Journey of a Homeowner

A true story of a First Time Home Buyer.

It seems almost every post is about fixing or renovating something else. I guess that is the life of a homeowner. I wont say I dont enjoy it but I do know as time goes on all these big projects will get finished. Then all I will be left with are small projects that I feel like doing. Fingers crossed I dont think of more bigger ones. Laugh.

In the long run, hopefully every project that I take on will only increase the value of my house. That is the true goal. That way when I go to sell I have a better spread to work with. Then I can start the entire process all over again. The goal next time would be to do it faster and try for a flip. If I can do a flip, this blog will take a drastic turn in direction. Flipping is an entire different bottle of wax.

At the same time, I may not sell this house. My current goal is to pay off as much as I can. I even have a spreadsheet that shows that its possible to pay off the house in 61 months. That time frame requires a room mate but it is possible. Ill then be 33 and own my home outright. That would be pretty impressive.

Having all that extra money every month. I would be doing a lot of traveling and investing. I think owning your home is one of the biggest steps to becoming wealthy. Just think about the money you spend every month. That biggest payment is either your rent or mortgage. If its your car, you either live at home or have several room mates or you possibly made a bad decision on a new car (Sorry but Dave Ramsey says so).

I like the idea of owning this home. I feel like I could accomplish a lot more in life. Thats an extra $15,000 a year. Thats a nice pile of cash to have around. I have a lot to think about in the next coming years. You will all find out what happens too.

Working on getting the apartment whipped back into shape. It really wont take much as I was a good tenant. Its still more work that I thought it was going to be. Need to scrub down pretty much everything, vacuum the floors, clean the bathrooms, and anything else that might look dirty. If they ding me for the leak in the ceiling and it ruining the floor I will be pissed. They have known about the leak for over a month and have chosen to do nothing about it since I was moving out. I have had a bucket catching the water while I was there but after leaving it has had nothing to catch it.

I got to spend the entire weekend in my new home. It was very cereale. Everything I looked at or touched was mine. I no longer had to worry about someone else saying I cant do something (at least with the inside of the house, HOA controls some aspects of the outside). Overall I was very happy.

Most of my stuff is still in boxes. Most of it will stay that way until I finish painting. I will be setting up time with my realtor to go over ideas for the house. That way I don't make any mistakes that could hurt the resale of the house. I know one thing he is really going to try and talk me out of, that's the removal of the popcorn ceiling. I hate it. I want to scrape it down. I know its a personal thing and I know it wont bring any more value to the house. I just hate looking at it.

Another item I think he is going to shoot down is changing all the wall outlets to the GFCI and using new oil rubbed bronze face plates. Including all wall plates (light switch, ect) with the same kind. I think that would give a very nice finished look to the walls after painting everything. If I do all that then ill replace the door handles and bathroom fixers with matching finishes. I think it would be a good selling point. But I don't know.

I know he really wants me to renovate the kitchen and I agree entirely. That project will have to wait though. My first bid for it came in around 12k. I think ill end up doing it myself. Do it in sections. I also plan to get a home equity line of credit. A HELOC is basically a credit card that is equal to a percentage of the equity in your home. Since I bought a foreclosure, I have about 30k in instant equity. So I will have a good limit to work with. You also get a fixed rate with them. Low 5-6%. Beats a 22% APR any day of the week.

I manage to pay off all my credit cards before I purchased my home. Dave Ramsey showed me the way. Double up on the smallest and when that one is paid off, take what you were paying on it and apply it to another one. Keep compounding until everything is payed off. Im currently working on my car and student loan. I was hoping to get my car paid off before I found a house. But I know I got a good deal and it will be worth it in the long run.

Today is moving day. It reminds me of the character from Fallout. He is finally venturing out into the Wasteland (fallout fan here). In my case, im going into home ownership and all the responsibilities that it brings.

Looks like all but one person will make it this morning. Not to shabby I think. Three guys can get this done. Its only a two bedroom apartment with very little furniture and the drive is not that far at all.

To give you an idea of what I have to move.

Big items:
Queen Bed
King Bed
King Bed Rails
Chester Drawers
Coffee Table
Dining Room Table
Dining Room Chairs
One Area Rug
Home Theater Subs (Pictures soon)

Getting rid of:
Dresser
Couch (Possibly)
Computer Desk

And of course plenty of boxes. I was able to get everything packed Friday night. I want today to go as smooth and painless as possible. The pain being the two flights of stairs from my apartment.

So as you can see. I really don't own that much stuff. If we get done in three hours, that would be awesome. The only way that would not happens is if we hit the beer a little to hard. With this crowd I wouldn't be surprised either. Good news is that I will have a box truck with a lift gate for two 30 packs. That's a deal that would be pretty hard to beat.

I think once we get everything moved. I'll order some pizza for everyone. That the least that I could do for helping me out. Pizza and Beer. I think that would make for a good afternoon. Plus my lender said it would be a good idea to make pizza my first meal in the home. She said it would be the best pizza I ever eat, since I will be eating it in my own home. I think she will be right. I'll even splurge and get some from the local pizza shop that is awesome.

I'll spend most of the night unpacking. Hopefully no one plans to have a party at my house. My friend had the idea of throwing one to break in the neighbors, Not the house. That thought scared me. Don't want to piss off the neighbors to soon. Im already worried that my home theater will be to loud (slowly building an IMAX audio experience). I'll do something after I finish painting. That's all I really want to do right away with the house.

Hopefully Sunday I can just relax and enjoy the day. I will need to go out and pick out a fridge. Ugh. I hate spending money. It was hard enough handing over the down payment Thursday.

I woke up today stairing at the ceiling of my apartment. Got up and went to the bathroom. As I was brushing my teeth it hit. Tomorrow i'll be moving into my new home. A house that I can call mine. I just kind of paused in the mirror thinking about that. Today is a good day.

Finished eating breakfast and started looking around the apartment. I still have some packing that I need to get done before Saturday. I have my buddies coming over to help me move and one is bringing a box truck.

When I first planned on moving. I called up my buddy and told him how I was renting a truck. Told him if I can get three people together, the move could be done in 2 hours (I dont have much). He asked how much the truck was. Its $45+Miles if less than 3 hours or 69+Miles if it takes longer. It was a long silence. "Hello?" I said. "Yeah...Tell you what..Buy me a 30 pack and i'll borrow the 16 foot box truck from work." Now thats a deal. Also a good friend. What he doesnt know is that I picked up two 30 packs. He did have one stipulation. "Have your stuff packed. Were movers, not packers."

I will spend most of the night making sure I have everything packed. I will also mark what I plan to throw away. No reason to pack what you dont need or want anyway.

I know work today will feel very long. All I will be thinking about is my home. I want to get settled in as soon as possible. I still need to meet my neigbors. Hopefully they are cool.

I also have to take time this weekend to figure out what I am going to do about a refrigerator. Thanks for all the recommendations. I will let you all know what I choose.

I have access to my fridge at the apartment tell the end of the month. After that I will be done with it and them. Which also reminds me. I need to get this place spotless so I can get my deposit back from them. They better not screw me on something either. I could use that money towards appliances.