Feeling grateful that we had finally got our first home and I just want to capture the memory a bit so we can refer back to it and not have it totally forgotten.
Although we had been researching for over a year beforehand, when we decided to take a plunge, it was still quite unnerving since we didn’t have any experience at all.
When we decided to dial up our effort in our house search, the situation was becoming more stressful for the next three months. We had to start looking for a real estate agent, then the pace picked up so fast going from one house to the next.
To see different houses in shapes and forms, it was an interesting process to say the least. While, a few houses were really nice, some others can be categorized as totally weird. For the nice ones that we liked, since the market was really competitive at the time, they got snatched within days or we were just overbid.
Finally, we did end up with a house that we liked in terms of location, layout, and within our budget range. It’s an old house so it’s in no way perfect or ideal. I think there will be a lot of work required to make it nice. But at the very least it was move-in ready when we bought it. All in all, we still see it as a God’s blessing to be able to own the house in what we found out later to be a very good neighborhood (again, first time we weren’t that savvy but we did make the right choice in the location).
With that said, since it’s an old house, it does look have some potential problems. For starters, many of receptacles were not grounded. The service panel and sub-panel were old that we had it upgraded and also rewired before we moved in. Additionally, we also had to add more lights to make the living room and kitchen brighter.
Show Appreciation
Regardless of what condition you receive your possession, I think the first thing we need to do is to show appreciation to it. We have to remember, we can always receive something better or worse, but it will never be perfect so be grateful for what you have. Do not think that your house is too much or too cheap (is there such a thing?). Whatever the value is, be appreciative that you got it and it’s yours for your enjoyment.
Learning Experience
Now, we are not under any illusions that the house will require a lot of work and expenses to improve and maintain going forward. It’s going to be a huge learning experience for us as this is our first home and we do not have any experience in home renovation or even simple fixing. There’s going to be a huge learning curve for me to be handy so we are quite realistic in our expectations that there will be headaches just to maintain an old house. There will be broken things to fix. But again, there could also be some exciting home future projects to have.
Footnote
I want to mention one website that was really helpful to prepare us in all this, that is How to Buy a House website by Michael Bluejay. This is not an affiliated link as he doesn’t know us and we don’t know him. We ran across his website in our research and was amazed at the level of details he provided in teaching us how to find real estate agents, questions to ask, and all the steps we needed to do to make it happen. And I’m sure we’re not the only one benefiting from his shared knowledge in buying their first home and if you also are in the same boat as we were before, I suggest you to check it out.
