I suppose that I live here now…
6 minute read
November 26, 2017, 11:58 PM
So as of this writing, I’ve been living in Montgomery Village for about a week and a half, having moved on November 16. The new place is starting to feel like home, even though I’m not entirely unpacked yet. That is a process, and it will take time. However, I think that the weirdest thing about the whole move process was watching my home of ten years get dismantled and carted out the door. I hired movers to pack and move everything, so all that I had to do was keep Elyse occupied, make sure that the movers didn’t take the cleaning supplies (for the post-move cleaning that I am obligated to do, but have not done yet), and answer any questions that the movers might have. Afterward, I was struck by what felt like the finality of it all:
Continue reading…Categories: House, Montgomery Village
I’m a homeowner now, and so many things to think about…
6 minute read
November 14, 2017, 2:12 PM
Good news: I closed on the house on Thursday, and I am now a homeowner. About a thousand signatures later, my longtime fantasy just became reality. There are certain occasions in life where an event leaves you mentally drained at the end of it, and closing on the house was one of those things. And now that the closing is done, there are so many more things to think about. There is some minor electrical work that I need to have done. The paint needs to be updated in some places. I need to buy curtains. I need to buy a new bedroom set for myself, since Elyse is getting my old one. I need to get an air mattress to sleep on until I get the new bed. The cable gets installed on the 15th. Moving happens the following day, on the 16th. I need to change my address in a zillion places. And it goes on. Such is the joy of homeownership, I suppose.
But in any case, the house is now mine. Check it out:
Wheelock 7002T on the breakfast bar in the kitchen. I used this photo for a “Welcome home” post on Instagram.
Categories: House
So… I’m buying a house!
7 minute read
November 5, 2017, 2:45 PM
You may recall back in May that I sort of casually mentioned that Pixsy money was helping me get ahead financially and eventually buy a house. “Eventually” has since morphed into “very soon”. So I might as well make it official: I am buying a townhome in Montgomery Village, and therefore, I will be leaving my apartment of ten years in Aspen Hill fairly soon. I am just a ball of different emotions, being both excited and terrified all at the same time. I’m also picking up a housemate, as Elyse will be living with me.
I have wanted to own my own home for about six years. Back then, it was an “eventually” thing, and more of a fantasy than anything else. While some of my coworkers at Food & Water Watch owned their own homes, almost all of those people were married or otherwise in a committed relationship. As a single person, I could not afford to buy a house on a Food & Water Watch salary. I also owed a bunch of money on my credit card due to several large repairs that I had to make on my old Sable station wagon, which certainly didn’t help things. Then when I lost my job at Food & Water Watch, any thoughts of being a homeowner went right out the window for a while as I went into survival mode, having to live off of what should have been retirement money for a little while. When I started working in public transportation, one of the instructors during bus training gave us some advice: “Get yourself some bricks.” In other words, buy a house. My financial situation was not where I wanted it to be yet in order to do that, but I knew that our instructor was right.
In the fall of 2015, I was in the financial position to start considering becoming a homeowner, and I was starting to “hit a wall” with my apartment, as I wanted to do things that I couldn’t do while renting, like paint the walls. I had creative energies that I wanted to get out, but couldn’t expend them in my place. So I started fantasizing about redecorating my parents’ house, where the decor is somewhat dated (“stuck in the nineties” is the phrase I would use). Mom wasn’t very receptive to my ideas for redecorating, unfortunately, as she didn’t see any reason to redecorate. I also wanted more living space, as it was always hard to have guests over with no spare room and only one bathroom. Guests sleep in the living room, and so whenever I had visitors over, no one had much privacy. Plus, with guests sleeping in the living room, bedtime for one basically meant bedtime for all, since no one could really move around without disturbing the other person.
Categories: House, Montgomery Village