Let me start off by saying I LOVE our house. I LOVE that we own our house. Back in California, Mark and I lived in 2 different one bedroom apartments. The first one was in a great area of Menlo Park, and was wonderful. Quiet, close to shops, A/C, new, it was pretty nice. Except for the steep rent check. In retrospect, we were paying WAY too much for that place, and when we finally realized it, we moved in to our second apartment. This apartment was not in a great area (we lived literally on the train tracks), no A/C, water/toilet that randomly stopped working, and it was further away from our work. BUT, we saved almost $1000 a MONTH. That tells you how much we were paying for our first apartment!
Anyway, when we moved here and were able to buy this house, we discovered all the perks and pitfalls of owning our own house! We have so much space in our house, and we our free to decorate and paint and do whatever we want to the place! Plus, there's the potential to increase the value of our house by doing some of the projects we have decided to do. Another perk... our house is SO quiet. We can't hear our neighbors conversations through the walls, or car alarms going off on the streets, or trains zooming by our place every 20 minutes!! Amazing! And, I never realized how much I would like this aspect of home ownership, but we are really getting to know our neighbors, and they are amazing!! We have the kindest, most friendly neighbors, and our street is so kid safe that the little neighborhood kids all play outside together. We haven't been here that long, but we've already been to a few neighborhood BBQs, one neighbor's baby's christening, and a New Year's Party. Now, only minor downside... not many people our age are home owners, so our neighbors are all quite a bit older than us. In fact, we are closer in age to some of our neighbor's kids than we are to the parents. BUT, we love love love it nonetheless! Another perk of our house (sorry to be bragging, but it's such a beautiful day here and I'm just feeling in a happy mood!) is how close we are to the inlet. Now we aren't right by the beach per se, but just a few minutes of driving gets us to this big inlet, which is a bit warmer than the ocean, and it's shallow, so a great place for swimming. Plus, there are no waves and there is a little beach area, which is perfect for the kids in the summer! We went and had a picnic there last night!
Now, the downside. There is ALWAYS something to be done. The larger the house (and our house is by no means LARGE), the more cleaning there is to do on a regular basis. I feel like I need to vacuum all the time! And of course we have our large lawn, which needs to be mowed constantly. And don't get me started on the weeds!! Those things need to be pulled literally every other day, and that tends to be my job. BUT, I have such bad allergies, that when I spend time out pulling weeds, I feel miserable for the rest of the day! So I constantly am putting off weeding, and then our yard is a DISASTER!! If I could, I would just hire someone to come and remove all the weeds, and then I could just do maintenance. But that's not really a possibility, so I will just have to do it myself. Boo.
Also, now that we live in more than 800 square feet (apartment size), our energy bill is outrageous!! And we barely even use our heater or A/C! We do have a ventilation system that filters the air, so that's on quite a lot (it helps with my allergies so it's worth it), but I think we're pretty good about turning lights off and conserving energy when we can. Oh well, it is what it is.
Alright, I must go. There is work to be done! I need to take advantage of not having a big baby bump yet, because once that comes, I feel like the amount of work I get done gets greatly reduced. :)
Anyway, when we moved here and were able to buy this house, we discovered all the perks and pitfalls of owning our own house! We have so much space in our house, and we our free to decorate and paint and do whatever we want to the place! Plus, there's the potential to increase the value of our house by doing some of the projects we have decided to do. Another perk... our house is SO quiet. We can't hear our neighbors conversations through the walls, or car alarms going off on the streets, or trains zooming by our place every 20 minutes!! Amazing! And, I never realized how much I would like this aspect of home ownership, but we are really getting to know our neighbors, and they are amazing!! We have the kindest, most friendly neighbors, and our street is so kid safe that the little neighborhood kids all play outside together. We haven't been here that long, but we've already been to a few neighborhood BBQs, one neighbor's baby's christening, and a New Year's Party. Now, only minor downside... not many people our age are home owners, so our neighbors are all quite a bit older than us. In fact, we are closer in age to some of our neighbor's kids than we are to the parents. BUT, we love love love it nonetheless! Another perk of our house (sorry to be bragging, but it's such a beautiful day here and I'm just feeling in a happy mood!) is how close we are to the inlet. Now we aren't right by the beach per se, but just a few minutes of driving gets us to this big inlet, which is a bit warmer than the ocean, and it's shallow, so a great place for swimming. Plus, there are no waves and there is a little beach area, which is perfect for the kids in the summer! We went and had a picnic there last night!
Now, the downside. There is ALWAYS something to be done. The larger the house (and our house is by no means LARGE), the more cleaning there is to do on a regular basis. I feel like I need to vacuum all the time! And of course we have our large lawn, which needs to be mowed constantly. And don't get me started on the weeds!! Those things need to be pulled literally every other day, and that tends to be my job. BUT, I have such bad allergies, that when I spend time out pulling weeds, I feel miserable for the rest of the day! So I constantly am putting off weeding, and then our yard is a DISASTER!! If I could, I would just hire someone to come and remove all the weeds, and then I could just do maintenance. But that's not really a possibility, so I will just have to do it myself. Boo.
Also, now that we live in more than 800 square feet (apartment size), our energy bill is outrageous!! And we barely even use our heater or A/C! We do have a ventilation system that filters the air, so that's on quite a lot (it helps with my allergies so it's worth it), but I think we're pretty good about turning lights off and conserving energy when we can. Oh well, it is what it is.
Alright, I must go. There is work to be done! I need to take advantage of not having a big baby bump yet, because once that comes, I feel like the amount of work I get done gets greatly reduced. :)
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