a year of homeowner-ness: the lessons

Owning a home isn't easy. The upkeep and maintenance, the bills, the responsibility, mortgage payments, the major commitment... the list goes on.

That being said-- I don't have any regrets or (very late) second thoughts about buying my house.

I tend to forget that I'm not a typical person of my age group.

Yeah, they might be married... but I'm single and I own a home.

I have to remind myself how awesome it is that I've been able to buy a house on my own before I was even 25. (I was about two months shy of my 25th birthday when I closed.) It is harder to convince myself of that when the grass needs to be mowed (again), the blackberries are getting ready to swallow Taylor up, dinner needs to be prepared using the one egg in the fridge and whatever might be found in the cupboards, the air vent to the furnace needs to be fixed... and I'm the only one that is responsible for it all.



On the flip side of that... I can do what I want, when I want. If I wanted to paint one of my rooms PINK I totally could, and I'm OK having cereal for dinner if I didn't make it to the grocery store for "real" dinner ingredients. I can buy (or build!) whatever furniture I want, rearrange it to my heart's content, and get to mowing the grass whenever.

Being responsible for a home has taught me a lot...

• I am quite capable. I might be ignorant of how to do some things or of what should be done, but I'm a quick learner, I can read directions, and I know how to find answers online. It might take me twice or even three times as long as someone else to do the same thing, but the satisfaction is so much greater when I can do it myself.

• It's not a bad thing to ask for help, especially if you can learn in the process. The internet doesn't have all the answers and sometimes it might be difficult to figure out which answer is correct. My parents have been a HUGE help to me over the last year and other friends and family are also full of great advice. Many people like to help and contribute! I've also found great online help from hardware stores like Lowe's. (I figured out what I needed and how to fix my toilet from their website! And it worked!)

• I don't have to accept all the help/advice offered. At the end of the day, it is still MY home, and mine alone (plus Taylor and Louie, but they don't help much-- the lack of opposable thumbs really gets in the way).

• It is possible to do some things for less money... like building furniture, decorating, etc. I love finding awesome items from discount or thrift stores and modifying them to whatever I want them to be. A little elbow grease and a bit of creative, go a long way! (Especially with spray paint!)

• A house doesn't have to be magazine-ready (or blog-ready) to be a home.
  

• A flexible budget is OK (for me). Not everything is going to fit neatly within my budget categories. I use Mint.com to track my expenses and it is a great tool to help me really see where my money is going each month. Inevitably, there are still "necessary" purchases that I can't avoid and that don't fall within my budgeted categories. Now that a mortgage takes a hefty chunk of my income I try to be more careful... but I have make myself be OK with buying some items when I might otherwise go without (such as new clothes).
  

I am looking forward to the next year of home-ownership and what I might learn along the way! My list of projects is ever growing... I see building a kitchen island in my future and maybe actually doing some gardening this year! (I need to get some bulbs in the ground asap.) And hopefully I finally get a new fence... but we'll see. I'm also trying to be a bit more "green" in my lifestyle, but more on that later. :)

If you want to read previous posts on projects and what not related to my new home, click on the "Sweet Home" link at the top of the page! (The oldest posts are from when I lived in a rental before finding my house.)