I have been a homeowner for about three and a half years now. It has been quite trying at times because lots of things have gone wrong with the house, most of which were not obvious problems, but overall it has been wonderful to finally have a home of my own. Here are 13 things I have learned from being a homeowner.
1. Water always wins. I have learned this the hard way…too many times.
2. It takes a couple days to air out a house after it has been sprayed by a skunk.
3. Good contractors are extremely rare and very few can correctly diagnose a problem. How can so many be late or not show up at all? These people would be fired in any other profession.
4. Everything costs 3 times what I think it should.
5. Putting holes (even big ones) in the wall is not as scary as I thought. They are easy to fix.
6. Nice furniture is really expensive and it takes lots of it to fill a house, so my house is pretty empty. People often ask if we just moved in or if we are moving out.
7. I like to paint and I am pretty good at it. It may take me weeks to complete a room, but it will look good when it is done.
8. More bathrooms = more things that can leak.
9. Do not look at the old carpet and pad after it is pulled out when getting new carpet. I made that mistake and the stains were shocking. Next time…new carpet before I move into a house.
10. Most appliances have a life of about 12 years. I bought my house when it was 11.5 years old
11. The difference between wood floors cupping and crowning. Neither is good and I have seen both happen to my floors.
12. Do not walk around your house with a black light unless you are prepared for some disgusting findings.
13. Having a mortgage is not as daunting as I thought.
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4 comments:
Great TT! We just bought our first home about 6 weeks ago. We are rennovating it before we move in (in 3 more weeks), so most of your items on that list ring true! Except for having an air filter sprayed by a skunk. Can't say I've ever had that happen ... I think I'd just buy a new filter!
Eeeek........ black lights are not allowed in my house! We have 2 furbabies and I'm sure they've made some type of mess we don't know about. lol! Great list!
Great TT and some good points. We hope to own our own home within the next 3 years.
Pop by The Cafe for my TT this week.
I love this because I am hoping to buy a house this year. I really identified with the one about contractors. I plan to do such intense research and hold such strong boundaries with contractors, because I don't want to have any more of those horror stories I hear than is absolutely necessary. I keep meaning to blog about working toward buying a house... maybe I can make it a thursday 13 somehow!
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