The 10 Absolute Best Things About Buying Your Very First House
1. SPACE AF. Before we moved into our new house, my husband and I did so much hemming and hawing over how much we would miss our New York City apartment ("oh my god I can't sleep we're gonna die in our new house and rot until vultures break in and eat our bodies and everything will be ruined" < -- actual conversation I needed to have several times at 2 a.m.). We had #nofilter sunset views like this:
Now that we finally have moved into our house outside of the city, I can confirm that we do not miss our old apartment literally at all. Instead of fabulously glamorous sunsets, our new house has a view of some bushes and, occasionally, our neighbor's dog, and even still, we do not miss our old apartment. Having a house is so much easier. You don't have to cast spells over organizational units you bought at the Container Store just to fit all your shoes in one place or all your bathroom stuff under one tiny sink. In fact, you have so much space and logical, built-in storage throughout the house (so many under-sinks!) that, when you move in, you don't have to go to the Container Store or Bed Bath & Beyond at all.
2. Finally having a sense of permanence after so many years in apartments/dorms. When you're in an apartment, especially in a city with an insane real estate market where your landlord might just wake up one morning and decide to jack your rent by bajillions of dollars, you know that you're only as settled as your last bag of trash. You could be stuffed out the door at any lease renewal and have to find a new place. In your house, you haven't just found a place, you've found your place.
3. Owning your home means being able to do whatever you want with it. Time to go HAM on those wall hangings! You can get a mirror that weighs as much as the Statue of Liberty and bolt it to the wall however your heart desires without fear of not getting your security deposit back. You can punch out the wall of your closet and extend it into the next bedroom so you have at least, like, a quarter of the space of a Kardashian's closet.
4. If you have pets, unleashing them on your new home and watching them be like, "Where the fuck am I and do I actually like this??" (Spoiler: they do.) As soon as we let our cat out in our new house, such a range of emotions flooded over her. It was like watching Anne Hathaway accept her Oscar all over again.
4a. Seeing them fall in love with new "spots" as they get used to the space. It's so cute when they find a new place to love. One day it's a windowsill, the next it's the fireplace, and then it's the study, which is good because you really don't want to set your pet on fire when you start using that fireplace. And then it's back to your bed because why should your pet fur up a surface that no one cares about when she can just fur the fuck out of your bed spread?
5. Being able to be very far away from your significant other without leaving the house. When my husband and I were in our old apartment we always knew where the other person was. Because our living space was literally three rooms. Now, we have to run around yelling each other's names if we want to find each other, which means we can truly get away from each other. (Love you, bae, mean it xxxooo.)
6. If you're giving up city life for a house, being in the woods with grass and chipmunks and birds and maybe even bunnies, which I think I have heard are bad for your yard but honestly who cares because they are so cute.
7. Decorating! I haven't gone this HAM on Pinterest since my wedding. Finally, a hobby that allows me to stare at my phone when I'm doing nothing and actually get something done.
8. Being done with your mortgage application and everything annoying about getting a mortgage. Three things are certain in this life: death, taxes, and the immeasurable obnoxiousness of mortgage applications. It's like, gather all of your tax returns, paystubs, retirement account statements and their withdrawal terms, your first born, the blood of an ox, three feathers from an albino peacock, and the tears of a crocodile, have a mortgage broker mix them in a cauldron and sneeze on them twice, and, if the moon is full and the werewolf is out, a bank will give you a mortgage.
9. Not having to save your face off so that you can just finally be a home owner. Obviously one has to continue being fiscally responsible (you have a mortgage to pay off, after all) but you can be a little more flexible with your saving schedule. Maybe you'll put more money into your IRA now that the house is out of the way. Because you've gone this long without impulse-purchasing shoes so why would you go back to that? You have no desire to. No, not even for over-the-knee boots for winter. They are fabulous shoes that would look sick on you but you definitely in no way want them. Nope, you're not putting them in your cart just to see how they look there, that's not what you're doing right now at all. You're just going to let other people who are not you spend money on them.
10. The feeling of accomplishment of buying your first home. A lot of people, especially in New York, act like moving out of the city and into a bona fide house with a yard is like giving up - a sign you couldn't hang or aren't rich enough or cool enough to stick it out the city life. But the truth is moving to a house is a huge accomplishment that requires conscientious financial planning and loads of hard work to simply accrue that down payment in the first place. And knowing you did that, with a significant other or on your own, is hugely satisfying.
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