- You have your own little piece of the world that's yours. Corny yes, but there's something to be said for owning your own 'castle'.
- No dealing with real estate agents or landlords wanting to inspect and make sure you're not wrecking the place.
- You have fun making the place better and keeping it looking nice. You feel really good (like I do right now) when you've spent the day working hard inside and out. It's rewarding.
- At least you're in the market; with prices continuing to go up and up, you feel kinda good that you locked in your place back when prices were only marginally horrifying.
Perils:
- There's so much to keep up with! The weekends are not just for cleaning and washing clothes, but also weeding the garden, mowing the lawns, fixing the kitchen tap, painting that wall/door/architrave (insert as appropriate). For us, on a 650 square metre block, the effort to keep up with the outdoors is significant.
- You have to pay for more stuff; if it breaks, it's your problem. No more calling the landlord to get the water heater, leaking tap etc fixed; you're on your own!
- Sometimes you're so busy doing all of the above (and paying for all of the above) that you don't have the time (or money) to do fun stuff.
- Hey, sure you're in the market, but can you believe what you had to pay?
Considering the list, I'm still glad that we bought our place a few years ago and I'm even more glad that we're planning our future in this place together. What brought on the above was Jason and I spending the day working flat strap to make our place look great. We have a valuation being done this week and we're trying to put our best foot forward. We're hoping to get a bit more cashola from the bank to complete our extension extravaganza.
We're only at step 1 of the process, but I'm already excited and just want to chatter away about all the great things we could do. Needless to say, my quiet husband has his eyes glazing over every few minutes!
More updates to come as and when I have them!
