It's unreal how much actual home ownership keeps you on your toes! Nothing can prepare you for it!
I remember when my other half and I first moved in together. If was before we were married and we rented for a few years while we saved and saved for our own place. It was tough on the bank account as we paid our rent each month and much of whatever was left went into the ‘deposit’ fund. Years later when we had enough we bought our first home and got married. Everything was fantastic, until we discovered how much actual home ownership keeps you on your toes.
There was no book to prepare us for this, so I thought I’d write a blog to help others!
If the house you’ve bought is not brand new- you’ll discover some weird stuff.
We found random garden tools in the plants and trees in the garden. Christmas decorations dating back to the 80’s in the attic, some Ann and Barry books and old school copies from the previous owner’s kids and a mortgage bill that was in £pounds and the monthly total amounts to what we’re probably paying by the day in 2015.
Imperfections will send you into a tail spin.
Scratches on your new floors from recent visitors. Marks on your freshly painted walls. A broken mug from your even matching set of six. Gasp!
Beige walls no more!
The vast majority of places we rented were painted a good old shade of magnolia. We were starved for colour!
Inheriting décor
Again, if it’s not a new house, until you have the time and money, you will have to live with the decorating decisions of the previous owners and if they are not to your liking they’ll drive you crazy every single day!
If it looks easy on YouTube- sometimes it’s not!
When we sanded our floors, we followed the YouTube guy because he made it look so easy. It was a total disaster. We hired a professional to fix it.
Think before you accept hand-me-downs
Before you accept lots of items from well-meaning relatives and friends – think about it. Do you really need it? Are you just being polite? If you need it and it will fit in your new home – super! If you are just being polite and don’t want to offend anyone, I suggest you politely decline. If not you’ll have a mountain of stuff you don’t really want or need and it’s a big deal trying to move it on.
You won't need a gym if you have a garden
After all of the weeding, cutting back trees, mowing, planting and raking you are going to do some great workouts!
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The noise factor
If you’ve gone from living in an apartment to a house, you won't hear people walking across your ceiling anymore. You won’t hear voices in the hall in the middle of the night. It will be quiet and it might take a little getting used to.
No more trauma for on street parking
If you have ever rented in the city, you can relate to how awful on street parking is, especially if you’ve come home late. Then there’s the damage often caused to your car like a missing wing mirror or horrible scratches and dents. If you’ve got one, you’ll love your driveway, and will want to kiss the private bit of concrete your car sleeps on each night!
Storage! There’s never enough of it!
When you're a homeowner, you're also a handyman/woman, a decorator, a chef, a gardener and a host. You suddenly have a whole slew of other occupations but they all require space to store their tools of the trade.
