Looking For A New Home

I never thought that buying a new home would be so difficult. Being married and this being not just my wife’s but my first home purchase as well, I figured all it would involve would be looking at a few homes and then deciding which one felt most like home to us. As we began seeing houses we both began making lists of things we wanted or had to have in our first home.

I was and continue to be adamant about getting some sort of tech-recreational room. When I’m not working and I’m not with my wife there’s nothing I enjoy more than a rousing video game, television, or good movie. Though we enjoy most of the same things, she doesn’t always want to partake in the same things I do. As hard as I have worked for the new home, I figured that a “man” room was in order.

My wife posed no opposition to such a room or requirement though she did present her own. Originally she has wanted a swimming pool but has recently decided that she’s like the home to have something that will allow her to tend to an indoor garden complete with grow lights and ready to plant soil. She has always enjoyed growing her own flora and a variety of vegetables as well.

Aside from those two life-size requests we also found ourselves nitpicking things in each of the homes we saw and continue to see. The entire process has quickly become overwhelming. I’m not sure if it’s because of the amount of money we are prepared to spend on this home or if it’s just personal desires but none of the homes we’ve seen feel like they’re “our” home yet. Moving around a lot as a young child I can remember some homes feeling like “home” while others did not. We’re both looking for that certain something again, with our first home.

Some of these houses have great living rooms but no den. Others still have fantastic kitchen and dining areas but the living rooms and/or bedrooms have been to awkward or small. We’ve also seen several homes that don’t have gardening areas and a few that have had no large guest room that I could turn into my private entertainment headquarters. Many of the homes we’ve viewed thus far have all had something we fell in love with but found out rather quickly that we were often dealing with a double edged sword.

House hunting is one of those things in life you think will be easy but in actuality it turns out to be a bewildering experience. Mind you we have yet to become frustrated or overwhelmed, we are simply surprised at just how picky we’ve suddenly become. Before we went out viewing homes we thought we knew what we want and where prepared to find the perfect home in a short matter of time. We still look forward to seeing each home on our list but we are both starting to realize that we may have to make some compromises as there is no perfect home out there.

We have taken this advice from our real estate agent and it’s actually improved the experience to some degree but it’s hard to make compromises when you know you’re signing your life away. My wife however is much better at compromising which is also helping to keep my expectations of a new home in reality. For those thinking of or beginning to look for their first home be prepared to find something you don’t like in almost every home you see. You’ll also need to be prepared to have a give and take mentality. Doing so will make the process exciting and keep things positive.