Do you love your home?

[Jerry1]

I like our house a lot, but not love. It fits our situation very well. It is close to things, especially the DD with grand kids. We love the property. Beyond the location, it's an acre in an area where large lots are very uncommon. So, we get the country feel in the suburbs. The house is pretty good. It is a 1700 sq/ft ranch with no basement (on a slab). We like having no stairs. We gutted the house when we bought it a couple years ago, so everything is new. We didn't move walls or take down drywall/plaster but from the paint out, is all new. Storage has been a challenge. It only has a two car garage (and no basement), so we just built a shed for storage (mainly the yard equipment) in the hope we can get both cars in the garage this winter. This house forced us to deal with our pack rat gene. We're doing pretty good, but it's taking a lot longer than one would expect. Still, moving in the right direction. General feeling is that life is good and the house is a good fit for this time of our life, but it's not love.

 

[Optionallyretired]

Nice man!! Looks beautiful

Love my house because of the deck and the surrounding trees. It's built in a wooded area close to everything surrounded by redwoods. There's even one coming up thru the deck.

It's very important for me to love my house as much as possible. I really want my house to be like "a womb with a view"View attachment 29215View attachment 29216View attachment 29217

 

[Katsmeow]

This is such an interesting thread.

We just bought our current house and moved in less than 2 months ago. I am already ecstatic with it. I must admit that a lot of it is the location. Our old house was very attractive (I loved that house). The new house cost more money than the house we sold. It is about 25% smaller and 20 years older than the house sold.

The reason it costs more money is due to location. The old house was 20 minutes from the closest grocery store. 30 to 45 minutes to most shopping. I hated that. The new house is very close to things. We have grocery stores (multiple ones) within 5 minutes. Used to, it was 40 minutes to Whole Foods (I don't buy everything there but there are some things I like to get there). Now it is 4 minutes.

I love, love, love the location.

As far as the house. Compared to the other houses we looked at this house was the best one. There was one house that I liked better in terms of house...but the location was not nearly as good. This house was more updated than most houses of its age and had a lot of potential. It was also move in ready.

Is it perfect? No. We are going to gut the master bathroom. The kitchen could use some remodeling. I just had an interior designer come and meet with me last week to discuss how to handle certain things.

I mean, sure, if I had spent another $200k I could have had a house in a similar location that was even newer and needed less remodeling. But, I didn't want to put that much money into a house. This house was at the top of the range of what I wanted to pay. Still, we plan to never move unless we have to for some reason.

 

[bmcgonig]

Cheers guys. I like hearing about this kind of thing, it's always interesting

We're personally had 3 homes now. The first a crappy place that was all we could afford. Next a couple of mediocre acres with small 2bdrm home which allowed us to get into a decent suburb and now pretty much our dream home!! 5 acres of manicured private gardens, resort style pool and 4 bedrooms.

It's so worth the wait and the type of thing I've always dreamed of and worked toward as a teenager even. I aim to pay down the mortgage on it asap and am still not compromising on my semi retirement late 30's. Perfect!

I am however somewhat of an introvert and there's nothing I enjoy more than spending time alone or with my Wife and pets so it really makes my life something special. Going out is usually horrible so I must enjoy my home

I think 5 acres of manicured private gardens and a resort style pool would be my "dead and gone to heaven" house, if I had a gardener of course!

Any pics?

 

[Freedom56]

We have three of them and like them all. We own all three free and clear. We are currently at our house in Switzerland. It is a triplex with 3 3/2 units. We have the middle unit and rent out the other two. Plus it has a large basement with a wine tasting room, sauna, workshop, and laundry. It sits a one acre lot overlooking Lake Geneva, the Alps, and the University of Lausanne. We just finished installing new hardwood floors throughout. Some pictures attached..

 

[mystang52]

"Don't laugh, it's paid for." I genuinely like my home. I like location, it has enough space for me and DW, and it was always affordable. I love some of the homes I've seen on this thread, though!

