My first house was ideal for us at the time. It was a small starter home that needed lots of work which I did myself. I learned how to sweat pipe, repair walls, run electrical circuits, be a good painter etc. Our second house was better and larger.
Our third and current home was purchased in 2010 after Governess Jenny Granholm (yea, her) ran us and a million others out of michigan due to her failed policies.
Back to a small starter size home because we had no money to buy a bigger one.
I refuse to be house poor so I’m happy with what I have. I’ll neve4 live in an ideal home but I don’t care.
My first (and last) house, was built on an acre we bought with plans I drew on software from Walmart in 1998. I paid a construction manager 10% of whatever he handled to oversee things while I was at work and because he knew all the reputable subs.
I did the electrical, the plumbing and HVAC with help from a pro to solder and charge the refrigerant lines. I built the back deck and installed all the flooring.
We completed the house for less than the 80% construction loan so we move in with 20% equity and a sub $700 payment on a 7% loan. I refinanced later at 3.5% and kept making the payment at the old rate. It will be paid off just after I retire next year.
It’s not fancy but it’s exactly what we wanted.
My wife and I bought our first house the year before we got married...my wife had very specific and sensible requirements...no cellar (slab), location, and cost.
God Bless her, because she had a very different outlook on a home than many young wives do, and many young men, for that matter.
She saw no reason to over-buy, so we didn’t get a great big house on a big piece of land. We purchased a standard three bedroom, one bathroom, living room/dining room, kitchen, and single car garage ranch on a quarter acre of the kind built so prolifically in 1962.
Turquoise kitchen appliances, and original bright orange shag carpet when we moved in, kitchen cabinets painted the color of Hershey’s dark chocolate. Pink bathroom, with nasty pink shower tiles that wouldn’t stay clean and began falling out over time.
We have been in it ever since. We took out a 30 year mortgage with a variable interest rate starting at 7%, and it steadily went up to 13% where we had to refinance it and get it back down to 9%. That was crazy watching our mortgage rise that that, it was a stupid thing we did.
We paid $100 extra each month towards principal, and got the house paid off in 15 years.
Lots of turnover in the neighborhood but largely still extremely quiet, cheaply built house that needed things done over time, as they all do.
But we didn’t overbuy, saved as much money as we could, and we started out furnishing it with second hand furniture and stuff we picked up off the road.
I know people who buy these great big houses, get themselves in hock, and can’t even furnish the house. What good is that?
And we are still here after all these years...:)