New Homeowner

**Ace** · 03-12-09, 12:40 AM

Yup just bought my first house. Kind of intimidating to be honest with you...

**Retdetsgt** · 03-12-09, 12:55 AM

Yep, the first one is usually kind of scary. I bought my first house in 1970 and remember sitting on the porch wondering how the hell I was going to make the $165 a month payment!

Of course that included taxes and insurance!

Congratulations though, that's great.

**lewisipso** · 03-12-09, 02:49 AM

Congradulations. I know what you mean. We bought a home that was built in 1929. I love the house but we are still trying to remodel. It's been a long project that has ground to a halt. It is scary.

**Odd** · 03-12-09, 04:34 AM

Walk up to a wall, stare at it, take a moment to reflect that this is yours....

... and drive a nail in anywhere. That's the fun bit. Enjoy!

You'll find the less fun bits in time; they're still quite satisfactory when you're working on your own home.

**mack** · 03-12-09, 06:47 AM

Ahhhhh, the joys of homeowning! We bought our house in October, it is my second, his fourth.

**Ducky** · 03-12-09, 08:29 AM

The realities of home ownership don't really sink in till you have your first plumbing problem. Good luck!

**Wolven** · 03-12-09, 10:50 AM

Congrats Ace!!! You will enjoy it...even the bad parts of ownership..cause its yours.

**Wolven** · 03-12-09, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by lewisipso

Congradulations. I know what you mean. We bought a home that was built in 1929. I love the house but we are still trying to remodel. It's been a long project that has ground to a halt. It is scary.

I have always wanted to remodel an older house..with a wrap around porch...looking out at my horses grazing. *sigh*

**2 Blue 4 U** · 03-12-09, 07:04 PM

Congratulations Ace! Welcome to homeownership and poordom! Well at least that was the case for me when I first bought my house. It can be overwhelming and tough on the pockets in the beginning. You wind up dishing out a lot of money to make it your own, buying paint, furnishings and other odds and ends. It does get easier and best of all it is yours! Wishing you all the best!

**Jenna** · 03-12-09, 07:14 PM

Congratulations!

**JAYBIRD33081** · 03-12-09, 07:25 PM

congrats bro!!!! Nothing better than knowing it's yours, you own it. Do what you want with it.

**Retdetsgt** · 03-12-09, 08:00 PM

And the tax and interest deductions are always nice at tax time....

**Ace** · 03-12-09, 09:58 PM

Originally Posted by Odd

Walk up to a wall, stare at it, take a moment to reflect that this is yours....

... and drive a nail in anywhere. That's the fun bit. Enjoy!

You'll find the less fun bits in time; they're still quite satisfactory when you're working on your own home.

lol, first thing I did was get a satellite dish installed, and I didn't even have to ask permission...

Thanks all btw, it is nice finally to actually be having the money go towards something. Plumbing though lol is something I'm definitely not looking forward to. Its nice to be out of the "city" too...

**Retdetsgt** · 03-12-09, 10:01 PM

Home Depot sells books on just about how to do anything to a house. They also have classes now and then.

**MacLean** · 03-12-09, 10:17 PM

Originally Posted by Ace

Yup just bought my first house. Kind of intimidating to be honest with you...

Congrats man, I've been in mine almost two months now - it is still intimidating!

**TXCharlie** · 03-12-09, 10:32 PM

Congratulations Ace!

I bought mine back in 1982, and it's nice now to only have to pay a $480 mortgage, which is cheaper than an apartment. With a 30-year fixed interest mortgage, you'll be way ahead of the game if inflation sets in, because your house payment will be fixed for 30 years. I should be able to lower that even more with another re-fi.

The only problem with the low mortgage, if you can call it a problem, is that with the $10,000 personal exemption (thanks to the Bush tax cuts BTW), we don't have enough tax & interest deductions to make it worth itemizing. I wound up filing a 1040EZ this year because I couldn't find $10k in deductions.

Plumbing is an occasional problem, but we have lots of hail, so my Homeowners' insurance has paid for a new roof twice.

**Buttercup** · 03-16-09, 11:21 AM

Congratulations!

**K9Tom** · 03-18-09, 10:02 AM

Congrats. It's a great feeling to own your own home. I'll second the Home Depopt books. I think I have most of them and they have been very helpful over the years. Ten years from now, you'll laugh at the things your were nervous to do on the house. A second resource if you work for a PD, alot of Cops are pretty handy and do alot of work on thier own houses. At my PD, guys help each other quite a bit. I just drywalled and insulated my garage with the help, labor assistance, of a couple guys from work. Good luck with it and have fun.

