Condo Blues: Why I Bought a Condo

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Why I Bought a Condo



Looks like a free standing house, acts like a condo. The best of both worlds!

Husband and I were renters for a long time before we even considered buying a house. We were busy with lot of outside activities and knew that once we bought a house, we'd be married to the extra work and expenses it takes to keep a house running.  Our landlord never raised the rent which was another incentive to stay put.

Cheap rent that allowed us to buy off a bunch of bills and have money leftover for fun things kept us there longer than most of our relatives thought we should. I lost count how many times we were told we needed to buy a house to "be happy." One well meaning person not so subtly showed us house listings no matter what truth (not now) or excuse (We didn't realize we aren't happy. We were pretty happy on the awesome beach vacation we paid for in cash last summer) we gave him. 

Eventually our schedules calmed down. Husband and I decided it was time to go house shopping. Especially since my steady diet of DIY shows and shelter magazines had me itching to paint/remodel/decorate my home  in any way I wanted and without asking the landlord's permission. The idea of living somewhere where we could banish the white walls Husband and I rented forever influenced us to create an accent wall like this:


Hootenanny Green! 
Really. That's the name of the paint color we used.

We made a list of our Must Haves: a bigger than our one butt rental kitchen, 3 bedrooms, more than one bathroom if possible to end our morning Battle For The Bathroom Sink, an updated furnace, and a garage.

It didn't matter if it was a prebuilt or new built home, although in my heart, I wanted to buy an old commercial building and turn it into a residential building. In Husband's heart, he didn't want to live in a perpetual DIY project zone that type of home would require. In fact, he crossed a bunch of houses off our list when he saw how much work we (I) needed to do to update them into something not only aesthetically pleasing, but also  to update the mechanicals to make them more energy efficient and to undo some dubious DIYs. 

Eventually I saw a listing for this cute little 2 story house. It had everything on our Must Have list and everything on our Would Be Nice to Have But We Are Never Going to Find a House With All This list: a pantry, fireplace, linen closet, porch, new furnace, central air, and no mowing grass because this little free standing house (that husband wanted) was really a condo (that I wanted.) What luck! 

We made an appointment and found out it was a new build neighborhood. We could have our pick of finishes, flooring, and floor plans without testing our marriage with major multi room remodels. There was no need two worry about the mechicanals breaking down after we moved in because they were not only new but energy efficient too.

The thing that really sealed the deal is our house was the only house we viewed that has two sinks in the master bathroom. I cannot tell you how much I firmly believe two bathroom sinks has kept our marriage strong.

Husband was relieved he wouldn't have to deal with long drawn out DIY projects to get our new house into shape before, during, or after moving in. I was relieved I wouldn't have to deal with permits and bringing a house up to current code. I could just dive into the more fun DIY projects like painting and decorating with repurposed materials. So I did.

Both of us were extremely relieved our roof and siding were new and under warranty because Hurricane Ike damaged both shortly moving in. The warranty covered the cost of someone else doing the roofing and siding for me while I worked on a fun project. 

If you are ready to buy a new home, I encourage you to to visit Start Fresh Buy New and explore the many benefits of buying a newly built home. You might be pleasantly surprised like we were!


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  I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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