Justified

My friend Kate asked me to write an article for her site Obsessive Consumption. I put the text up here for my archives, but you should read about it on her site, and just check out her site, because she is a cool chica.

I am filed under "History of the Thing" -- H.O.T.T. #11 - My House

"We'll go to Omaha, to work and exploit the booming music scene / and humility."
-Rilo Kiley, "The Execution of All Things"

When I was younger, I couldn't wait to get out of Nebraska. I spent my first year at college in Washington, D.C. and only returned after they screwed up my financial aid package and I couldn't afford to go back. I spent another year in Melbourne, Australia, citing wanderlust once again. I returned to Lincoln, where I finished my undergraduate. Last year, I moved back to Omaha to get my shit together, pay some debts, and move away from the college/party town the Lincoln is.

Now I'm buying a house. To some, this is the ultimate sellout move. It's not. To others, it's the next logical step in growing up and having a family. It's not that, either. I have my own reasons.

It is a good thing, buying a house. I'm ready to have a lot more space, and to pay less rent. My roommate has a kick-ass, well-tempered dog, which I'm looking forward to playing with. I'm glad to be splitting costs for rent, utilities, cable modem, and everything else. I'm glad to have enough space to set up a studio, an atelier, a workshop. I have projects that just don't fit inside an apartment, and I don't want to pay for separate studio space. Plus I can paint the walls any color I want. Plus I have a porch. A kick-ass porch.

It's a calculated risk. Interest rates have never been lower, and if you're renting and going to be in the same place for a while, you should really consider it. You have to have some money in the bank for a down payment and/or the costs associated with. Realtor fees, inspections, fixing it up the way you want it. And there's the fact that you have to sell the place if you ever want to move, but I've got two things that make the place attractive especially to families just starting out. Two car garage & across the street from a school. I doubt it'll be much of a problem selling.

Another option I've considered is house-swapping, a practice made popular by university professors going on sabbatical. I've even heard of people in Omaha & New York swapping apartments/houses every six months to have access to NYC but use the low cost of living in NE to balance it out. I'm not in a position to do this just yet, but I'm not ruling it out.

My friend Bronson has cautioned me against the cult of owning things. Not so much the house, which I won't completely own, I'll just make payments towards & build a little equity. But the stuff inside the house. Between all the electronic equipment my roommate Christopher has, and all the art and furniture I have, I won't need much. I'll pay to have the carpet ripped up and the hardwood floors redone, but that's as much an health/allergy choice as an aesthetic one.

A somewhat major purchase, which I consider part of the house, is a washer/dryer combo. I got some suggestions from friends, did some comparison shopping at Best Buy and Nebraska Furniture Mart. I ended up going with high-efficiency Whirlpool units. The dryer was a return, so it was half-price. The washer, the more expensive unit, was $300 off as they're discontinuing the line. I talked with the salesman about warranty protection, he swears by it, and said that I can call up repair services and have them come out just to check it out once a year. "It's making some funny sound," will get them out there. Then they have to replace anything that's bad. Included. Plus, it increases my resale value, having these things. I get the investment back in added value.

This reminds me of an article I read on materialistic poverty, how a lot of people our age pledge this kind of Spartan lifestyle, not owning anything, except for their shiny new Volkswagons, High End Computer & Stereo Equipment, Gore-Tex Parkas and iPods. "But other than that, I'm poor, Honest!!" My friend TJ used to talk about the difference between poverty and college poverty. The difference between having to go on Welfare and having a nice job lined up at the end of it all [while mommy & daddy take care of the checking account & credit cards].

My friend Sonali has berated me for not doing enough research, or the kind of research she would do in considering a major purchase. I guess it hasn't been conscious research, as in setting up interviews with homeowners, or following some article/how-to book on first-time home buying. However, I have been talking with several friends who have bought in the last couple of years about how easy it is, things to consider when looking, when inspecting, when deciding, and ultimately before signing.

I do the walk-through this morning. That means that I pay an inspector to check for pests, mold, structural damage, missing doorknobs, and all the other little things I as a layman would miss or forget to check. The inspector walks me through the house, and I decide whether I think it's worth complaining about to the seller to fix, or if things are so bad that I don't want to buy the house, I have that option.

...

Maybe I'll make this a two-part series. Pre- and post-buying.

 

Comments

[angel]

I don't hold with this whole idea of feeling guilty (or making other people feel guilty) because of personal ownership.

If you aren't that guy who drops everything and joins the Peace Corps, you have to exist in the environment that surrounds you.

Unfortunately, the US is a capitalist nation. If you don't succumb to ownership, which doesn't do a thing to solve the problem. If anything, it adds to it: you are supporting capitalist enterprise by paying rent money, which feeds some capitalist landowner landlord's pockets.

Why not fill your own pockets, and, if you like, donate the money you save on rent to an anti-capitalist charity (if you still can't reconcile yourself to the idea of being a thieving capitalist property magnate).

(Uhhh, none of those comments were directed to you personally, but rather to "you" as in "one"! I's just sayin'.)

I do love owning my own house.

[angel]

Some of those sentences don't appear to make sense.

I do apologize; it's 1:10 a.m. where I am, and I need sleep.