**tapout** · 03-22-09, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by Retdetsgt

Yep, the first one is usually kind of scary. I bought my first house in 1970 and remember sitting on the porch wondering how the hell I was going to make the $165 a month payment!

Of course that included taxes and insurance!

Congratulations though, that's great.

holy shit, $165 a month...try $2407 on a 30 year fixed 5%, and thats after a recent refinance that brought my payments down $300 a month.

congrats on the new house Ace.

heres a story, dont let it scare you too bad. i bought a new house in september '08. cause the market is hurting so bad, i got a great deal on a big house in a nice development with a good school district so i thought. think money pit with tom hanks.

well, i budgeted for new floors on the 1st floor, and all new appliances (about $6000 total). i had a week from the time i settled to the time i moved in. in that week i put in the appliances and put in the new floors, and threw on a few cans of paint.

the day after i moved in...AC unit completely broke, still needs to be replaced for $5000. Week after i moved in the chimney leaked pretty severely into the family room. I had a chimney company come take a look at it, the terracotta tiles inside along with the mortar joints are deteriorated. i either have to rebrick the entire thing, or put an insert in (pellet or woodburning etc). either way im looking at around another $4000. a month later my master bathroom leaks through the ceiling. i pull up some tiles, the whole subfloor is molded out. i had to rip out the entire bathroom and replace it, walls and all. three months and $3000 later that was fixed. The very next day after the completion of the master bath, the spare full bathroom shower leaks through the ceiling. luckily that was just a caulking issue, but i still have a huge hole i have yet to patch in my kids playroom ceiling. we had a weeping willow tree who's stupid roots were getting a little too close to our water lines, so i had to have that removed. then my wife got crazy and had a hole assload of trees and bushes removed ($1900). i had to redo the half bath on the main level (new vanity, new fixtures, down with the wallpaper, up with the new paint). it snowed not too long ago and i went up in the attic for something and noticed that there was enough snow to build a snowman up there. I still havent figured out where that came in from, or how much thats gonna cost to fix. i need new garage doors ($1500). i need new kitchen countertops ($unk). the cabinets are pretty old and will eventually need to be replaced. this house is one thing after another.

good luck, and i hope you had a good inspector.

all this being said. i still love the house. and if i can love this house, you can love any house whatever may happen

**Ace** · 03-23-09, 07:05 AM

Originally Posted by tapout

holy shit, $165 a month...try $2407 on a 30 year fixed 5%, and thats after a recent refinance that brought my payments down $300 a month.

congrats on the new house Ace.

heres a story, dont let it scare you too bad. i bought a new house in september '08. cause the market is hurting so bad, i got a great deal on a big house in a nice development with a good school district so i thought. think money pit with tom hanks.

well, i budgeted for new floors on the 1st floor, and all new appliances (about $6000 total). i had a week from the time i settled to the time i moved in. in that week i put in the appliances and put in the new floors, and threw on a few cans of paint.

the day after i moved in...AC unit completely broke, still needs to be replaced for $5000. Week after i moved in the chimney leaked pretty severely into the family room. I had a chimney company come take a look at it, the terracotta tiles inside along with the mortar joints are deteriorated. i either have to rebrick the entire thing, or put an insert in (pellet or woodburning etc). either way im looking at around another $4000. a month later my master bathroom leaks through the ceiling. i pull up some tiles, the whole subfloor is molded out. i had to rip out the entire bathroom and replace it, walls and all. three months and $3000 later that was fixed. The very next day after the completion of the master bath, the spare full bathroom shower leaks through the ceiling. luckily that was just a caulking issue, but i still have a huge hole i have yet to patch in my kids playroom ceiling. we had a weeping willow tree who's stupid roots were getting a little too close to our water lines, so i had to have that removed. then my wife got crazy and had a hole assload of trees and bushes removed ($1900). i had to redo the half bath on the main level (new vanity, new fixtures, down with the wallpaper, up with the new paint). it snowed not too long ago and i went up in the attic for something and noticed that there was enough snow to build a snowman up there. I still havent figured out where that came in from, or how much thats gonna cost to fix. i need new garage doors ($1500). i need new kitchen countertops ($unk). the cabinets are pretty old and will eventually need to be replaced. this house is one thing after another.

good luck, and i hope you had a good inspector.

all this being said. i still love the house. and if i can love this house, you can love any house whatever may happen

Ugh, what a nightmare. Funny movie btw lol...