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I completely understand! After renting for 6 years, Mark and I were finally ready to buy our first home. We had spent a good portion of those 6 previous years jumping from one rental to another just to save a little money. Moving became a breeze for us, but it was getting pretty tiring. One thing that kept our spirits up through it all was browsing homes. We’d drive by a house and think…gosh that looks nice, let’s go check it out. So although we weren’t serious yet on buying, we wanted to see different layouts, and get an idea of what we liked and didn’t like.
Once we decided to buy, we had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for. Being on a budget we had to settle and compromise on a lot of our wish list, and buy an older home. Personally I loved our first home, but since it was built in the 40’s we ran into some unexpected surprises….like the time we decided to build a pantry and found termites eating away the support beams.
One of the best things about buying a brand new home, is you won’t run into problems like termites, or broken pipes (a current issue we ran into) within the first 5-10 years of living there; and potentially longer!
I think the next time we think about moving…and fingers crossed it’s not for awhile…I would really like to consider buying new, even building from the ground up. That way we can personalize every aspect of the home. Instead of remodeling our guest bathroom into a master bathroom, and wondering where we can add a half bath back in for guests, we would be able to plan it that way from the beginning. I would no longer have to worry about working around support beams, because in a new home, we wouldn’t be taking down any walls.
Instead of dreaming about a mudroom, and having a place to store the piles of shoes I would make sure our builder put in something like this….
I know, I’m pretty easy to please. But that’s just it. A new home makes everything just a little more simple. I could put my energies into more of the things I enjoy doing, like decorating, rather than the huge things that need doing like adding doors to bedrooms.
Of course if you don’t feel comfortable asking to take pictures of your neighbors homes – or don’t want to take your children in and out of a myriad of homes – there’s so many places online to find just what you want as well. BHI has a fun website with more tips to becoming a homeowner, as well as an Inspiration Gallery that I enjoyed browsing through. They also have a handy cost calculator to help keep you in a budget, and an easy search of new homes in your area.
Of course there is also Pinterest, that allows ample opportunity of browsing home designs. Another website I recently came across, similar to pinterest, is HomeTalk. So many ideas, you’re bound to find something you love that also fits your pocket book.
Speaking of pocket books – new homes are also more energy efficient. We’re still trying to figure out what sucked up our electricity this last winter. That bill is one I hope to never see repeated! In a new home, your power will be easy to trace (we’re still wondering how the wall heaters are getting their power since the circuit breaker didn’t turn them off…), you’ll have brand new double paned windows, and heat and water sources that are built for energy efficiency. The savings there would be worth a new home!
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
