That Smith

How is the house?

I find this a strange question because no one ever asked how the apartment was, and you never hear anyone ask friends or family how their houses are. Maybe it’s something people ask new homeowners. The house is fine? I don’t know, but it is nice to have a place to live.

We began looking at houses in the spring before we could even afford one (blame HGTV for that). At the time my goal for 2007 was to find a better job so we could eventually get a house.

I was offered a higher paying job in mid August so we hired the best real estate agents in Wichita and begin looking at houses regularly. We found an older house in East Wichita, but held off making an offer because the position I was offered was a financial advising position that would revert to commission-only after a few years.

I interviewed for my current position in September and was offered the job a few days later. Unfortunately, the house we originally wanted sold on the same day. Funny story though:

Back in June, Laura and I looked at houses in the $100,000 to $120,000 range. After we couldn’t agree on anything we decided to waste time by looking online at houses we could never afford. There was a house that just went on the market for $150,000. I remember being astounded by pictures of its beautiful stone facade, its en-suite jacuzzi tub, and thinking how fancy it would be to live on a street named Willo-Esque.

That happens to be the house we purchased a few months later.

We made an offer in mid September and learned the previous owners were stuck in an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM). Because of that, they were downsizing to a $60,000 home. This house had not sold after the three months because they did a lousy job preparing it and staging to sell. Plus it had urine stains in the basement carpet from their dogs (replacing it is our first project along with removing the outdated wallpaper).

We have lived there a month, and so far the utilities cost 5x less than any of our apartments. We bought a new fridge, washer and dryer, ripped out the basement carpet, have a kitchen table being delivered today, and will begin painting the basement in the next few weeks.

We plan to re-carpet the basement sometime in January. Read Eight thoughts from my first week as a homeowner.

To answer the question, thus far it has been great owning a house.

Since everyone likes before and after pictures, here are some my mom took before we started our basement remodel:

The basement hallway had worn carpet and outdated wallpaper with an ugly1980’s texture.

The previous owners painted over the wallpaper in the second bedroom and gave it a hideous border.

We removed the carpet, wallpaper, and window treatments in each of the rooms, and as I mentioned, we’ll begin painting in the next couple weeks. We will also tile the downstairs bathroom.