What Is It Like To Be A Homeowner?
As a young adult, you are responsible for entering the world and living an independent life. In your first few years of being an adult you will be able to spread your wings and become a fully fledged person who can control their own life. You will have the chance to make your own career, travel the world, meet someone special and buy your own home.
Buying a house is one of the biggest pleasures you can have in your life. Renting is great for younger people as they make their way in the world, but eventually you will want to settle down in your own duplex, townhouse or cottage and make memories in your own space. Making the transition from a tenant to a landlord can be a pretty big change, and it is one which you will thank yourself for for years to come. Here are some of the things you will learn when you become a homeowner, and what it is really like to own a property.
You’ll be scared
During the time you buy a home and start paying off your mortgage to your private money lenders los angeles as well as your water, electric and gas: you will become pretty scared and wonder whether you will ever be able to afford this for the long term. Don’t worry! It is perfectly normal to start panicking when you first set out on your own, and the bills you pay will be pretty large when you first move into your home. The key thing to remember is that you are only paying what you use, so you can reduce your costs by being a little more savvy when it comes to your energy and water usage. If your water bill is far too high, make sure that you let the washing pile up before you fill up your kitchen sink, don’t run the tap while you brush your teeth, don’t spend an hour in the shower… all of these things will reduce your bills and make you feel at ease. The same thing applies with electricity and gas. Try to wrap up warm instead of switching the heating on, turn off the lights when you don’t need them, cook food in bulk to use less energy. Once you get into the habit of being energy savvy, you’ll relax.
You get a lot of post
When you are a child or a teenager, the act of getting post through the door is frankly pretty exciting. It didn’t matter if the letter was from your doctor or school the fact that you had post delivered to you made you feel like an adult.
These days though, post isn’t as exciting. Most of your post will consist of random flyers from companies in the area, newspapers, takeaway menus and bills. You will have to get rid of so much post every day that you’ll begin to wish you were living in the desert. Most of the time the best use you can get out of these items is to pile them up with your food waste in the compost bin.
You’ll feel smug
If you happen to be in the situation where you are the first out of your friends to buy your own home, you can’t help but feel just a little bit smug about the fact. When you listen to your friends talking about how annoying it is living with their parents, or how they want to decorate their flat but can’t, you can sit back in the knowledge that you have everything already. Sure, you have to pay a lot more money every month than they do, but you have a house and they don’t, and that is something to be proud of.
The food shop
When you first move into your home, you’ll spend the first few days surviving in little more than beans on toast and takeaways. It is a simple fact that during the first few days of homeownership you won’t have much food in the house, and you’ll likely still be getting the hang of using your new oven. However, it is in the second week of living in your new home that the dreaded food shop will need to be done.
This shop will be the biggest food shop you have ever done in your life, because you will not only be filling your fridge with meals for the next week, but you will also be filling your pantry with all the essentials. Here are just a few examples of the things you’ll need to buy during your first food shop:
-bread
-milk
-rice
-pasta
-sauces
-salt, vinegar and pepper
-cooking oil
-flour
-eggs
-Butter
-herbs
-spices
-condiments
-tea
-coffee
-sugar
And we would go on, but this could be a VERY long list. The point is, you’ll be buying a lot of stuff during our first month.
Learning DIY
One of the most frustrating and *ahem* interesting things you’ll need to learn in your first few months of living in your home is how to perform basic DIY tasks. Things like changing a lightbulb, hanging a picture, wallpapering the wall and building IKEA wardrobes. If you have never done DIY before, this will be a huge learning curve for you and will either go really well, or really bad. Make sure you watch plenty of YouTube videos and also start asking your family members to teach you a few things.
You’ll learn about plants
If you move into a home which has a good outdoor space, you will be able to enjoy summer nights in the garden with a beer, and sharing barbecues with your friends and family too. However, if you have never learned anything about plants before, now will be the time to do it. A garden is a complex ecosystem which you have to look after during your time owning the house. You will have to mow the lawn regularly, pull out weeds, and learn to prune your shrubs to keep them strong and healthy. It will likely take you a while to learn everything you need to know about your garden, and you might want to get your Mum to come and help you learn about everything. But if you can spend an hour every week looking at the space, you will soon make it into an outdoor haven to enjoy.
You’ll feel free
Owning a home is more than just living in a private place with your partner or your family, it is about having something which is yours and being responsible for it completely. You will feel the most immense feeling of freedom from the moment you step into this new space. You will no longer have to live by your parents rules and you won’t have to take anyone’s advice if you don’t want to. Your family might suggest things to you, but you don’t have to listen! It will be a liberating, freeing and amazing feeling for both you and your family. You are finally in a space which is made for you, and you can do whatever you want to it. If you wake up one morning and decide to rearrange the kings completely, go ahead! There is nothing stopping you from making your home whatever you want it to be. The freedom of waking up on a weekend morning and rolling out of bed to chill out in your own home is something which cannot be beaten, this is your space, your home and your life.