We did all the rebuilding ourselves, under the theory that “if some high school dropout with a ninth-grade education can do this, surely two people with college degrees can handle it.” NOTE: This does not always hold true! Laying ceramic tile took a year. Floating sheetrock is hot, dirty and not fun. Insulation is particularly nasty. Never mind that my husband started a fire sweating pipes in the bathroom with an oxyacetylene torch. (And set off the security system so we met all the neighbors when they came hammering on our doors because the air horns were blaring and the strobe light we didn’t know we had outside was flashing).

We developed a close, personal relationship with the people who hold classes at Home Depot, and the guy who worked in the home maintenance department of Wal-Mart used to visibly shudder at my approach. It’s been a terrific education, though I would have chosen the “Cliff’s Notes of Home Reconstruction” version versus the “School of Hard Knocks” one if I could have. It’s a money pit, but it’s MY money pit….and I still wouldn’t trade it. Most days. But I’ll never hang wallpaper again.

Anyway, congrats again!

We had a huge shock with our electric bills when we first bought our house in April ‘06, but only because they went *down*. Our electric bill in our 1800 sft house is consistently less than half of what it was at our 850 sft apartment. We’re still not sure why, but we suspect that the exterior lighting for our building was being billed to us somehow.

I think it’s a matter of perspective. Additionally, right now Trent might be really excited about making repairs on his house, but twenty years down the road, he’ll be where my dad is, thinking repairs are a nuisance and wanting to move into a rental property, where he won’t have to worry about them, or a brand new house, where he’ll get some more time when he can just do maintenence, instead of actual repair work.

Likewise, some of the points such as having a bigger kitchen and more space and his kid loving to explore and having an office could just as easily apply to renting a larger apartment.

Either way, congratulations– I’m sure it comes across like I’m ragging on homeowners, but I’m really looking forward to buying a house in a few years so that I can apply all my master’s thesis research on the relationship and issues of green technology and historic preservation to buying and renovating my own home:)

Speaking of which, I need to get back to doing that.

It’ll probably take you a while to figure out what your patterns are like.

For example, at my home, a bedroom has gone from being a bedroom to library, to server room, to general storage, and (very nicely!) to my office.

Like you, I suffered thru many years and apartments with the ‘office’ being carved out of the bedroom/living room/dining room, whatever. Having an actual, separate office is so freeing! I hope you get to enjoy it soon.

Our big surprise on being a homeowner was taxes. We had estimated them based on what the previous owner had been paying, not thinking that those taxes might be artificially low. When our house was re-assessed (at the new sales price), the taxes jumped by about 70%. Ouch!

More space, more work, a garage full of junk that I probably should have thrown away long ago, great satisfaction, less laziness, and I still don’t know what to hang on the walls.

Maybe when some of the foreclosures that the media is talking about kick in, prices will come down and the govt. *sigh* will pay my down payment.

Congrats on your new home Trent.