If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t have bought this house. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good house, in a nice neighborhood and I met The School Teacher who ended up being one of my favorite neighbors of all time {she taught me how to make mashed potatoes properly with sour cream, butter and cream cheese, and the best strawberry cake ever}. The house was a nice upgrade from the cookie cutter house, it was brand spanking new, and in a better school district, but still, looking back, we should have just stayed put at our old house for a few more years.
{Annual Father’s Day Hawaiian Shirts}
The neighbors to the right of us were from Germany and about 10, maybe 15 years older than us. They were super kind and enjoyed talking to our kids {and treated them like mini adults}. The wife didn’t really understand why people had so many garage sales or why the trash cans in the US were so big or why recycling wasn’t offered.
{Getting ready for the first day of school}
The summer after the neighbors moved in, they installed an above ground pool and the woman would sun bathe topless in the {privacy of her own} backyard. Monkey Boy was 3 at the time and since my husband was gone at work during the day, it didn’t really bother me. I wondered though, what the young married {and very religious} couple next to them thought about the whole au natural sunbathing thing. 😉
The day after we moved in we had the linoleum in the kitchen pulled up and hardwood floors installed. Which in hindsight was totally dumb because we only lived there like 3 years and it didn’t make a difference {profit wise} when we sold the house.
We took some serious painting risks in that house and painted the front room red, the downstairs and kitchen area brown and let the kids pick out some pretty funky colors for their rooms as well.
Although the thing that gets remembered most about being there when we go through pictures every once in a while is how Monkey Boy accidentally hit The Girl in the head with a golf club and we had to rush her to the hospital to get patched up. I remember my husband being incredibly irritated because it took so long for a Doctor to give her stitches and he was afraid she was going to have this huge scar on her forehead for life. These days, you couldn’t see a mark on her head even if you had a magnifying glass.
I LOVED the location of the house, and walked the kids to school practically every single day. Even when it was raining {which I don’t even remember it doing that much, probably because the kids used their lady bug and froggie umbrellas and walking in the rain was fun}. My parents would come and stay at the house when the HH and I had to go out of town {for his work} and they too felt at ease there. We were one of the first families to move into that particular development and the kids could ride there bikes up and down our road and write messages with chalk in the driveway.
My brother and his friend built Monkey Boy and The Girl a play house and I planted fruit trees and built my first brick garden path on the side of the house. The HH built {yet another} fence and although there were more flowers than vegetables growing in the backyard, digging in the dirt {both me and the kids} was high on the priority list at that place. Until we {I} ran out of projects to do {idleness seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life}.
So after a few years, we decided to move yet again. 😉 And I’ll tell you that story, tomorrow.
Have a great Sunday everyone,
~Mavis
P.S. How about you… Have you ever bought a house that at the time seemed like a good idea at the time but in hindsight you wish you hadn’t?
We want to hear about it!! 😉
More stories in this series:
- The First Apartment
- The First Mobile Home
- The First House
- The First Home in a Suburban Development
- The House with the Hardwood Floors
- The First House We Built
- The House Where This All Started
- The HOA House
Lisa says
Ten years on disaster house goes off my credit rating in October. I rent now. Probably will keep renting.
Cindi says
We bought vacant land in Central Texas and moved our single-wide trailer from East Texas (A big undertaking), planning to build on the property. That never happened. In hind-sight, I wish we had gone ahead and just bought a house when we moved, instead of the vacant land (which is what we ended up doing, anyway.) But we lost money on that land. Oh well, I guess everyone makes mistakes.
Kari says
Mavis, I feel like half your stories could have ben written by me, including this one about the golf club incident. When we lived in Washington, my oldest son accidentally hit my youngest son (then age three) right above the eye with a club. We had a nice ambulance ride to the ER, and it did seem like forever to get patched up. The worst was when the doctor said we needed a scan to make sure there was no brain damage. Ugh. Talk about make a momma sick! Seven years later, you can hardly see the scar. God is good!
