Do you love your house?

[Spryte]

Lots of money threads lately, and in those threads there have been a lot of house comments (living below one's means, house needs work, not extravagant, things like that). I've been doing a lot of thinking about where we live, and wondering where others are on this topic.

 

I have loved all of our houses. This is number 36 (I think? Maybe more) for me. I've moved a lot. But always find something to adore about where we live. It's always home. I work hard to make it feel like home. Sometimes we've rented, right now we own. Sometimes we've been in the starving student category. Now we are not, but also not extravagant.

 

I thought our last home was fabulous. I still do. It was easily one third the size of our current home. Really, it was tiny.

 

And now I adore our current home. Like big puffy heart love it. A few of you here have visited both homes, so you know of what I speak... :)

 

So... Your home. Love it? Hate parts of it? Indifferent to it, so long as it meets shelter needs? What made you choose it?

[Sarah CB]

I definitely love our house.  I found the money/happiness thread interesting.  We actually downsized last year.  Not because we had to, but because we wanted to.  The house we have now is 1200 sq ft smaller than our last home and has the tiniest yard.  I love it.  I really do.  Plus, I am loving the fact that we are at the very end of our mortgage.  And I'm loving not having to spend hours doing yard work each week.  

 

What we have offers enough privacy and space for everyone without there being anything extra.  It's perfect.

[theelfqueen]

We've lived in the same house for 13 1/2 years and I LOVE it. I wish we had a bit more storage space... and a maid.

[Carrie12345]

Hate the house.  Love that it is OUR house, that it surrounds us with memories of special moments, that it is in the middle of the woods, and that we live without fear of becoming homeless.

 

We chose it for price, location, its open and airy feel, and because it seemed like a perfect starter home before we knew we'd have 66.6% more children and the real estate market would crash.

[prairiewindmomma]

We chose our house because it was one of a very few available that met our requirements and budget.  We adore the layout and location.  Aspects of the interior and exterior need updating.  They are adequate and functional and acceptable but not something I love.

[TammyS]

I like our house ok. It needs more work, but it's never going to be a beauty, no matter what we do to it.  But I love our property.  We have acreage in the middle of nowhere.  No neighbors close by, just lots of peace and quiet with the Chesapeake Bay within a minute of the door.

[Pawz4me]

I love our current house.  The floor plan is great, it's spacious and in a convenient location.  I don't love that it's two story, the master bedroom and laundry room are upstairs (so it's not good for aging in place) and that it's in the city limits so we have to pay city taxes, an HOA fee and a sewer bill.

 

We have an offer in on another house that I have no reason to believe won't go through.  We've been looking for two years.  I think we'll love that house, too.  It has a great but very different floor plan, the master bedroom and laundry room are on the main floor (so suitable for aging in place) and there will be no city taxes, HOA or sewer fee.

 

I generally find it easy to find something to love.  :)

[Insertcreativenamehere]

We bought our current house when we had 2 kids and now we have 4. As our kids get older, some more space would be nice. We have our older boys sharing a room, which is fine, but also our 6 yo dd and 3 yo ds share and I know that isn't going to work long-term. We love our yard, though, so we'd consider adding on if it made sense financially. 

[GinaPagnato]

I LOVE our house! We've been here for a looooong time, and when we fist move in and I was young and foolish, I thought there were many things I wished were different. Now, mind you, I was basing this thought on the houses that other friends were buying, which were newer and fancier. So in addition to be young and foolish, I was also jealous. Yikes!

 

Then common sense set in, and I realized that MY house is the best house for MY family. I absolutely love it and it is HOME!

 

 

[Arcadia]

I love the location and layout of every home I have lived in. What I have problem with is the clutter because this home does not have a store room for keeping out of season things while my previous home does. Another problem we have is closet space because it is a one bedroom unit and there is four of us. We didn't want a jumbo loan so we didn't buy a bigger place. It would have meant a difference of $150k more debt for another bedroom and higher property tax when we bought.

 

However we might have to do a junk disposal and a small storage utility just to have some walking space back.

 

While we would have been able to get a bigger place if we have waited for the property bubble burst, we are still glad we bought then because home price now is $170k above what we paid for.

