Our House
Mealnie's post encouraged me to consider how I feel about our house. The short story is that I like it: I like having space and I like our location.
I really like our house. Overall, I think the most important thing is that we found a great neighborhood. There are lots of big trees and bushes. The yards are bigger than a lot of newer, cookie-cutter neighborhoods, and we can enjoy our backyard without feeling like we're on top of our neighbors. It's close to my job and somewhat close to Penney's job, and we're always going in the opposite direction of the heaviest traffic. We're close enough to downtown that we never view it as a hassle to get there.
Around the house, I feel like there's just enough maintenance work without it being a burden. There are some things that get put off, like coming up with a plan to keep our lawn healthy and spending money to have someone trim dead branches from our trees. In general, the maintenance is pretty easy: mowing, raking, cleaning out flower beds. I feel like there will always be little things to do, like fixing molding, repainting our scuffed hallway walls, and buying new window shades. There are big projects I have in mind too: remodeling our bathrooms and modernizing our kitchen and appliances. There are some annoyances that we'll probably never change--I really wish we didn't have blown ceilings.
Our floorplan is pretty good. Having three bedrooms works well for us. We have an office, which is essential for piling up things like photos, bills, bags, wires, and general office supplies--things you need to keep around but don't want cluttering up your day-to-day living spaces. We have a guest room that's really just for guests (and for folding laundry when we don't have any guests); it's good to have a space that guests can take over without feeling like they're in the way of your office clutter. The office also gives us enough space for an extra bed so we really can have two guests at the same time (my parents and my sister are coming down this weekend) without anyone sleeping on couches. I think it's great that all of our bedrooms are on one side of the house and the other side is just for living and entertaining.
The way the living space side of the house fits together is my only gripe about our floorplan. The living room and dining room are just one big rectangular space. We have couches on one side and a table with four chairs on the other; it seems awkward to not have the rooms broken up in a more definite way. Our family room and kitchen are connected. The kitchen counter extends into the family room with space for counter-height barstools; the only problem is that we don't want bar stools. We've moved our furniture around in the family room (and in the living room) at lest three times (including last weekend) because we still haven't found a configuration that's totally satisfying. With the television, the fireplace, the overhanging counter, our somewhat sprawling couches, and a clear pathway to the back door, it just doesn't all seem to fit. The fireplace is on the back wall; for a while we had the television on the left wall and the couch and loveseat on the right wall at an obtuse angle to each other. That worked pretty well until we tried to use the family room for entertaining (convenient since it's next to the kitchen), we realized that having both couches pointed towards the TV is not conducive to conversation. Now the TV is on the same wall but the couches form a right angle and point somewhere between the TV and the fireplace. We'll see how long this setup lasts. With all of our furniture arrangements, the overhanging kitchen counter just doesn't seem to fit in. I'm not really interested in stools because I don't think we would ever use them, but it looks kind of silly to have a countertop hanging over a couch.
One thing that I consider a lesson learned from the house buying process is that it's important to fully understand any advice you take. I feel like I was naive to blindly take the advice of my parents and my parents' friends that buying a house is always the right thing to do because houses always go up in value. Obviously the downturn in the real estate market is a major shift from the trends of the past several years. Also, I don't actually think we would have saved much money by waiting in the Charleston real estate market. However, the general trend drives home the point that it's good to fully understand advice and big decisions, rather than only marginally understanding the ramifications of those decisions and making big assumptions to fill in the gaps.
Overall, what I'm saying is that I like our house. Mostly I like having the space of 1700 square feet and I don't think we would find that as easily if we were renting. Above all else, location is the most important thing.
I really like our house. Overall, I think the most important thing is that we found a great neighborhood. There are lots of big trees and bushes. The yards are bigger than a lot of newer, cookie-cutter neighborhoods, and we can enjoy our backyard without feeling like we're on top of our neighbors. It's close to my job and somewhat close to Penney's job, and we're always going in the opposite direction of the heaviest traffic. We're close enough to downtown that we never view it as a hassle to get there.
Around the house, I feel like there's just enough maintenance work without it being a burden. There are some things that get put off, like coming up with a plan to keep our lawn healthy and spending money to have someone trim dead branches from our trees. In general, the maintenance is pretty easy: mowing, raking, cleaning out flower beds. I feel like there will always be little things to do, like fixing molding, repainting our scuffed hallway walls, and buying new window shades. There are big projects I have in mind too: remodeling our bathrooms and modernizing our kitchen and appliances. There are some annoyances that we'll probably never change--I really wish we didn't have blown ceilings.
Our floorplan is pretty good. Having three bedrooms works well for us. We have an office, which is essential for piling up things like photos, bills, bags, wires, and general office supplies--things you need to keep around but don't want cluttering up your day-to-day living spaces. We have a guest room that's really just for guests (and for folding laundry when we don't have any guests); it's good to have a space that guests can take over without feeling like they're in the way of your office clutter. The office also gives us enough space for an extra bed so we really can have two guests at the same time (my parents and my sister are coming down this weekend) without anyone sleeping on couches. I think it's great that all of our bedrooms are on one side of the house and the other side is just for living and entertaining.
The way the living space side of the house fits together is my only gripe about our floorplan. The living room and dining room are just one big rectangular space. We have couches on one side and a table with four chairs on the other; it seems awkward to not have the rooms broken up in a more definite way. Our family room and kitchen are connected. The kitchen counter extends into the family room with space for counter-height barstools; the only problem is that we don't want bar stools. We've moved our furniture around in the family room (and in the living room) at lest three times (including last weekend) because we still haven't found a configuration that's totally satisfying. With the television, the fireplace, the overhanging counter, our somewhat sprawling couches, and a clear pathway to the back door, it just doesn't all seem to fit. The fireplace is on the back wall; for a while we had the television on the left wall and the couch and loveseat on the right wall at an obtuse angle to each other. That worked pretty well until we tried to use the family room for entertaining (convenient since it's next to the kitchen), we realized that having both couches pointed towards the TV is not conducive to conversation. Now the TV is on the same wall but the couches form a right angle and point somewhere between the TV and the fireplace. We'll see how long this setup lasts. With all of our furniture arrangements, the overhanging kitchen counter just doesn't seem to fit in. I'm not really interested in stools because I don't think we would ever use them, but it looks kind of silly to have a countertop hanging over a couch.
One thing that I consider a lesson learned from the house buying process is that it's important to fully understand any advice you take. I feel like I was naive to blindly take the advice of my parents and my parents' friends that buying a house is always the right thing to do because houses always go up in value. Obviously the downturn in the real estate market is a major shift from the trends of the past several years. Also, I don't actually think we would have saved much money by waiting in the Charleston real estate market. However, the general trend drives home the point that it's good to fully understand advice and big decisions, rather than only marginally understanding the ramifications of those decisions and making big assumptions to fill in the gaps.
Overall, what I'm saying is that I like our house. Mostly I like having the space of 1700 square feet and I don't think we would find that as easily if we were renting. Above all else, location is the most important thing.