You saw the list, now here’s the WHY?

I know after reading my list of things I want to do to this house, a lot of you had some very good questions.  I’ve been hearing these questions over the last year as I’ve been complaining chipping away at some projects and decided to explain WHY we bought this house.

 

First, I  do like a few things about this house — as is.  I love the exterior.  I love how it looks like a tiny, little, humble abode from the front but when you get inside it surprises you.  I love our secluded lot.  I like that we have instant hot water.  I like that there is plenty of space to make it what I want it to be.  But there is SOOOO much that I need to do to make it what I want it to be…so WHY did we buy it?

 

Why not build?

I’d love to build our dream house.  Or at least build a house that we can afford that looks and functions exactly like I want it to.  The problem is we never stay anywhere long enough to warrant building a dream house.  Or building a house at all, really.  We’ve lived in two areas for 18 months.  By the time we searched for the “just right spot” to build a home and then went back and forth with an architect … who am I kidding, it would be back and forth and back and forth and back and … we might already be starting the process of moving again.  It’s best for us to find a home that we think we can add value to (with my skill, time and effort and as little $$ as possible.)  That is also why trying to stick to one room/project at a time is important.  It’s not as difficult to throw ONE project through the finish line so you can move as it is to try to toss a whole house of projects through!

Not that I’m planning on moving any time soon.  This is just how we live.

So for now, building is out of the question.  I want a house we can live in while I make it awesome.  Living in that apartment for 3 months last summer while we searched for a house was miserable.  I’d rather be overwhelmed by a list of things I’m planning to do than spend my days looking at all the things I’d love to change but can’t because — it’s just a rental.

 

Why this house?

We had a really hard time finding a house to buy this time around.  We’ve purchased 5 homes in all our moves.  I’ve always found a house to purchase in our “one week house-hunting trip”.   This time, it took 3 months.  I looked at probably 150 homes.  I looked at a dozen of those 2 or 3 times.  I looked at this one about 5 times.  It came down to this one and one that was about 20 years old, needed a complete remodel and new roof and new water heater, A/C units, heat pump…and had an unfinished basement.  And, it was even more expensive per sq/ft than this one.  So, we bought this one.  It needs a complete remodel inside but all the other things are new and so we shouldn’t have to spend any money on those invisible necessities.  (I hate spending money on those things!)

It boils down to:  This is the one we thought could best become one we could love at a price we could afford and we didn’t want to keep waiting for something else to come on the market to see if it was a better fit.  We’ll be happy with it eventually.  Sometimes you just have to make a decision and then move forward.

No matter what house we ever buy, you know I’ll be putting my touch on it.  This time around, there are more things I find very irritating about the function of the house and stupid little things that could have been done better for no more money during the build but for whatever reason…

Well, it is what it is.  This is the house we bought.  This is the house we have.

 

Why not hire this work out and get it done quickly?

Uhm…$$$  It’s as simple as that.

We knew that we would have to spend money to make this house awesome.  There’s no two ways about it, doing it myself saves us TONS of money.  If I were to hire out everything I want done, I would have already blown my “entire house remodeling budget” (and I’ve only done the Master Closet, my Workshop and a portion of a couple other rooms).  I could probably get a job and work for 4 or 5 years and save up enough to hire it out but I’d be done myself by then so …WHY do that?

I’ll have to hire some of it out but I have to pick and choose because every dime I pay for labor is $ not spent on THINGS I need like appliances, lights, sinks, faucets…  Things that have to be purchased no matter WHO puts them in.  (Like that $6000 ceiling fan light I want so bad for my bedroom!  LOL.   JK.   Not.)

I really do think I’ll be very happy with this house when I’m done with it.  I think it can be an AMAZING house.  It’s just going to take some time.  Time and money and sweat … and some tears.  There will be tears.

 

Hopefully mostly tears of joy but you never know!  🙂