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Let there be HOUSE
Aug. 17th, 2017 01:38 amWhoops I'm $200k in debt now. But that's ok, I have this under control. And it's for a good reason.
My current home: About 900 square feet.
My new home: About 1800 square feet of finished space, another 1500 of usable space in the attic and basement, not including the garage.
One problem I was encountering when looking at houses was that there was too much emphasis on finished space when a lot of it just had to be usable. It doesn't need to be ready to turn into another bedroom or another living room, it just has to be usable enough to keep stuff out of the way or work on messy projects without gumming up the nicer areas. Solid cement floor? Mostly dry? Enough room for me to stand up? Good enough. When an area gets changed from "usable" to "finished", I can deal with that. The problem is when an area gets turned into what I call "over-finished". That includes things like pool tables, bars, plush carpeting, fireplaces, crown moulding, and the area is partitioned off into smaller rooms. That's all fine and dandy but it starts limiting what else I can do with the space.
Is the new house completely perfect? No, but imperfect in a good way. It's immediately livable with some room for improvements. For example, the incandescent light bulbs are going to be replaced soon enough by LED lights, which are 4-5x more efficient. The place could use a ceiling fan or two. The deck that's there now is no larger than a fire escape and is ripe for replacement, naturally with something bigger. The upstairs bathroom will need a shower installed. These are things that can be done gradually, and don't interfere with me being able to live there.
The house does have the all-important garage. It doesn't have the giant pole-barn garage like I was hoping for, and the land its on is too small to add one, but it'll do. Oh yeah, one thing I noticed was that properties with ultra-large garages DID NOT stay on the market long. Typically a week at most. If it has a standard garage? It might be on the market for a month or two, it might be for longer. If it has a garage large enough to fit at least 4 cars and a lift? Blink and you'll miss it.
Anyway. The process of moving is well underway. I've already taken over a lot of loose items, small boxes, computer stuff, most of the Lego, and so on. Furniture and stuff that's packed in larger boxes will go in a truck, and I know after that's done, there's still going to be some small stuff to contend with, so I'll be making a bunch more trips by car.
There's also what's in storage, but that'll have to come back the same way it went in, a few boxes at a time. Maybe it's for the best that way.
Time to rest up.
My current home: About 900 square feet.
My new home: About 1800 square feet of finished space, another 1500 of usable space in the attic and basement, not including the garage.
One problem I was encountering when looking at houses was that there was too much emphasis on finished space when a lot of it just had to be usable. It doesn't need to be ready to turn into another bedroom or another living room, it just has to be usable enough to keep stuff out of the way or work on messy projects without gumming up the nicer areas. Solid cement floor? Mostly dry? Enough room for me to stand up? Good enough. When an area gets changed from "usable" to "finished", I can deal with that. The problem is when an area gets turned into what I call "over-finished". That includes things like pool tables, bars, plush carpeting, fireplaces, crown moulding, and the area is partitioned off into smaller rooms. That's all fine and dandy but it starts limiting what else I can do with the space.
Is the new house completely perfect? No, but imperfect in a good way. It's immediately livable with some room for improvements. For example, the incandescent light bulbs are going to be replaced soon enough by LED lights, which are 4-5x more efficient. The place could use a ceiling fan or two. The deck that's there now is no larger than a fire escape and is ripe for replacement, naturally with something bigger. The upstairs bathroom will need a shower installed. These are things that can be done gradually, and don't interfere with me being able to live there.
The house does have the all-important garage. It doesn't have the giant pole-barn garage like I was hoping for, and the land its on is too small to add one, but it'll do. Oh yeah, one thing I noticed was that properties with ultra-large garages DID NOT stay on the market long. Typically a week at most. If it has a standard garage? It might be on the market for a month or two, it might be for longer. If it has a garage large enough to fit at least 4 cars and a lift? Blink and you'll miss it.
Anyway. The process of moving is well underway. I've already taken over a lot of loose items, small boxes, computer stuff, most of the Lego, and so on. Furniture and stuff that's packed in larger boxes will go in a truck, and I know after that's done, there's still going to be some small stuff to contend with, so I'll be making a bunch more trips by car.
There's also what's in storage, but that'll have to come back the same way it went in, a few boxes at a time. Maybe it's for the best that way.
Time to rest up.
