15 June 08 - 03:14
The House Hunt is Complete
Well, we did it. We bought a house. We're probably one of the last of our friends to get on the home ownership bandwagon, owing to the fact that we lived in a church manse for most of the past ten years. But none of the churches in Halifax have manses any more, seems ministers want equity just like everyone else. And my Scottish-descended husband has been itching about his lack of equity for a few years, and was really chafing about having to pay rent.
So we're in. We've bought a little split level, elevated bungalow with a finished basement. It's a little bit closer to the kids' schools, a little bit closer to the church. It's just up the hill from where we're living now, which should solve a few complaints from the kids, who really hated going up that huge hill twice every school day. It has four bedrooms, the biggest bedrooms of all the houses we looked at, beautiful hardwood floors on the upper level, a nice rec room, and a sizable laundry room in the basement. Even better, in this age of rising oil prices, it had the lowest heating bill of any of the places we looked at. It's decorated in the kind of warm neutral tones that I would have chosen if I had been picking. Also, the previous owners had recently replaced a number of things, including all the windows in the front of the house, and when they put in the shingles they added a new ridge vent.
It's not a perfect house. It's just over 40 years old, so there are a lot of parts nearing the end of their natural lifespan, like the roof on the carport, the chimney, the soffits, the outside doors and many of the windows. There's not a lot of storage in this house, because like most of the neighbourhood, almost the entire basement has been converted to living space, and there's no garage, only a shed in the back. Also, and most tragically for me, there really isn't a room we can dedicate to be my sewing room. I can hear the collective gasp from here! 
But the truly unwelcome news was about the rotting supports for the deck. The deck was one of the things I had first loved about the house, and to hear it should be replaced in the next year was a bit of a blow. We debated asking for something off the price, but decided in the end that it wasn't worth the amount of grief it would cause us to save ourselves a few dollars in the end. Jesus said that where your treasure is, there will be your heart. We'd rather have the time that we saved not disputing the matter.
So there are lots of things we will have to do for ourselves. We're not really handy people, and we don't have a lot of experience with contractors, so we'll be learning as we go.
Having said all that, the house's structure is solid, there's no water coming through its foundation, it's bigger than any place we've ever lived in, and most importantly of all, now it's ours. We're scared and excited all at the same time. It's good to put down roots, but also scary to take on this kind of responsibility at a time when we feel like we hardly have time to blow our nose, let alone get three estimates to replace the back five windows and the oil tank. Not to mention that I really hate moving. And then there's the whole liberal guilt thing, we felt the same way when we bought our first minivan, that we're being co-opted by the same culture that Jesus preached against, because by being landowners, we have effectively bought ourselves a stake in the same status quo that allows some people to buy a home their own and strands other people to sleep on downtown grates in the dead of winter.
But it's hard to sustain liberal guilt in the face of my children's delight as they decide which room will be theirs. We've taken three separate walks this past week, just to walk by our house and see the SOLD sign. We'll keep slugging towards making the world a more just place, but in the meantime we'll employ some local contractors and get our new windows put in.
Blessings, Heather.
three comments
Congratulations to the Fraser/Dickson family on your new home. Glad to hear you’re planting roots in this part of the woods. I wish all the very best. May your new home…and your renovations be blessed with God’s love and presence as He has blessed us through you and your family. Congratulations and God Bless, from Sandra Fenn
Sandra Fenn () - 16 06 08 - 16:50
Congratulations on your ner house. Iam so glad that God has brought you and your family to our church .Thank You Heather FROM PATSY POWER
Patsy Power - 23 06 08 - 00:23
Congrats on the house, Hon. Melaena gave me your blog address. I hope you don’t mind. 
Do you want the name of someone who built a house a few years ago? She’ll know people you should speak to about reno stuff.
freya () - 07 07 08 - 15:12
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