I am loving these stories. Thanks for allowing us to walk along memory lane with you.
Mrs. C. says
A condo because we thought we were going to move, and that fell through.
Jennifer says
We had one house that I was super excited to buy. The market was hot (for sellers!) so we paid too much. I won’t stretch the budget for a house payment ever again. We sold it after 3 years, have bought and sold another house since then (a better investment), and now old yet another. This one will likely be one a rental to college students in the future whenever we can afford/choose to buy some farmy land.
Ani says
Bought my first home 23 years ago, as a single woman. Log cabin on 17 acres. 2 bedroom/ 2 bathrooms. One main room. Out in the country, but 5 miles away from a small village. 1/2 hour from 2 small cities in central NY. I love my home and where I live, but despite having had 2 home inspectors, neither of them picked up on the fact that I would have a wet basement. I married at age 40 and 3 years later, we put a huge addition on, with hopes of taking care of the wet basement at the same time. We added a master bedroom and bathroom, huge kitchen and enormous garage. Our wet basement issues continued and even worsened. We’ve divorced and my whopping mortgage, after refinancing, prevents me from digging up the outside and building a moat around the house. Thought of stocking the moat with piranha and Crocs for added security. Anyway, I still love it here, despite my wet basement. And iveve thought of not fighting nature and just filling it in, as an indoor pool! Hahaha!!
Brianna says
I love the playhouse! It is adorable with the flowers around it.
Jane says
Love your stories and yes, we had a house like that too. In hindsight, we we’re fine where we were and should have stayed put. We painted a red room very similar to yours. I think you have to have one red room in your life 🙂
Daddio7 says
I’m a real home body. My father had a small wood frame house moved onto a piece of farm land he owned when I got married in 1971. Ten years later I put a new double wide behind it and then tore the house down and rebuilt it along side the mobile home as a garage. Twenty two years ago we lost the farm but I did get to keep my 13 acre home spot. My property tax is $500 a year and it is nice and quite, why should I move.
Rebecca in MD says
We spent the first 15 years of our marriage renovating a 150-year old townhouse in a city. We loved being able to walk to everything, it was safe, and all of our neighbors were friendly. My Mom lived right across the street.
After all those years of living in construction, we were seduced by an urge to own a brand new home in the suburbs. Unknown to us, the builder held out a large section of the development for low income housing. The neighborhood was not the kind of place we thought it would be, and we spent 7 miserable years there.
We later moved to an older home on 2 acres where we were very happy for the next 20 years. We have just recently downsized to a rancher on over 2 acres in the woods with just enough clearing for my vegetable gardens. It is my favorite house of all the ones we have lived in throughout our 43 years of marriage.
I think house buying gets easier as you get some experience and wisdom.
Jennifer says
We’ve been poor our entire married life, mostly because of the two degrees I shouldn’t have gotten. Hubs didn’t go to college, but makes a very high income…which is eaten up by my student debt. We lived in slums for 15 years. We bought our first house at 37 years of age. We’ve been in it for 4 years, and it’s a catastrophe house, but I love it. It was not a bargain (no matter how bad the house here, its a premium price). It came complete with a vine covering, termite damage, collapsed sewer, outdated electric, leaky roof, and asbestos flooring. And it’s mine! I’ve redone three rooms so far (including drywall and studs), removed the vines, fixed the sewer, patched the roof, removed the dead trees, and started building garden boxes. I hired out the sewer and roof, but the rest is all us.
Marcia says
We are still in our first house. I try not to second guess it.
We bought near the peak in 2004.
We are in literally the worst elementary school district in the area.
House is old, 1100 sf, no garage, one bathroom.
Hindsight is 20/20 but I wouldn’t change it. I love my neighbors. If I’m going to rewrite history, why don’t I go back and buy a condo when we moved here in 1997. But we didn’t because hubby was in grad school and we weren’t going to stay. Then we did.