[gingersmom]

I adore my house!!!!

 

I lived for 10 years in a house I hated more with each passing day.

 

Three years later and we still walk around saying how much we love our house.

[itsheresomewhere]

I love parts of our house.  I hate the lack of closets/storage and the location.  

[J-rap]

I love our home, though I think I've loved all of my homes.  (I'm not real picky!)  It's an old house, over 100 years old.  It was a small house for our big family, but I even loved that part.  It made it cozy.  We do have three screened-in porches which really make it feel bigger in the summer.  One of them is an upstairs sleeping porch, perfect for summer nights.  We'll probably be selling it in a year or two though, and moving to a different city.  I'll miss this home, but I don't get overly attached to homes either.  I'm sure we'll be fine in our new one.

 

Our last home was a tiny, crowded apartment, probably also over 100 years old.  It had creaky stairs and was not at all modern:  an old gas stove, and ancient refrigerator.  It looked like it hadn't been touched since about 1920.  But you know what?  I loved that home too!  Loved it, loved it.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I appreciate having our own home.  Up until we bought it I had only lived in apartments.  I really disliked having certain things micromanaged by a landlord. 

 

 

[SKL]

I like our house.  The downstairs floor plan is nice and open.  Our view is decent for being in a suburb.  Our backyard is pretty cool as it has a hill, trees, ravine, and stream all on a <1acre lot.

 

I've lived here for 21 years, and have no plans to move unless/until I can't take care of the house any more.

 

We needed more space for the girls, so we had remodeling done last year.  Now they each have a bedroom above the garage.  We also have 4 full bathrooms.

 

The house is paid off, but property tax is no small matter, nor is gas/electricity.

[Mimm]

No. Mostly I don't think about all the things that frustrate me because I don't want to be discontent, but if I'm honest, I hate my house. It's old and needs so much work and we're not handy at all, nor do we have the extra cash on hand to do what we should do with it. When we do have to spend money on it, it's something really unfun, like the new roof we just put on, or the time the furnace broke down.

 

There are things I like about my house, so I focus on those things. My children have grown up in this house. When we bought it, we thought we'd stay here for five years and then upgrade. It'll be 13 years this summer. Money just hasn't worked out the way we've wanted it to.

[BrittanyM]

I like our house but it isn't perfect. Our living area is small (house is 1200 sq ft 3 bed/2 bath) and that is my main complaint. I love to entertain and I can't have big events inside due to space. Thankfully we have almost half an acre and a nice backyard so we can do outside stuff in nice weather. I don't love the neighborhood we live in but our tiny street is okay. And compared to the house DH and I rented last this is a dream (that one was a tiny custom built log cabin that was dark and had a horrible floor plan but the property was gorgeous).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lllll]

nm

Edited February 13, 2016 by - 8 95

[displace]

I hate our house and I feel guilty for hating it as we are fortunate to have a home that's without major problems and in a good, safe neighborhood. Those are the only two things I like: location and it's not super old. ðŸ˜

 

Three of my biggest problems: two story, layout, and size (I need smaller spaces to be able to function better and this home is 25 - 50% too large and I have trouble managing it). I cannot change any of these things so I'm stuck. I will never compromise on a house again if possible. We will have to find something good for everyone, not just parts good for one or another.

Edited February 8, 2016 by displace

[Amira]

I've been reasonably happy with every house/apartment  we've lived in except the last one.  I hated that house so much and getting away from it a few months was such a relief.  I did like the kitchen, though, and I liked the windows.  It was a very bright house which was good.  I'm usually flexible about houses and can deal with most anything, but that house ground me down.

 

Right now we live in a two-bedroom apartment and I love it, although I if it were only up to me, I would live right in DC.  We built a house about 15 years ago and I loved that house too.  There was another apartment I loved about 10 years ago that had a great location, good friends in the neighborhood, and the right size for us.  Usually there's a mix of good and quirky, ranging from drainpipes in the living room and no drawers in the kitchen to no plumbing of any type in the kitchen and a scythe instead of a lawn mower.

