I’m married, I have a kid, I lived in an apartment, the kid didn’t have space to crawl, so I bought a home, and there are some things I wish I knew before jumping in
1 – It’s a money vacuum. It just sucks it up with no regard for how hard you worked for it or consideration for how it may feel once it’s gone. You save thousands of dollars usually over a period of years to get to 20%. Then you take that 20% and make a down payment. You will never see this money. “It’s in the house” is what they tell you to appease your mind. (We’ll get into why later).
If you’re lucky, you don’t drain all your savings to buy a house, but a substantial dent has been made to said savings.
My next issue is all the things I have to buy to fill up the space. The stuff I had before I move is no longer sufficient to “fill” up the space, and they’re not good enough for this new place, which is really old, but it’s new to me.
A sub-issue of the above issue is that my things were perfectly fine before. Why aren’t they good enough now?
So now the furnishings began and here’s a prevailing sentiment: “well since I’m buying it for my house, it should be quality” “We should invest in solid furniture.” That’s Bullshit.
Everything nice you want has a comma in it, meaning it’s $1,000. That shit is just normal now.
You have an entirely new set of problems.
There’s shit everywhere.
I have books on a shelf that are reference books or coffee table books. They’re the cool books that you see casually laying on a coffee table. I haven’t read any of them. The bookshelves cost as much as the books.
My electric bill is 10xs what it was.
My garage is a storage unit.
Fixer Uppers are not as easy as HGTV makes it out to be.
Wood is expensive.
Tiles are expensive.
Shower faucets – Expensive.
Doors take 3-5 weeks to order.
Having the right tools is extremely important.
Trash pick up – Expensive.
The entire housing economy feeds so many industries.
The house is not for you. It’s for your kids.
Viscose is synthetic wool, and once water drops on it, the threads will turn yellow. Especially if it’s a white rug. Buy wool rugs instead.
Move in ready isn’t a thing.
Don’t rush into making modifications and don’t settle for something more cost effective you will still end up paying the same.
Home Depot/Lowes trips will become normal.
Bamboo flooring should be installed by a bamboo professional.
Don’t spend all your money on your home – go on vacation.
You don’t need more space. Your kids don’t need more space, just take them to the park.
You will accumulate a ton of junk to fill up space that you will never use – the space nor the junk.
Someone told you that you need more space, so you took most of your money and bought a house then you took the rest of your money to buy things to fill up the space, so it doesn’t look empty. That’s homeownership.
I complain, but in retrospect, I grew up in one home until my late 20s. I only ever lived at my parent’s house my entire life, and I’d like to think as a kid that gave me a level of comfort and solace that I always knew where my home was and I want to give that to my kids.
The above are random/focused thoughts. I will do better. It’s not like anyone is going to read this.