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my genius brain faeries

It is really no secret that I am not a fan of old houses.  (I'm pretty sure I complained enough about it when I was moving, yes?) And while some people would adore to live in a charming, character-filled, and possibly haunted, old house I have never had that particular desire.


But it's surprising how quickly one can acclimate.  Even when one was absolutely positive that one would undoubtedly die if one was forced to live here even for one second.  It has been 8 weeks since I moved here, and I am not even slightly dead.  AND, I sort of, almost, semi like-ish my house a little bit.  Maybe.  EVEN THOUGH IT'S OLD.

The vents don't even seem as scary now.  Sometimes.

And we sprayed for spiders.

But here's the thing - someday we need to eventually BUY a house.  Like real grown-ups do.  Our landlord is also a real estate agent and upon hearing that we want to someday eventually buy a house took us to see two properties today.  And then said he'd call in the afternoon to see if we wanted to put in a offer.  And then we said, "WOAH NELLY, we are not putting in an offer on anything today."

Because do we really even want to buy a house?!

And also, if we want to live anywhere near Husband's office (seeing as we're also mostly opposed to things like gas guzzling commutes so we kind of want to stay near Husband's office) we will have to buy an OLD HOUSE.  Because that is all that's here.  It is ALL old.  (And probably haunted like old houses tend to be.)

SO.

The ultimate plan, which I concocted in my head with the help of my highly imaginative and illogical brain faeries, is to buy a fixer upper-type house that we can renovate, add onto, and COMPLETELY CHANGE (and all this changing would happen in under 2 years, says the faeries).  And, as I am now discovering, old houses are perfect for this whole change completely thing. And there are plenty of fixer-uppers around here with "amazing potential".

It would be like turning this:


into this:


It would be totally amazing because my brain faeries are geniuses.

But still, do we really want to buy a house?!

And do I really want to worry about remodeling said house?! 

The handy with power tools thing is not a strong suit here.  Plus also, it takes that green paper stuff that has dead president's heads on it (I'm not really quite sure what it's called, because it's been so long since I've seen some).  And I highly doubt we'll be having very much of that green paper stuff because HOLY SULFUR BOMBS, houses are expensive.

You can still be a real adult if you live in rentals for the rest of your life, right?

Comments

I love this! I'm not a huge fan of old houses either. I like em brand new! I don't want to have to worry about what could have possibly happened in that house before I got there... My brain is much too creative for that. Yikes!
Mrs MacKenzie said…
Yes you can be a real adult without buying a house! Thats silly.

Although they say now is a great time to buy with low interest rates and low home prices. Plus FHA loans make it so you only have to put 3% down. Awesome.

I say look into it, go down the the bank, see what you can get pre approved for and what your expenses will really be and then decide if you're up for it from there.
Jenny P. said…
I want a new house that has the character of an old house. Is that possible? I've told my husband, who builds houses for a living to build me a new house, that's really old. He thinks I'm a little crazy.

He also often says that in this market, the smartest adults might be the ones that are renting and saving money, instead of pouring money into a housing market that might still be going south...
Yes. You can rent forever and be an adult. But owning is really fun.
heather said…
I think your (our) friend Caroline could actually single handedly make the renovation you illustrated because she has that whole power tools thing totally figured out. You could hire her. And hey, I'm pretty awesome at painting and sanding, so I could come help too.
Unknown said…
Just found your blog and I'm loving it. So fun!

I think I'm one of those people that doesn't feel settled if I'm not in my own place -- so it has been worth it to us. And the interest rates ARE incredible right now.

But it is so stressful going through the process of finding a house that you like and is in the right location and has the right bones -- good luck!
Ooh, boy. We did the whole "buy and old house and save money and turn it into a dream house" and it's not currently working out for us. A landlord sounds so DREAMY right now. Because we could buy a new car with the money we're spending rightthisveryminute on plumbing fixes.

I say rent forever if that's what works!
LisAway said…
I'm sort of desperately in love with the fixed up home you picture. Ooooooh. One day we will grow up, too, and have a house of our own. And it will look like that.

Glad to hear that you might like the house you're in. Good luck getting more green paper to fulfill your renovational dreams of home ownership.
elesa said…
We bought a charming OLD little fixer upper that we were going to fix up in a couple years and it was going to be the funnest thing ever. That was 8 years ago. It is maybe a 3rd of the way done. We will be fixing this thing up FOREVER. I really don't think I would do it again, if I knew how much work it would be. Not to discourage you or anything.
Jen said…
I really liked your back to school post. I took my oldest to her first day of kindergarten this year, and I cried much more than I thought I would.

You can rent until the cows come home. It is a good time to buy fixer uppers though. We bought our first house because that was much cheaper than renting.

May more of the dead president green paper come to you, soon. We are hoping for the same, as we identify with that unfamiliar feeling you mentioned.
Candela said…
Oh wow!! I just found your blog today, and I cant stop reading it. I just love the way you write :)
Well, good luck for your house-search. Waiting for the post about how you renovate it, hahaa...
A Musing Mother said…
One of the above pics is actually my house. You get to guess which one.

Hint: I'm dead and I haunt people like you.

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