[JustEm]

Hmmm. I spent the first 5 years of my marriage hating this house. Dh bought it before we were dating because it is a mile from his work and he could afford it. But he bought it right before the recession so it really was overpriced. It also had all its original thing so since 2007 we've had to replace awful windows, the heat system, plumbing, and replacing carpet. The house is still in crap condition because of multiple plumbing leaks( we have no kitchen ceiling at the moment) and I just feel like we've wasted so much money on this house.

 

But recently I've realized that the location is awesome, the neighborhood is pleasant, and it is the perfect size for us at 1400 square feet. We decided this year that we're in this house for the long run. Since deciding that I've finally started loving it. I've never cared what it looked like but how much I perceived we wasted money on it. But since it is now money we're spending to make it work for us and now in order to sell it I don't view it as wasted anymore

[Prairie~Phlox]

Things I love & things I tolerate, but they are cosmetic, so some day we'll be able to improve it, when we have more money! Love location, layout, dislike wall to wall carpet (plan to put in wood floors at sone point) dislike windows & the kitchen has no counter space, but we can easily open it up at some point & open the wall between the kitchen & dining room. Of course, everything boils down to money.

[AlmiraGulch]

I loved my house when I  bought it in 2006.  There were just three of us, and it was brand new, and I picked every single thing in it.  It was perfect.  

 

I don't hate it now, but my circumstances have changed enough that I really do want to move.  Since I've added a husband and a stepdaughter, plus 2 dogs and a 3rd cat, we really need more space.  I resent my house a bit, because I can't sell right now.  I had equity in the home when I bought it, then the market crashed, and I'm still upside down.  I couldn't move without taking a substantial loss, and I'm too risk averse to have 2 mortgages so I can't rent it out and buy something else.  

 

 

[AnnE-girl]

I wouldn't quite say I hate my house, but I strongly dislike it. We bought it out of desperation when we just couldn't handle DH commuting over an hour from my parents' that we had been renting anymore. We had a toddler and a baby and house-hunting was miserable. I do like that the house is right between two really nice downtown areas, and DH's commute is only 15 minutes on a bad day, but it is small and dark and our yard is so small.

 

We're in the process of getting our house ready to sell and looking for what we hope will be our forever home. I want space to entertain and my own bathroom that I don't have to share with kids with questionable aim.

[strange_girl]

We have a hundred-year-old farmhouse on 8 acres in a really nice rural community. I love it! The house is understandably in need of some repairs/upgrades, but the space is perfect for us.

[medawyn]

I love our house.  It's new to us (moved here at the beginning of the year), but we bought it to grow in to.  It's perfect for our family/the way we want to live.  II'm still living with boxes and very little furniture, but even with the chaos, I can tell this house is going to suit us for a long time.

 

Of course, we are super spoiled, because we moved from a place with a very high COL to a place with a much lower COL, and that gave us a lot of flexibility when house hunting.  We more than doubled our square footage for less than half the price of our old house; this makes a really big difference.  We talked for a long time about what we wanted to do with a new house, but DH and I both think that this is a long term job for him (a stable company in a stable industry), and so we decided to buy the long term house to grow into.  I love, love, love what we ended up with!  (I also can't wait to paint, but that's going to have to wait until (a) furniture and (b) after baby #3 comes.  No ladders for me right now.)

[peachskittles]

I dislike my house, but I can't say I hate it.  The yard is awesome (little less than a third of an acre), our little town is great, and the space in the house is functional for us.  It just has so much stuff that needs to be done.  The bathroom upstairs...I don't know who did what when plumbing but it is finally failing (Our kitchen is about to be ceiling-less).  The electrical is questionable.  I doubt the basement will ever be usable.  There is so much to do, and it is really daunting.  But we have a plan to fix this place up, make it safe for my mother-in-law and then move to something I like more than this (unless she requires more care than previously thought). 

 

But, this year, I'm going to work on not living like I live in a rental.  I'm going furniture shopping (bedbugs last year killed our furniture), painting the walls, finally unpacking all the boxes...I'm going to try to love this house just a bit more for the next few years.  Maybe I will love it enough to want to stay put for a longer time.

