4 Years of Homeownership

Four years ago I was a girl who could hang pictures and curtain rods, plunge a toilet, and replace a light fixture. Anything other than that and I simply called the maintenance guys.
Four years ago today (October 9th) I signed a huge pile of paperwork, wrote a massive check, and entered the world of home ownership. Since then I've tackled numerous homeowner-ish tasks and acquired the essentials like a ladder, a drill and a full toolbox. Being a homeowner can be a big learning experience, and I would say that buying a foreclosure increases the experience significantly.
 

October 2009

Some of the things I've dealt with - oftentimes by calling a handyman, but sometimes on my own - since purchasing a house:

•  Replacing leaky valves (the washer valve, the kitchen sink, the master bath sink, the hot water heater valve, etc).
•  Comparing, pricing and eventually buying numerous appliances.
•  Snaking a drain all by myself (no maintenance guys anymore!). The previous owners had black hair I found out.
•  Frozen pipes (yes, in Phoenix).
•  Learning how not to panic when an old faucet handle breaks off in the full "On" position with the sink not draining properly (hint: there are valves under the sink and there's no need to run outside to turn the water off to the entire house *coughs*).
•  Replacing the AC unit after numerous other (expensive) problems with it.
•  Partial bathroom remodel (new vanity with granite tile countertop, mirror, light fixture & replacing the carpeting with tile).
•  Hot water heater replacement (think gushing water a few hours before I was going to host a high school girls sleepover).
•  Rogue tree limbs after storms (both mine and the neighbors).
•  The most resilient weeds on the planet (I'm only exagerating a little).
•  Installing and wiring a new ceiling fan (every bedroom and living area except the master bedroom already had a ceiling fan - someone explain that to me).
•  Installing a new garage door & opener.
•  A hail storm - who saw that one coming? I got a new roof, two new windows, new wood for the side gate, and a new back door out of that massive insurance claim.
•  My house being broken into. My first ever home insurance claim followed by me adding multiple security enhancements to the house.
•  The ongoing war against the pigeons who think my front porch is theirs.
•  Removing Tiki man.
•  And numerous other projects...

If you'd told me four years ago that I would have gone through all of the things I listed above, I would have assumed that I would regret buying a house. However, it's quite the opposite. Not only do I have a decent amount of equity in my house now, I also have a ton of experience dealing with house related projects. Some of them were fun, like painting an accent wall or picking new tile for the bathroom floors. Other were stressful and terribly timed, like the water heater incident. And some of them were more about me dealing with hiring people to do a job, but I consider those experiences to be learning experiences as well. They all add up to me being a homeowner, and I wouldn't go back and change my decision if I had the chance.

 

There have been a lot of fun things that have happened in my house that make for great memories. Simple things like practicing with my quiz team every week in my living room, to hosting numerous parties for various social circles, to watching an orphaned ministry get back on it's feet again as everyone gathered in my living room, I feel very blessed to have a home that's capable of hosting people.

Who knows what will happen to house values in the near future, or what other surprises are in store for me, but I'm excited to continue down this road. Except for the weeds that are threatening to take over again...I could live without those.

Three things I've learned:

•  Home ownership is not for the faint of heart.
•  Houses eat up money like nothing else.
•  The learning experience and pride of homeownership is much greater than I ever imagined.

{Ireland} Dublin

As I was planning my trip to Europe I was most excited about visiting Ireland. And of all the cities in Ireland, I was most excited about Dublin. Oddly enough, looking back I would say that Dublin ended up being my least favorite city of the entire trip. I found it dirty and rundown, and the down economy of Ireland seemed most evident in Dublin. That being said, I know quite a few people who absolutely love Dublin and would want to live there, so it might just be me. It also didn't help that my one full day in Dublin was the day where my cold was at it's worst.

In total, I spent a day and a half in Dublin. After dropping my stuff off at my hostel I made my way to the Guinness Storehouse to be a classic tourist and take the tour. I've already learned quite a bit about how beer is made in the past, so the tour wasn't incredibly informative for me, but it is very well done.

 

Included with the tour you can either have a free pint of Guinness in the Sky Bar (the top floor room with 360 degrees of floor to ceiling windows and great views) OR you can get a free pint by taking a lesson on how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. I opted to go up to the Sky Bar since I thought it would be cool to get a good view of Dublin, especially because I was still trying to get the lay of the land.

Since I was there on a quieter day in the middle of the afternoon, and since I hadn't redeemed my free pint yet, they told me I could go do the Perfect Pint class as well, so I ended up going back downstairs to get my pint there. There's a very exact process to pouring a pint of Guinness..let me tell you.

 

 

 

That pint of Guinness was actually my first pint ever of the stuff, so I can't tell you if it actually tastes better in Ireland than it does at home. I've been told that it does.

After The Guinness tour I explored Dublin for a couple of hours just to see what was around. I knew I'd go check out Trinity College and some of the things in that area the next day, so I didn't worry about hitting any of those sites during my first afternoon. It was at that point that I realized that Dublin just doesn't do much for me. I can wonder around aimlessly in London and enjoy every minute of it, but in Dublin I just wasn't intrigued for some reason.

During my full day in Dublin I went on a walking tour of Trinity College and then got to see the library and finally, the Book of Kells. The walking tour was great and the tour guide was funny, so I enjoyed that. The Trinity College library is something that appeals to a library lover like myself, but the Book of Kells was a bit of a letdown to me.

One thing that I will say about Dublin is that it does have some great options for shopping. Both Grafton street and the mall there were fantastic and I enjoyed spending time in both of those places.

Something that I learned with the hostel in Dublin is that the mega-hostels can potentially be really annoying when there are large groups staying there. There was a group of high school students from Sweden who were making tons of noise in the hallways at all hours of the night. I've learned that smaller hostels can be much more peaceful and homey. Although the hostel in Dublin was very modern and had individual outlets and lights built into the headboards, so features like that can be nice.

As it turns out, the smallest hostel I stayed in was the one I was headed to next, so the contrast was heightened. More on that next!