 

[Rianne]

Love our home
Love our location, walking distance to many places, Art Mart, Panera, Starbucks, Harvest Market, Oberweis Dairy, schools and parks.
Love our neighbors - except 1 or 2
Love the University of Illinois U-C, also walking distance to football and basketball games, and campus
Love the tree lined streets
What more can I say?

 

[jkern]

I really like my home, I've been there for 30 years now. Just under 2100 ft2, comfortable size but I would like a bigger kitchen. Great neighborhood and location.

Even though it is valued at $1.25M, it is affordable at $600 per month for prop tax and insurance.

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

We really enjoy our 2003 3500 sqft family home. It is in a quiet, safe, family-oriented suburb near multiple train stations, minutes to highways, a few blocks from all our kids' schools, in a very desirable town. We walk to forest preserves and 30+ miles of bike trails. We bought it used in 2008 but are the first residents because the original owners never moved into it--refrigerator drawers were still taped shut!

Our vacation home is in Florida (Atlantic side) right on the beach with a private walkover to the sand and surf. The 1991 2 story, 3 bd/3 ba house is old and rough around the edges, so to speak, and is rented out about 20 weeks a year and we use it only a few weeks a year as we have one kid still in high school, so limited opportunity. When he graduates in 3 more years we plan to tear it down and build our dream home on the beach lot, which will become our primary residence. The "up north" suburban home will probably be sold, though we might buy a small condo to use for summers to get out of the Florida heat.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I like our house and love the location. There weather is pretty nice most of the year with many parks and scenic hiking trails. In under an hour we can be in San Francisco, wine country, the beach or a Redwood forest. It is a great place to be retired with a nice selection of outdoor and cultural activities. We have a wooded lot and like to spend time outside on the patio just soaking up the sun and enjoying nature. We live near a state park, a commuter train station and can walk to everything we need like restaurants, shops, the bank, library and a craft brewery.

We'd rather have a smaller home and yard with less upkeep requirements now that the kids are grown, but after we looked around we didn't really find any place we would rather live. We have our eye on a townhouse in a retirement community in So Cal near the beach and one of our kids. I think we would really miss the trees and hiking up here so maybe we will stay put until we are too old to hike very much anyway.

It is an affordable neighborhood for the long time owners like us, especially with Prop 13 keeping property taxes low, but the tech boom has pushed prices into the seven figures.

 

[joeea]

Just wondering. Is your home an affordable abode or the space of your dreams, which one are you? Some find enjoyment from a nice home they really enjoy while others couldn't really care less

Being a rather frugal type of site (natural for early retirees of course) I would expect most people's homes to be rather affordable. Just wondering really

Both our homes are very nice and we find a lot of enjoyment in them.

When my wife fully retires next year, we'll sell one and find a lot of enjoyment in the other home for the rest of our lives.

Some would find our homes affordable, while many would find them unattainable I suspect. For us, we can afford them and could have afforded to spend more. We are very happy with what we have.

 

[kimcdougc]

Both.
No mortgage. Bought it for a reasonable $482K in 2011.
Newer. Modern. In a great thriving neighborhood with a WalkScore of 90.

Very nice place.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Eh...like it, not love it. I love the neighborhood, though. But we bought for under $200K in 1999, and now Zillow lists it as about $500K. And we've put about $100K into improving it, so it might sell for more than that.

But I'm not crazy about the climate in the Mid-Atlantic, so we're talking about moving north for retirement. Maine, MN, the PNW, and Colorado have been discussed, but we'll have to spend more time in those places before we decide, particularly the last two.

Funny, one of the main motivators for joining this forum was that I've been trying to research what to do with this house if we do move. If we sell, do we invest the proceeds and rent/mortgage our next place, or pay cash outright? Or do we rent it out and use that income to pay our housing costs in our new place?

 

[Elbata]

<img src="https://static.businessinsider.com/image/4d02773e4bd7c89d78020000-750.jpg" alt="$490"/>

Don't mean to show off, but eat your heart out folks.

 

[travelover]

...........
Funny, one of the main motivators for joining this forum was that I've been trying to research what to do with this house if we do move. If we sell, do we invest the proceeds and rent/mortgage our next place, or pay cash outright? Or do we rent it out and use that income to pay our housing costs in our new place?