 

My absolute favorite house was a tiny little square house on a huge lot in a town of like 20 people.  The heat couldn't keep up with all the leaks in the doors and  the water froze occasionally, but it felt like home.  I actually went back to see it after like 5 years.  I still love it, and the owner would love for us to move back in.  Only problem would be shoving 8 people into 500-600 sq ft. LOL

[Bluegoat]

Generally I like the most important things about my house.  I can walk to grocery, drugstore, liquor store, dentist, doctor, vet, music store, and a really good used book store.

 

It has quite a large yard.

 

It is on several very good bus routes and we could live without a car.  Dh can bus to work.

 

It wasn't too expensive.

 

We can walk to a supervised lake to go to the beach.

 

It was a well-built little house, very 1950, in a very definable neighbourhood.

 

My mom and dad both grew up a street over, and I have had ancestors living here since before 1800.

 

There is a pond to skate on in winter.

 

There is a real hedgerow in the back yard with lilacs, cherry, forsythia, and blackthorn.  So I can make sloe gin.

 

What I don't so much like is that I can't easily walk downtown because there is a newer highway that crosses the way, and that we could really use some updating including a few things that are not just aesthetic.  As the kids get bigger it will feel small for a while.  I wished the neighbourhood was a little more dense, and people were a little more willing to think creatively about the neighbourhood.

[SKL]

I have to admit that I've liked every home I've lived in.  Not sure if that is because I was a picky chooser (and liked my mom's taste), or because I find something to like wherever I am.  I do remember looking at some homes that I felt I could not love.  So obviously I did not buy/rent them.  :)

[Tita Gidge]

I do love my home. But I only just bought it a few years ago, so I'm still in a honeymoon stage :) and I haven't added any kids or husbands or anything to change my overall needs for the space.  

 

One thing I do not love about the home is the fireplace. The previous owners painted it. The brick wasn't a lovely color, so I understand why, but it's a workable brick and definitely better (IMO) than the color and style they painted it!  I priced out blasting off the paint, and just can't justify that over something so minor. I'd rather have more books, my weekly Starbucks and an ugly fireplace. Instead I arrange my furniture so that I needn't look at it. LOL 

 

My favorite space it the most beautiful arbor and gazebo that the prior owners built.  Ours is a smaller yard, just an acre, but it's quiet and peaceful out there.  She was a gardener and planted lovely things all around it, that I've mostly managed not to kill.  We built a pond for our turtles near it, and have attracted lots of insects and noisy frogs. I love the look and sound of being there!  If only there were more than two weeks of beautiful weather each year to enjoy it!

[Guest]

I big puffy heart love my house. It was built 105 years ago but has been somewhat renovated over the years. Just two bedrooms and a small bathroom with about 1,000sqft of living space (1265 total).

 

The front door doesn't open all the way in summer when the porch wood swells from the heat.

I can't run more than one big appliance at a time.

Half of the light switches don't work/go nowhere.

The vents are in funny spots on the floors.

They didn't use strong enough drywall or brace it properly on the ceiling so they all sag a bit and none of the walls are square.

There are random architectural details here and there.

The kitchen was remodeled by a young bachelor and completely ridiculous.

There is no back yard, just a chain link fence around a front yard and an unfenced 2,500sqft lot on the side of the garage.

 

BUT...my mortgage is just a couple hundred dollars and it's mine. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine....all mine.

[UCF612]

I love our house.  We went through quite the rollercoaster ride to get it (we moved in Oct 2015).  Is it perfect? Absolutely not! The kitchen needs work, some of the doors need replacing, the bathrooms need updating, the garage door is loud.  But I love our house.  The things that need work are fixable someday and livable now.  What I love about it are the unchangeable things.  I love the floorplan, I love the big front window, I love the pool, I love the tree covered one acre it sits on, I love the neighborhood, I love the colors, I love that it really feels like home, all warm and cozy.  We plan to be here for the long haul so all those things that need work make me love it! I love that we'll get to fix up those things to make it ours so when I get the itching for a change we can make some changes without making MAJOR life changing changes.  

