to be thrown down the stairs picked up, budget to be balanced, etc. So after all that is done, then I just need to veg. To breathe. To do something to take me away for a little while. Then it gets late into the night and I always wished I had gone to bed earlier, because 6am comes waaaay too early for this mama. Oh balance, will I ever find you??
Also on a side note, for those who have bought a house do ya have any advice? We're not sure when the big decision will actually be made, but now that we are living in one place for more than a year we are hungering for a place of our own. Any and ALL advice appreciated- good, bad and ugly :) (you can email me if its too long/personal to type in the comments: hlbird88 (at) gmail (dot) com.)
Stuff
2 weeks ago
7 comments:
When Daniel started Optometry School, many of his friends (1st years) decided to buy houses since it's a 4 year program and knew they would be around for a while. Now that it's almost time to graduate, they are having a hard time selling their houses, because not many people are buying these days. So if I had any advice, it's to make sure that you will not have to move soon and get stuck with a house you can't sell. Other then that.... I want a house too, so totally jealous!
I'm with Belinda.... even though we've yet to come to that point, we are seeing so many of our neighbors who are upside-down in their homes. Thinking they'd be fine for even 5-6 years, now they're al wishing they could move and are stuck where they're at. It stinks to be renting and not feel like it's your own entirely, but at the same time, we are so glad we're not tied down to anything that permanent right now, even though we're planning on about five years where we're at. Good luck! You could always do the Dave Ramsey plan and save and by a house for cash... wouldn't that be awesome?
*buy
Also, I'm with you on the whole staying up too late thing. Since Spencer works so much and such long hours, by the end of the day I just need ME time. I don't do anything real productive but sit... and sometimes I feel really guilty about that, but I can't get myself to do anything different. One day, we'll all get it figured out. I hope!
Our advice would be to look at the area you want to buy in and buy the home that would be the most resellable or rentable. We have a lot of renters in our town because of the government site that Jeff works at. A lot of people come here with their families for just a couple years and then move to the next job. The house we chose is perfect because it's right down the road from the government site and right down the road from the best Elementary school in Aiken. We didn't buy a huge, expensive house because people want practicality when they're only going to be here a few years. And if we have trouble selling it, it would be the perfect rental home for a family (four bedroom, nice size yard, great neighborhood, etc). Just something to keep in mind if you're only going to be living in it for a few years (we are guessing to be here for 5 years before he has to find a new job around here or move with the company after this project is done).
(This may get long, sorry)
As for the house itself...consider how long you're wanting to live in it and buy it accordingly. If you want to live there until your kids are teenagers, you may want to consider something with seperate living spaces, maybe a furnished basement downstairs away from the living area for when your kids are older and have their rowdy friends over. Or I would want the master bedroom on the main floor and the kids bedrooms upstairs when they get older. When we bought this house, we bought it for YOUNG kids, because we knew that's about how long we plan on staying in this house. The playroom is right off the livingroom and kitchen. It's open to the rest of the house so it can get noisy but I feel like kids want to be where the action is and a toyroom in the basement would go unused unless I was down there with them. This way I can be doing dishes with them just several feet away from where all the toys are. We also really, really wanted all the bedrooms on the same floor. I personally hate having to climb stairs to attend to a crying child in the middle of the night or when they just keep coming out of their room at bedtime. Yet our bedroom is on the opposite side of the boy's hall so it still gives us some space. I hope that all made sense.
Final advice, stay within or below your budget. We love our mortgage and are paying barely more than we were paying to rent. You will be surprised, however, how much utilities go up with owning a house so plan on that as well. Ours about doubled (because we're actually having to pay for garbage, outside water, larger house to cool, etc). And when you buy, consider things you can affordably upgrade and things you cannot. Adding character such as paint color, trim, moulding, features, etc is easy and affordable but replacing the cabinets and countertops is going to be super expensive. We bought a house with a large backyard but it needed a lot of work. We have already a couple thousand dollars back there just for the fence (which are super expensive, btw) and swingset. And we'll be spending even more back there this spring to add sod to the back part, bark and trees. In other words, an unmanicured backyard with no trees is a moneypit if you want it to look nice.
Good luck! And have fun if you decide to go with it!
PS I stay up late too. The kids are usually in bed by 8 and (lately) I'm out the door for a run around 8:30. I get back around 9pm and then clean until around 10pm. Jeff and I usually then watch a show and I stay up another couple hours doing absolutely nothing productive. Every once in a while I'll work on a project but lately it hasn't been that way. Thankfully my kids don't pull me out of bed until 7:30.
Oh, you could also rent a house instead of buying. That way you won't have the trouble of reselling, and you'll have an awesome house!
You are amazing!!!
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