You'll get a better answer if you post this question in a separate post.

 

[kimcdougc]

No, we don't love our rental, but we do like the rental till we find our forever home.

We sold our 4 bedroom 2.5 bath "big house" we lived in for 20 years 2 years ago. We are currently renting an 800 square foot renovated craftsman house in town. (It is my daughters house and we treat it like it is ours.)

We have been looking for our dream retirement home for over 2 years (2 bedroom 2 bath, one story with a small yard and a 2 car garage. We just don't know where we want to live. We look all over the nation and believe we will know when we see it. Do we live near the kids? Do we want warm weather all year round, do we want a water view etc. Till then we will keep renting this small house (with an unfinished basement for all our stuff). We like being in town as we can walk to everything.

The prices are what has us waiting and still looking. Everything is so expensive now.

 

[aja8888]

<img src="https://static.businessinsider.com/image/4d02773e4bd7c89d78020000-750.jpg" alt="$490"/>

Don't mean to show off, but eat your heart out folks.

Looks like the siding and windows could be refreshed!

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

You'll get a better answer if you post this question in a separate post.

Thanks! I actually have been reading quite a few threads on housing choices, and I've got years left, so I figured I'd wait to ask until I actually had more data, when it's getting to be time to make a decision. I just wanted to mention the issues here.

 

[W2R]

We hate our house and have been looking for another for three years. […] Finding a different house hasn't been easy, to say the least. We want single-level living, which is hard to find. Our biggest issue, though, is that when we find a house with the level of nice finishes, etc., we like, it's waaayyy too big. When we look at smaller houses, they really aren't all that nice.

Believe me, I understand!

Maybe at some point you will need to buy the smallest single level house in an acceptable neighborhood, and put in the new countertops or whatever other upgrades you wish after you have moved. I think this might be sort of what Robbie has been doing.

I guess the silver lining to that cloud would be that as you live there, upgrading gradually, you may find that some of the upgrades matter less to you than others. Also you will get exactly what you want.

Good luck and I hope you end up with a single level house that you love. Life is too short to live in a house that you hate, IMO.

 

[Chuckanut]

Love it? No. Enjoy it? Very much.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We totally remodeled our house before moving in so it is just what I wanted. The location and size of house were perfect. Plus my husband is handy so he did all the work. I hired him a assistant and it took about 4 months working f.t. On it.

 

[Floridatennisplayer]

Wow I find it interesting and a little depressing that so many people live somewhere that they are not really very happy with.

We love our primary home hard to believe it was 14 years ago we build it ..... about 3500 ft.² in a golf course community walking distance to all the schools parks and tennis courts. And we love our Florida condo for the winter.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We didn’t have enough closet space but it has 4 bedrooms. They added the master bedroom so it was attached to a tiny bedroom. We turned that Little room into a walk-in closet.

 

[bevette]

I hate my current house. It's a poorly constructed 1940s SFH in a dense neighborhood. It has a bad floor plan and poor insulation (even still, after having insulation blown into the walls and ceilings). I can't use the back deck because it bakes in the afternoon sun. There's no room on the lot to plant shade trees or shrubs. The home is on a street that cars use to cut through the neighborhood. Five years ago my immediate neighbor sold his house and the new owners keep pets in the back yard that are loud and annoying, which sucks because I still work full time, mostly from home.

After that sob story you might be wondering why I don't move. I live in Seattle. The only way I can change my housing situation is to move an hour or more out of town due to the hot housing market. I've done my homework. I've been looking for another house for 5 years (since the noisy neighbors moved in). So for now I'm stuck here.

Sorry for the whining, but housing is a sore spot for me at the moment. It feels incredibly therapeutic to get that all off my chest. You guys are great listeners.

 

[jabbahop]

Like several others. Love locations - like our two houses.

1) Our shoddily built 900 sf summer camp on the lake Champlain.



2) Our winter place near St. George UT with a completely different but equally stunning views.