03 May 08 - 04:36
House Hunting
My hubby and I are becoming grown-ups at last; we've started looking for a house of our own. It's been a long road to get to this place. For years we've been "saving for a down payment." But time has a way of creeping up on you. Sometime this winter, it hit us that we had just enough time to pay off a 20 year mortgage before retirement age. That's almost enough encouragement to help us overcome our Maritime-bred allergy to debt. It's time to stop fooling ourselves; we'll never have enough saved to satisfy our craving for security. It's time to call the bank and get on with it.
So we've started to look for a house. This doesn't come naturally to either hubby or I. The idea of spending upwards of a quarter of a million dollars on anything is a daunting task for our Scottish genes; perhaps you can hear them screaming from there. (Which would be quite something for Elizabeth in UK, eh?) It's the sort of thing you really want to get right the first time, and we know that having never bought a house before, we haven't the foggiest idea what we should be looking for, or how to evaluate if the basement's likely to leak, or if there's really any insulation to speak of in the walls. How will we know if all our stuff fits without actually moving it there? And most important of all, what corner can I use for my sewing room?
Our daughters are very concerned that we get a four bedroom house, because they're tired of sharing a room. We've looked at four houses so far, and at each one, my nine year old has said, "I want this one. It has four bedrooms!" I think I've just about convinced her that we are only looking at houses with at least four bedrooms. My twelve year old sometimes looks charmingly at me and says, "We could keep our rooms neater if we had more space to put our stuff." She's got a point, though I can't shake the feeling that another bedroom only means twice as much floor area for the girls to toss their clothes. My son has been prowling around each house, content to poke into each room and see what delights are to be found, like the resident cats, or a closet under the stairs just big enough to hide in. The girls keep trying to assign him the smallest bedroom, and simple soul that he is, he's game. As for me, I'm finding that the house with the good deck has kitchen cupboards that don't close well, and the house with the good basement and garage has a fourth bedroom without a closet. The real estate agent shrugged at me and said, "There's only so much you can expect in this price range." This price range? (See aforementioned comment about upwards of a quarter million!) I've suggested looking at a house or two that's a bit more expensive, just for comparison purposes you understand, and hubby just about broke out in hives.
I don't know how you decide when you've looked at enough houses and just pull the trigger. Is it like love, where you just know it's The One? I tried looking at House Buying for Dummies in Shopper's Drug Mart the other night, but I didn't find it much help. Either I'm not enough of a dummy, or too much of one. And before we can even put in an offer, we have to find a lawyer, and a house inspector, and a thousand other things that I don't know about, but I'll probably find out the hard way just as soon as it's too late. This being a grown-up is hard, especially for a recovering perfectionist like me. Sometimes you just have to do it, knowing full well that you won't figure it all out the first time.
The Bible text in a couple weeks is about the lilies of the valley, how they neither reap nor sow, but Solomon in his glory wasn't clothed as one of these. I've always felt convicted by this text, because I worry about stuff that doesn't matter all the time. But then something as big as buying a house comes along, and I don't even know how to worry about this one. Jesus' advice was just to let it go. I'm trying, Lord, I'm trying. But I'm not sure I'll be so relaxed when an offer finally goes in.
I think that more expensive house I wanted to look at has an open house on Sunday. Hubby says maybe the one where the agent didn't call us back may be an open house then too. Is it a sin to shop for houses on Sunday?
Blessings, Heather.
one comment
Not to put any more pressure on you, but you need a house with five bedrooms; visiting family members take up a lot of space, you know. Put an actual bed in that fifth bedroom, and you might even get an extra special visit, sometime before you leave Halifax…
Andrew () - 10 05 08 - 01:46
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