 

I loved our last house too but I loved it for all the opposite reasons of this house! It had more updated interior things because it was brand new (our current house is 20 years old).  It was a great home for us at that time in our life but all those unchangeable things I love about our current house didn't exist in that last house.  

Edited February 8, 2016 by UCF612

[Spryte]

 

My favorite space it the most beautiful arbor and gazebo that the prior owners built.  Ours is a smaller yard, just an acre, but it's quiet and peaceful out there.  She was a gardener and planted lovely things all around it, that I've mostly managed not to kill.  We built a pond for our turtles near it, and have attracted lots of insects and noisy frogs. I love the look and sound of being there!  If only there were more than two weeks of beautiful weather each year to enjoy it!

 

This made me smile!  Can you share pics of your turtle pond?  And any tips?

 

Our (relatively new to us) house is in a cul de sac, so a neighborhood out front for the kids to play and meet up with tons of other nice kids.  But the back is a little slice of heaven.  Very private, we can't see neighbors at all.  We back to a pond with beaver dams we can see, wild turtles and tons of wildlife.  We have a tiny bit of woods and mostly just the most gorgeous backyard, landscaped with an eye to keeping things natural, with a fire pit with benches and a log-lined path to the pond.  And the best part is the gazebo that the previous owners built - it is so unique, and they hand built it with a german architect.  Our current plan for the spring is to build a small pond for our turtles beside it.  :)  We can't release our pet turtles into the large pond, obviously, because they wouldn't survive, but I'm desperate to get them out of their tank in the house.  So another pond it will be.  

[Rachel]

I like my house and love certain things about it. If I knew we would be here just a couple years, it would be a great house. For a forever home, it's good enough. I would make some changes if I knew I would be here forever and had the extra money.

 

We bought a foreclosure that appraises for much more than we paid and really chose our house more for the neighborhood than the house.

[DawnM]

House is location, location, location.  I actually LIKE the house, but HATE the location.

I was on the road 1.5-2.5 hours per day.  I am now on the road up to 4.5 hours per day.

 

We live so far out and the back and forth is killing me.

 

We are moving.

[3 ladybugs]

I was just thinking about this today. I like my house well enough. At the end of the day I will not be thinking about how the kitchen is small and REALLY needs an update. I will be thinking about how our life happened here and the memories that happened inside the house. My house has flaws (kitchen is the biggest) but it keeps us warm and dry so that is what is important. 

 

When I think back to the houses I have lived in, there are always something to update in a house though. My mom bought a house in 1991 that if she still had today would be HORRIBLY dated. However she picked all out and it was new when she bought it. I worked as a live-in nanny and 2 weeks before I moved in, they had completed a remodel on their house. Remodel isn't really quite the word as they tripled the size of the house. They knew in 6 months that they needed to change things. I was last at the house in 2008 and the house looked different from when I was there 5 years prior. There is always something. 

[HS Mom in NC]

I'm someone who cares about a house meeting our practical needs (my husband works from home, we homeschool 1 kid, and we need to be in a location that works oldest and husband's employment) and outside of that, I'm pretty neutral on it.  If the house doesn't help my financial goals then I see it as a trap.  That trap may be very pretty to look at and suit my personal tastes, but as someone who isn't very sentimental about many things, it's a trap none the less. If it does meet my needs and goals then I care about making it homier as finances allow, but it's not a high priority.

Our future goals are to continue living debt free and someday own a home with its own water and power supply and the option to grow and raise our own food while my husband continues his consulting job at home as a computer programmer.

[Ali in OR]

I do love our house. We had to move to a single level because we have a daughter in a wheelchair and our first house, pre-dating dd, was a tri-level. We moved to a neighborhood that was under construction and we were able to make a few changes to one of the builder's standard plans to make it work really well for us (wider doors, stepless entries, a few kitchen modifications, good lighting). It was a bit small for raising 3 kids perhaps (~1800 square feet, 2 share a room), but we adjusted to that and now as we know empty nest years aren't that far off, it feels good to have the right-sized house and know we can age in place here. The only thing I would change would be to be centrally located and be able to walk to things, but that just wasn't an option for wheelchair accessible housing so I accept the trade-off.

