Why We'll Be Poor for the Next 30 Years

Kurt and I have some big big news to share: we bought a house! We closed on May 18th. I know most of you know this already due in part to Facebook and to the fact that I’ve told everyone we’ve spoken to in the past month (shh, don’t tell Kurt). Kurt wanted to keep it mum until everything was set in stone, so as not to jinx it. While he’s usually very practical, he is extremely superstitious when it comes to these things. “The house is NOT ours!” he’d say anytime I referred to it as such, and “It’s going to fall through, I just know it.” Ah, the power of negative thinking. Anyway, it’s an 3 bedroom, 2-1/2 bathroom end unit townhouse in the development where I grew up. It’s a little weird moving back there, but everything about the transaction just felt right. 

It needs a little work and a lot of painting, so we’re doing that in the 4 weeks before we move in. The process has been a learning experience, but we’ve been extremely lucky. We had a great realtor and lawyer and it has all gone very quickly and fairly smoothly. From putting our offer in to closing, the entire process took 50 days. Before that, we looked at houses for about 2 and a half weeks.

Here, I'd like to discuss how House Hunters depresses me. When we started looking at houses, I became obsessed with finding the perfect place. I searched realty sites, design blogs (to make our perfect place even more perfect) and DVR'ed every episode of House Hunters I could find. Well, my friends, that last part was not smart. Not smart at all. I learned that in Georgia, I could get a 4 bedroom McMansion in our price range. In New Jersey, well let's just say our options are less fabulous than that. Not to mention the fact that the taxes in this state are ludicrous. Absolutely ludicrous. If we had moved across the river to Pennsylvania, for instance, our taxes would be half as much as they are in this lovely state. This was our biggest source of stress: taxes. Because yes, it is a buyer's market, but the taxes only go up year after year, and in New Jersey, they are already astronomical. They very rarely, if ever, go down. While we looked at houses, I became more and more stressed at what we could afford and where. But once we found this place, we decided to stay in Jersey. It was just too good to be true. And perfect for us.

The neighborhood and town is exactly what we wanted. The schools are amazing and the town is growing. Since I grew up in the neighborhood, I feel comfortable here and I know firsthand it's a good place to raise a family. We feel very lucky to have gotten such a great deal on this place since we almost completely wrote off looking in this town, thinking we’d never be able to afford it. The most exciting things for me in the entire house? The fireplace in the living room. It’s my first fireplace! I'm a little sad we're moving in in June and can't reasonably use it for another few months.

For the past week and a half, we've been working on it; painting the exterior wood trim, trimming the overgrown trees in the backyard, taking down cabinets from over the kitchen island (and moving them to the wall instead. Being where they were, they closed off the kitchen and dining room. Taking them down makes the floor plan much more open. Before and After pics to come.) My dad took up the carpets and primed and painted the 3 bedrooms so the carpets can be installed on Friday. I have a newfound love for power washing, and a newfound hatred for painting. We still have a long way to go, but it's coming along.

So now the fun part starts. Decorating. I have been scouring design blogs and websites, browsing the “home decor” section of Pinterest, and making “to do” and “to buy” lists as long as my arm. I can’t wait to go to IKEA and the antiques market nearby. Kurt and I had agreed awhile ago that we wouldn’t be buying any new furniture until we bought a house and knew what we could fit. So I’ve been antsy. I absolutely LOVE walking through IKEA and finding things to mix and match with the pieces we have already, so that will be one of our first stops. We have some furniture from my Nonni we’ll mix in here and there. I’m thrilled to get to make this place our own, little by little, finding the perfect dining room table here, a great set of stools there. I can think about nothing else.

We won't move in completely until the 15th, so we'll have time to get all the major work done before we move in. I'll be posting some before and afters in the weeks to come. And while I know this is going to be a lot of work, and that our work will never really end, I love it. I love being able to work on "our house," to change the colors, move the cabinets, choose flooring, paint vanities and switch out light fixtures; to really make it a home. For the next 3 weeks, unless we're at work or sleeping, our lives will consist of painting, sanding, and drilling. So if you're in the area, stop by. We'll be there.