I don’t trade up because of the neighborhood and a bigger house is over a million bucks. I’m pushing 50 and have two kids to put through college.
Linda says
We are in my second house, first with my second husband. We bought what we considered our graduate school house in 1993. When my husband finished his PhD in 2000 I started house shopping. I knew I would never be able to convince him to move. We live in a wonderful, wooded neighborhood with fantastic walking, running & biking trails within walking distance. Also, we are at the end of a cul de sac & love our neighbors. We decided to stay & add on & renovate. We have done what you did, Mavis. I decided to accelerate our house payments so that we could stay in our cozy house & travel as much as we want. I had planned for December 2017 to be our last payment, but cancer came knocking. We will finish paying off our home July 2018 & my sweet husband is on the road to recovery. We are awaiting a February PET scan.
Tammy says
The first house we bought was in 2005 right before housing in Michigan went down, so we bought at the peak. We were in the house for 11 years though, and when we sold, we did have equity because we had refinanced several years earlier. But we sold our house for just a little less than what we’d bought it for. And we put 0 down. I think that was the biggest mistake we made on that house – not the house, but the 30-year, 0-down mortgage we started out with! Oh well! live and learn!
Rynda Gregory says
Mavis,
Thanks for sharing your walk down memory lane. I am in a similar time of my life – have 2 kids in high school, but looking for that forever home for when the kids both head off on their own. It’s a fun time of life for sure!
My husband and I have lived in 7 different locations together. Wow – 7 places in 25 years – that seems a little crazy. Anyway… The house we are in now is only the second house we’ve owned, and we’ve been here for almost 13 years. I wish we would have bought something with a little more land, but its been a great house for our kids – in a cul de sac, close to a park and all three schools they’ve attended. And until recently, there were always other kids in the cul de sac. Now it’s full of retired couples. Great people.
What we want now is a place to have a giant garden and some chickens, a shed for our boat and kayaks, and just some space to stretch out!
I’m eager to read your nest story. Happy New Year!
Katherine says
Our first house was in a neighborhood build in the late 70’s. We were there for 5 years then we bought a larger house in a brand new subdivision with amenities and an HOA. We were there for almost 15 years with the last 2 being emptynesters. After recovering from falling down our stairs and fracturing my back and breaking my ankle I told my husband I wanted to downsize to a house with NO steps. The housing market in my area was HOT We moved closer to Atlanta to a full brick ranch built in 1964 in January of 2015. We spent most of 2017 renovating and we are entering the home stretch of getting all the cosmetic things finished and the house “decorated”. I look forward to working on my landscaping this year and being able to just relax when I’m inside.
Lolly says
Dh was active duty military the first 9 yrs of our marriage, so we lived in army housing or rented. Thankfully we never bought then! We bought our first house, a corner townhouse with half an acre of land, just before he left the military. Our oldest was 1, and we added our 2nd kiddo in that house. We still own it….we’ve had renters and are now trying to sell it. It was a GREAT first house with great neighbors and nice storage.
6 yrs ago we felt a tug to finally look for that “forever” house. The kids were getting older and we wanted property for them to roam on….and a bit more privacy (lack of privacy in the military, then in townhouse living….was starting to get to us!). While we were looking at 4 bedroom, 2-3 bath, 2000+sf houses…..we ended up with an adorably renovated 2br/1bath, 1100sf house….with 37+ acres!!!! Lol! We planned on adding onto the house….eventually. It took us 4 yrs, but we added another 500+sf, 2br, another bath, a pantry, and a mud room. It still feels like a little house, and it’s wonderful!
Of course, the first year in our “forever home”, we realized that our parents are getting older, and will need more and more help from us….and we live hrs and hrs and hrs away from them. So we realized this lovely house is most likely just a for now house, not our forever home. I will do my very best to enjoy it as long as we get to, though! I LOVE this house!
