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.

When I purchase the home, I went in knowing that it had some cosmetic issues. Namely some wood rot on the outside of the house. One particular area is the patio. where the over head wood connects to the house, they did not leave a gap for rain so pass through. So what happens is that the water ends up making a puddle. Standing water is really bad when it comes to wood.

I feel this area may be kind of expensive. I'm hoping it won't be as this part of the remodel will be out of pocket.

The second relativly bad area is by where the utilies come into the house. The siding panels have started to rot away. This is by far the easiest section to fix.


I really like the fact the house does not have vinyl siding. I just hate the way it looks. It reminds me of the 80's. Its not timeless like other types of siding. Look at tudor style siding. Its been around for hundreds of years. It still looks great even today. Rant off.

I had my Realtor come over. He doesn't like my fridge. He thinks its way to big for the size of the kitchen. I agree to an extent but I'm not going to leave the refrigerator to the next owners. They can have everything else.

We did go over some great ideas of what to do with the place. He wants me to keep my focus on the top floor. Dont do anything to the down stairs. No matter what I do it will always be a man cave and man caves do nothing for the resell value of a home. No walk out to boot. I agree with him. Ill just put my home theater down there.

We decided that the best idea for the kitchen is to take the dimensions and go to home depot. They will take the dimension and render my drawings of the designs that I come up with or they can do it for you. I think this will save a lot of time, plus I wont have to pay for custom cabinets. They will all be stock cabinets. And after removing one of my base cabinets. I don't it would be that hard to put new ones up myself. Few screws and your done. Oh and a nice level. That way things are square. All the appliances will be stainless to match the fridge.

We moved on to the living/dining room. Going to go with lighter paints. While the sun room connected to the dining room can go a couple shades darker since it has so much natural light. The trim will stay white. Going to replace the lighting in the dining room with a nice ceiling fan that has built in lighting. Since the room is so big and has vaulted ceilings, this will help with ventilation.

Then comes the bathrooms. The two bathrooms are connected by a bathtub. Its also know as a hollywood bath. Not sure who came up with that name. The guest part of the bathroom will be painted. A new faucet and vanity will be installed. Toilet will stay. Just clean it up and put a new seat on it. The master part of the bath will need a new mirror. New faucet and vanity also needed. Huge mirror to go across the vanity. Both will need tile and trim. Now the center part (the actual bath). This room is going to be converted to a giant shower room with two heads and seating area. I think this will be huge selling point. My Realtor thought the same thing. And this was my idea. I felt great about that.

Still trying to get some photos together. Just so you know I am talking about a real home and not a fictional one.