I bought a house!!

[.Poppy.]

After three years of house hunting and several rejected offers, I finally got lucky and snagged one! It's a cute two bedroom bungalow built in 1920, pretty close to the heart of town. It's near the university campus, so there are college kids in the neighborhood - but I've lived in college neighborhoods as well as "family" neighborhoods and in my experience, college kids are a lot nicer.

It needs some work, mostly cosmetic and I'm lucky because my dad can do all of it. So I'm looking forward to that.

We are adjusting - my dog has bad anxiety and big time stranger danger so there's a big adjustment period for him. He's getting a bit better though, and I think it will be better still once I get a fence put up. Once he's settled in a bit more I'll bring my cat who is currently staying with my parents.

I just had to post because it's been a long road and is simultaneously a huge relief to not house hunt and a massive stress to have to care for a house :wacko:

[Fishmanpa]

CONGRATS! :yesyes:

May you and your pupper enjoy your new digs ;)

The wife and I bought the townhouse we had been renting for the last ten years last summer. Our mortgage is less than our rent and we can finally do some of the things we've been wanting to do. If I had my dithers, I would have liked to have purchased a single home but this has been our place since we've been together, the maintenance is minimal and with the way the real estate market is now, we got a phenomenal deal. We're comfortable and close to retirement so yeah... unless we hit the lottery, we're good :) We've already done some cosmetic stuff and will be doing some other improvements in the near future (getting our backyard fenced in with 6' fencing for our upcoming doggie addition :) ) and have done some painting and redecorating. I made the second bedroom into her craft room, sold the bedroom furniture that was in there and bought a sleeper sofa (We need a place to sleep for guests and when one of us is snoring, 'mostly her ~lol~). We're a mile from downtown, have Parks literally up the street and the Shenandoah a mile away so it will be great for the canine addition and she will be a walking and hiking partner for both of us.

There's just something about calling it your "home" that is such a great feeling. My wife, since we've been together, has made it that way and she still says, no matter where we're retuning from (shopping, trips etc., "Home Sweet Home")

Enjoy it Poppy... you so much deserve it!

Positive thoughts

[AntsyVee]

Mazeltov, Poppy!!!! :yesyes:

[WiredIncorrectly]

Congratulations Poppy! It must feel amazing to have the keys to your own home.

[.Poppy.]

Thank you!! I do love being close to things; I wish my dog were friendlier so he could go on long walks to the park or cafes. I actually looked at half of a duplex that I loved, but I'm glad to have a single family as I don't have to worry about his crying when I leave :yesyes:

It is nice to have it be yours, and do things that you want without it lining someone else's pocket. And it's great to pay less than rent. Congrats to you and your wife as well!

[WiredIncorrectly]

I'd be super excited about decorating, and being able to do what you like. Have you moved in yet?

[.Poppy.]

I'm pretty much totally moved in. My dad put built in shelves in my office instead of a traditional closet bar, and of course I'm insisting on wallpapering the back, so I have to wait until I get that done before I can put my books away. Everything else is put away (my basement is a disaster and I need to organize that next).

And decorating - I need to bring all of my pictures and hang them up. That's going to be fun! I'm also going to the vintage shop on Thursday because I can finally have the blanket ladder I've always wanted.

[WiredIncorrectly]

Wow, you have a basement? In the UK it's rare to have homes with basements. I too have a lot of books and I'd love to have a room I can call my own with my books and my computer. That's what I'd use the basement for. It's all in the bedroom atm :roflmao: This is an inspirational post for me and I thank you for posting. My goal is to own my own home.

[.Poppy.]

Wired - I'm glad and I hope you are able to achieve that goal! :) It was really difficult because I'm in a college town, and my budget was very much in the fixer-upper range and there are some really sad houses that have just been rented within an inch of their lives. Plus, I was competing with people who were just looking for an income property, so things that were important to me (does it need a new roof? new plumbing?) really didn't matter to those buyers because they wouldn't fix them unless they absolutely had to. So it was competitive and I'm glad to be done with it for a good while.

We have tornadoes where I live, so it's a good idea to have a basement, but my last house (I rented) was in a flood plain so didn't have one. I had to drive to my workplace on the university campus with my dog as the sirens were going off, more than once. :ohmy: It's nice to not have to do that. The basement isn't finished, but that's fine - I really just love that there is so much storage down there.

[WiredIncorrectly]

Tornados and floods, crikey! We do have floods over here but nothing like the US. Tornados look fascinating but I'd imagine it's very worrying for those that live in Tornado areas.

Ah, so you was competing with buyers who were looking to rent to students? Student homes are grim over here, and landlords really couldn't care for the state of the property so long as it barely passed regulations. I lived in a couple and that was always my experience.

A fixer upper home is what I'd be looking at too. The good thing with student areas is students are generally decent people. I hope it's nothing like Seth Rogans Neighbors :roflmao:

What do you teach/study if you don't mind me asking?

[.Poppy.]

Oh yes, student homes can be quite grim. What happens (sadly) is they rent out these awesome historic homes and don't do any maintenance and just let them go until they can't anymore, then they sell to a developer to tear down for apartments.

I kind of love living in/near a college neighborhood - I've found college kids are usually pretty nice and chill individuals.

I actually work in a research compliance office at my university. So we take in research proposals and evaluate them to make sure the research is ethical and all guidelines are being followed. I'm the main admin person in the office so I see it all. I love my job - pays peanuts, but it's great and the people I work with are awesome. I'm in grad school for university student affairs, which I took because I love working at a university and I can take classes for free since I work there. But, I'm also kind of considering taking on technical writing to see if I enjoy that. I've written lots of SOP manuals for my office and have found I'm pretty good at it, and there is apparently quite a promising field in technical writing.

[glassgirlw]

Poppy, this is amazing news!! Congratulations!! Owning your own home is such a huge step, you and your pupper (And kitty) will be so happy! I’m with you on the basement especially with pets. Tornadoes here as well and were back in siren season now. Just drove home with them blaring a couple weeks ago. No sooner pulled out of work parking lot and they started going off lol. Always have the worst timing.

enjoy your new home, and have fun decorating! I love the vintage/antique/flea shops! Such great finds.

[WiredIncorrectly]

Oh yes, student homes can be quite grim. What happens (sadly) is they rent out these awesome historic homes and don't do any maintenance and just let them go until they can't anymore, then they sell to a developer to tear down for apartments.

I kind of love living in/near a college neighborhood - I've found college kids are usually pretty nice and chill individuals.

I actually work in a research compliance office at my university. So we take in research proposals and evaluate them to make sure the research is ethical and all guidelines are being followed. I'm the main admin person in the office so I see it all. I love my job - pays peanuts, but it's great and the people I work with are awesome. I'm in grad school for university student affairs, which I took because I love working at a university and I can take classes for free since I work there. But, I'm also kind of considering taking on technical writing to see if I enjoy that. I've written lots of SOP manuals for my office and have found I'm pretty good at it, and there is apparently quite a promising field in technical writing.

Honestly, that sounds like a great job if you can take free classes. I love to study. I think I could manage a job in a University library if I got to take free classes. So long as the basic bills are paid I could study forever.

I do a fair bit of technical writing but it's more so with setting up web servers and such like. $200 per article is about the going rate. What other areas involve technical writing? I've not really thought about it outside of IT.