In our yrs of military housing and renting I absolutely HATED one house we rented. It had 30 yr old green and gold carpeting in the bedrooms, but mostly…it was DARK inside the house….not enough natural light. It didn’t have insulation, and the few months it got cold…..brrr….it never felt warm AND our electric bill was sky high! But the worst part was that the addition ceiling leaked and the rental agency kept “patching” it….or putting plastic over the roof….till the whole addition leaked when it rained outside. It rained down the walls, it rained from the light fixtures, it rained from the dark, ugly, fake, country beams. Then the rental company tried to blame us for not telling them….until I read off the dates of every single phone call I made to them. Military wives don’t skimp on keeping track of important things such as paperwork and phone calls made!!!! Documentation is of utmost importance!!!!
I also disliked the last time we lived on post….because the white walls, white cabinets, and cheap white vinyl floors felt like a hospital to me!!!! I finally told dh (in my pregnant hormonal-ness!) that if we couldn’t buy a house before the baby came, then I NEEDED him to paint ONE WALL a different color!!!!! It was totally against housing rules, but I just HAD TO HAVE COLOR in my house! Hahhaa! We looked and looked and looked at houses, and prayed about the good ones, but kept getting a no. So dh did paint one wall in my living room! He had to paint it back a yr later, when we moved out, but that ONE WALL was my sanity for that year! Lol!
SandyF says
Mavis,
I am so enjoying your home stories. I really look forward for the next days installment.
We bought our first home that was one of my parents rentals. 900 Sq Ft, 1927, 3 boys, 2 cats, husband-and we fit. It had a huge yard, my childhood playhouse was placed in the yard. We were so close to all of our neighbors, extended family. My kids were in many weddings as ring bearers when living there. We made lifelong friends. They were all small starter homes for us all-so slowly we all moved “up”. Ours was to a good school district in a 1600 sq ft (huge!) home which we added on to. Laundry, family room and dining room. Built in 1956.
We then searched for years for a historic home to restore. Had to be Craftsman, good area, historic neighborhood ( so the homes would stay original) and a downtown feel. We bought the worst house in a great area, by a college-downtown, transportation close, close to our jobs at the time etc. We have restored it for the last 15 years, and there is still one room we haven’t touched ( someday a third bath and indoor laundry) We are finally installing air-conditioning and heating ( our heater in the basement is 1915 original) CA housing prices have provided enough equity that we could almost move anywhere we choose-but we cannot agree where that should be. We have 2 sons close, and one passed away a few years ago-hence the reason I need change-We both retired early (YEA) and I am ready for a change. But, there is much to consider when buying what may be your “last forever home”. Family, medical, property taxes, seasons, airport close,how far is a Trader Joes or In N Out! Must have a farmers market, a downtown, historic homes, etc. Kinda like where I live now! N0-it is too expensive in So Cal, and crowded-and I now hear the freeway, which we never did before ( my husband pretends it is the ocean). So-the hunt continues…any suggestions? Peace out kids.
Brenda says
Reading your house journey has been cathartic for me. Five houses later and kids grown, we finally have settled in our forever home. It’s not stunning but it is comfortable and will let us retire with access to amenities and with great neighbors in a stable community. I love it. I reflect constantly on moves we should have made or not made, but your story helps me remember the good times in those houses as well. And why we chose them. We would be so much better off financially if we’d moved less, but your extra payments and frugal tips are reminding me to set aside what I can and keep looking forward. Happy New Year and thank you!