[Susan in KY]

Love it! To the outside eye, it is definitely "below our means," but that is precisely what I love MOST about it: peace of mind! It's on an acre, 1600sqft, hardwood floors and an enormous apple tree visible from my kitchen window. What's not to love? If you want to get picky, it would have been nice as a cape cod instead of a 1970s split level, but even that doesn't bother me. I'm grateful to have it, blessed to live in this location, and really happy with all the little criterion it matched from our list (case in point: the apple tree!).

 

:)

[Pink and Green Mom]

I like my current house.  If I could get DH to agree to pay to redo each of the kids bathrooms I might even love my house.

 

However, I absolutely hate the neighborhood we are in.  I hate our postage stamp sized lots and the jerks that live around me.

 

Our old house in Virginia - I loved.  And even more than loving the house, I loved my neighborhood and my neighbors. 

[Guest]

I love my current house, but I would like to be in a smaller house, especially as kids get up and out. I am very spoiled because my DH is a contractor and this and my former house were built by him. We have only lived in one other place, for the first year we were married when we were building the first house, we lived in a rented townhouse.

 

I love our lot and the location geographically, but I wish we could walk or bike to anywhere without going onto the death-defying, no-shoulder road out there. We have to drive into town for everything, so I do not love that. But I love that we are somewhat secluded, with no neighborhood or HOAs or people telling me I can't have chickens and a big vegetable garden.

 

The one thing I really wish we had was decent internet. That is killing me all the freakin time.

[MrsWeasley]

I hate my house. I married someone who works construction, so buying a fixer upper, even if we would only slowly be able to afford fixing it, made sense. Now that we're separated, living in a fixer upper is a nightmare.

[shawthorne44]

I adore my current house.   I will adore it more when the addition doubles its size. 

[Peaceful Isle]

I do love my house. I wish it was arranged a little differently but it is still a wonderful place to live. 

 

I live in a gated community, with everything I need within 10 minutes from us. I guess I am a city girl at heart, so it is awesome where we are. 

I am thankful we have our own place, and do not rent. I am thankful I do not have to live with family. I am also thankful that we have enough money each month to pay bills, eat and live,  and don't worry about being homeless. 

Edited February 8, 2016 by Peacefulisle

[wintermom]

I do love our house, except for the small kitchen and lack of mudroom. Other than that, the location, yard, bedrooms and layout are great. We've been here 13 years with no moving in sight.

[ScoutTN]

No, but it works well enough. We can afford it. It is a good, basic house. We are low income and cannot be picky.

It needs major upgrading and a new A/C unit soon. We will have to do the air, but cannot afford to remodel.

For most people, this neighborhood is a starter home. We are almost 50 and will probably never be able to afford a nicer home.

 

I do love our location and our city.

 

I wish we had a bigger lot, a basement or garage and a few more (not lots more!) square feet. Or at least the funds to update and keep up with maintenance better.

 

But I try very hard to be thankful and not dwell on what we don't have. There are immigrant families a few miles from here in very similar homes with twice as many people, an even lower income and more debt or who can only rent. We have neighbors who work very long hours, have loads of debt and whose kids are in childcare or school 6:30-4:30 5 days a week. They would love to homeschool but can't because they must have two paychecks. So I count my blessings.

[skimomma]

I love our house.  It is perfect for my family in almost every way.  

 

I only wish that we had the means and know how to fix the many MANY issues a 130+ yo house has.  It feels like whack-a-mole when it comes to repairs and maintenance.  We try to do a major project every year but the list is daunting.  If we were just a bit handier......

[Farrar]

My feelings are too mixed. I love it in some ways. It's ours. We chose it for a reason. I love the idea of it, I think. The reality of having a century+ old house is not always fun. $10k brick repointing bill coming our way soon... sigh.

[VaKim]

Not at all. But I do love that it is paid for!

[MEmama]

Yes! It's a classic 1950 Colonial. Love everything about it, including its proximity to town.

 

That said, it's a perfect house for us right now, but when DS goes off to university I'll be ready to downsize. Not that this house is large by any stretch, but I really will be ready for something even smaller (a bit more non-shady garden space would be welcome, though).