Homeownership

Don't look too closely at how gross we look.
This was after all day moving, wearing the same clothes several days in a row, and probably a few skipped showers.

Owning a home is great. The day we realized that we could afford a mortgage payment was the best day ever. It is what all renters look forward too. There are things about owning a home where renting just doesn't do it. For example, we can put as many holes in the wall as we want. No more ridiculous rules demanding "there can only be one nail hole per wall" or "you can only use nails the gauge of a staple." To add to that, if we want to paint a wall, by golly we're painting a wall, and we don't even have to get the colors approved. No more of the insane asylum super gloss white that is easy to clean and nice and generic. Owning a home lets us decide who comes to visit and how long they stay. No landlords setting visiting limits that family shouldn't be stay for longer than a month because then they should probably collect a deposit from them. If we want someone to visit or even live with us, the door is open. Most importantly, the cats aren't an issue. The way I see it, kids have the potential to do more destruction that my cats; but landlords don't understand. Having our own house gives us full cat lady privileges: if we want more cats, so be it. And don't forget about the tax and investment benefits of owning a home. Now that is something to look forward to. But when you're renting, you can just tell that money good bye. Sounds great! But don't get me wrong, owning a home is only so fantastic until there are the downsides. Like the carpet. Surely it didn't look this worn when we looked at the house, did it? The house is about 2000 sq ft: that'll be a pretty penny to replace it all. And hear that rattling of the fridge? Yep that's the compressor going out. Better count on that being a couple hundred dollar fix. Or the fears of the "what if"s. What if the house burns down along with all of our belongings and life savings? You can't just replace that and now the lingering doom of possibility is on us. Or how about the water heater just unexpectedly going out. Yeah, its a $10 part but we can't fix it. Sure give me a book, give Bobby a computer, but a water heater?! That is out of our league. So we can call a repairman and he can come tell us that it just seemed to be a wire that had a slight short and worked when he giggled it. Yeah, we actually could've done that and saved money had we known; but that's just the joys of homeownership. You win some and you lose some; but in the end, you are just thankful for actually having a home and know that things could be worse.