Lilypad says
We bought a townhouse when my son started kindergarten and we thought he’d be at that private school through 8th grade…it turned out to be the peak of the market in 2007. A year and a half later, I pulled him out of 2nd grade to be a homeschooler and we no longer needed to live in that pricey area. My husband’s income had also taken a drastic turn for the worse, and I couldn’t work because I was home with my son. We tried to sell it but by then it was the height of the Great Recession. We ended up selling it at a loss, which was so devastating financially and emotionally. We rented for the next 5 years and moved frequently, both because I’m the nut-job who actually LIKES to move (I enjoy a fresh start) and we kept ending up with psychotic landlords and/or neighbors, or landlords who raised the rent dramatically after one year. I thought about it often over the years, and wished we’d never bought that place. However lately I’ve thought that if we could just have somehow lasted there a few more years (we received an inheritance a year later that we could have stretched to pay the mortgage for a few years until my husband’s income increased again), we’d be sitting pretty, because it’s worth about $650,000 now. Sigh. The Seattle area housing market is INSANE, as you know, and our current home has gained about $135,000 in value in 2.5 years. I think we’ll sell and downsize when our son is done with college in 5 years or so. I love looking at real estate listings and will probably never stop dreaming about different possibilities. It’s my hobby. My husband says I should just be a real estate agent (so I get to see inside a lot of houses!) but I’m an introvert and I hate to negotiate.
Torry says
What about being a stager?
Lilypad says
That’s a great idea but I’d need somebody else to carry all the furniture in/out. I have a bad back and can’t lift anything more than a (light) bag of groceries. Thanks for the suggestion though. It’s food for thought.
Gina says
I never wanted to live in the house my husband bought as a bachelor. I wanted bigger, of course, but the market spiked and we couldnt afford bigger by then. We stayed and now, I am so thankful for this little house that has given us sound shelter for so many years. Its a great location. My son’s elementary, middle, and high schools are within walking distance. He graduates next year and this house wont feel too big when he is gone. We will likely pass it on to him someday. I no longer dislike our unlikely forever home. I now love it. The only home we ever will have! Costco, Target, airport, and now Trader Joe’s are so close. And the Atlantic Ocean is 15 minutes away. Bonuses. Very content now. I guess the rough patch was staying here while everyone else was buying McMansions, but you cant envy someone else. And I didnt have to pay their bills!
Hope says
The title of this article caught my attention and I felt like someone is writing about my situation until I reached the monkey boys portion.. I was totally fascinated by allinf diatance school, neighbourhood shopping complex and recreation community at walking distance..it is a great area indeed except I did not knew that I would be dealing with a neighbour who would bang roof even if she hear a whisper anywhere and it’s not like someone is dancing or running..other neighbour seem to have understanding that living in complex where walls are shared you can expect to hear sounds from outside or shared wall sometime. The HOA requirements were not disclosed to us at the tine if purchase and now this banging on roof, HOA changing requirement within 2 month of moving has made me regret moving and buying this place.. it’s very disturbing that no-one is understanding how difficult it can be to come up with financial cost within 2-3 month of home purchase…
Cheryl says
I bought my first house as age 50 and if it hadn’t been for the first time home buyer program, I’d still be renting. What sold me after looking at a gazillion houses was the open living room. I am seriously claustrophobic and would prefer the many rooms to have less walls and an larger open space.
I can’t really complain as I bought the house at just a tad bit over $100k, but in the last seven years, I have updated the insulation, replaced the roof, installed solar panels, central A/C, replaced most of the windows, babied my furnace…hoping for another year or two. But then there is a back deck I would dearly like to see gone, the vinyl siding I had to screw down to keep from flapping in the wind, fencing that needs to be replaced and on and on. Apparently I work for my house…
Oh and I too, hate the HOA! I was told when I bought the house that yes there is an HOA, but they take care of the common areas, the signage, the sprinklers and not much else….wrong! They are some seriously nitpicky people too!
The only way I would sell at this point is if I came into a large sum of money and was able to find a place with a bit of land for a garden/greenhouse. Probably be a greenhouse as the growing season up here is rather short. If that ship doesn’t come in soon, my body won’t be able to hack the work of a garden no matter how much I enjoy it.
Mrs Z says
I love this series. My husband and I have only moved four time in the last 20 years. Our first apartment. In with his parents to take care of his dying mom. Then we married and bought our first house the same week. 5 years there with many projects. Sold in 2006 when prices were up, profited 120k. Bought our current house with land and barn 11 years ago.