Buying a House

Ever since we got married in July 2003, we have rented. Our very first apartment, on Sewell Street in Abilene, TX, was $290/month and included free cable and high-speed internet. It was about as big as a postage stamp, and a regular pizza baking stone wouldn't fit in the oven, but I long for paying $290/month for rent. Then we moved to a renovated hotel in downtown Abilene, where I walked to work. Then, when we moved to Cooperstown we lived in a converted barn. Not kidding. It was about 8 miles up the lake from the Hall of Fame, and I got pulled over for rolling a stop sign (which I did not do - I was basically pulled over for Suspicion of Being From Texas) by a snarky park ranger 14 minutes after moving in.

After three months of Barn Livin' we moved to a house in Cooperstown, which we also rented. Rent was high, because that's how Cooperstown was. It's a town whose properties lived squarely in the Green to Blue region of the Monopoly board, unless you bought your house before Millard Fillmore became president. I also walked to work. Still, when the housing bubble crashed, we were largely unaffected - which is strange, considering my luck. I would fully expect to buy a house on Friday, and be upside-down on it by breakfast Saturday morning.

When we moved to Nashville, we wanted to live someplace close enough where I didn't have to deal with traffic, or commuting, since for the better part of five years I could walk to work. We have one car - a 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe with a dent in the door from where someone threw a rock through our window (and missed). We paid this car off last summer.

Now, we live in a two-bedroom apartment in Hermitage, 4.4 miles from where I work. Our lease is up in August, approximately two weeks after Baby Girl pops out of the oven. Staying here isn't really an option, as Kami's youngest brother currently lives with us. Moving after the fact isn't an option, because moving with a two-week old is one of the worst ideas. Ever.

So it has become increasingly clear that we should probably look at buying a house. This is a big step for me, as I (and, to a less violent extent, Kami) was whole-heartedly opposed to buying a house. Two summers ago our air-conditioning went out when it was 114 degrees. It was fixed within 20 minutes, and didn't cost a thing.  Our dishwasher has repeatedly acted the fool, and it's always been fixed within two hours, for free.

Also, for the first time in my career, I've been at a place for three years without having looked to see what other jobs are out there. We are both quite happy here, and don't have plans to leave Nashville.

I can feel the question forming on your end: "What are you, stupid? You're going to buy a house and move with a woman who is six months pregnant?" And I would respond first by rapping your shins with my cane (which I sort of have to use from time to time - dodgy left knee). Secondly, I respond by asking you, "Oh, so life is going to get less stressful from here on out? Should we wait until the Baby has a routine, and then pack, and then move, all the while living in a two-bedroom apartment with my brother-in-law? Let's rip the stress band-aid off all at once. No sense in gently pulling it off my leg hair."

I can list the advantages I held on to for continuing to live in an apartment. But those made sense when it was just Kami and myself. Now that we're introducing a little one to the world, the advantages of buying a house are becoming more clear (not least of which is the fact that I spend about an hour a day walking Gunther & Angus. To be able to just let them outside is a dream). And, in elementary school, the apartment kids all smelled a little funny. I can't put my daughter behind the 8-ball like that - she's going to have enough to deal with, what with the smart mouth she's sure to have.

And so this morning we go to look at houses. There's one we have our eye on, close enough to The Hermitage that I could possibly bike, certainly close enough that we wouldn't have to get another car. If the pictures weren't all photo-shopped, we're ready to give a go-ahead on, but we have to do our due diligence. Among the things we're looking for:

*Close enough to not need another car. I'm willing to pay more for a mortgage if we don't have to add a car payment and insurance.
*Three bedrooms. At least two bathrooms.
*As few walls as possible.
*New high-ticket items: Roof, HVAC, Water Heater.
*Big Kitchen for Kami.
*Fenced-in back yard.
*Maybe a wall that I can put my baseball stuff up, and make it look like the inside of a Chili's.
*I'm willing to spend $10,000 more if there is a hidden room that, when you move a statue of George Washington, a wall turns around opening up to a smoky room with old maps of Europe draped across tables and the walls.

It will be strange to move again - I hate moving. Moving is stressful. But, it will be less stressful if we do it in the next six weeks than with a new baby.