MarkBarbieri
07-24-2009, 04:37 PM
My wife and I achieved a significant goal today. We paid off our mortgage. We now own our home totally unencumbered. It feels like we have reached the end of a long journey.
When we first got married, we moved into a friend's parent's house and "house sat" for them. After that, we moved into a 1 bedroom apartment for 5 years. It was a bit cramped, but we were so busy with our lives that we never really noticed. Living in a small apartment gave us more time for working, playing, and enjoying married life.
When we decided that it was finally time to start a family, we moved out to the suburbs and bought our first home. It was a stressful purchase. It was a huge amount of money to us at that time. My wife also wanted to stay at home once we had kids, so we had to plan for getting by on a single income. In the end, everything worked out OK and it was a really nice house for our us and our babies.
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/21454030_iPqih-M.jpg
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/21454033_qKKNM-M.jpg
Several years after we settled in and really felt at home, our lives were uprooted. The company that I worked for was bought by an Oklahoma City company. My bosses survived the acquisition and wanted me to move up to OKC with them. We knew no one in OKC and knew nothing about the area, so we decided to rent when we first got there.
It quickly became apparent that the style of houses common there were not to my wife's liking. As an example, the item at the top of her list was a better walk-in pantry as our old house's pantry was just too small. In Oklahoma, I couldn't find a walk-in pantry in any houses in our price range. I had no idea whether my career would keep me in Oklahoma, but I decided that I'd get my wife a nice house so that she wouldn't object if we stayed.
We decided to build a house. I've heard lots of horror stories about building houses, but our experience was good. Our builder was a wonderful person - smart, honest, and resourceful. We ended up with a house very different from our starter house. We went from a 7,200 sq ft lot to a 1.5 acre lot. We increased the house size by 25%.
The home we built was somewhat unusual, but it really suited us. We had no formal dining room. In the playroom/guest room, we had a wall of shelves that pulled apart to reveal a murphy bed. The kid's closets had a secret passage connecting them. We had a theater room upstairs that was access by a stairway hidden behind a bookshelf. I'm sure that it sounds crazy, but we loved it.
Here's a shot of the front before we landscaped it:
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/11256598_2XoKx-M.jpg
Here is my wife's gorgeous kitchen. She really misses that kitchen.
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/7925249_mqDaa-M.jpg
Here's the family room with the bookshelf/door open. The big green thing on the floor is one of those inflated bouncy things. When it was cold out, we would set that up in the family room to give the kids a place to burn off energy.
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/11263145_vH6xS-M.jpg
It wasn't long after we got settled into the house before I decided to leave the company I was working for. It was, and still is, a great company, but it just wasn't working out well for me. I ended up taking a job back in Texas, which thrilled my wife. While she liked Oklahoma OK, she felt much more at home in Houston.
We did very well financially with both of our first two houses. We were really worried about being able to sell our unusual Oklahoma house, but it sold in just a couple of months. We were also able to get an acceptable house in Houston for less than the one we sold in Oklahoma. Because we had so much money to put into the house, I took a gamble and financed the new house with an adjustable rate mortgage that would be fixed at 4.5% for five years and then float. It was almost a full percentage point cheaper than a 30 year fixed. I decided that we would embark on an aggressive plan to pay the house off in 5 years and avoid the interest rate risk. I've heard a lot of criticism of adjustable mortgages and I agree that they are not appropriate for everyone, but getting one saved us a lot of money.
The house we bought in The Woodlands (near Houston) isn't as nice as the one we left in Oklahoma. It doesn't have any secret doors. It's on a 1/4 acre lot. Like most houses in Houston, it was made as cheaply as possible. Still, it's not a bad house at all and we've improved on it while we've been here. It's home now and I suspect that we'll be here quite a while.
It's in a wonderful neighborhood. We have all made lots of friends here and have frequent neighborhood parties.
It is still a bit of an odd house. The formal dining room has been converted into the "kid's office" complete with 6 old PCs for the kids and their friends to use. We enclosed the game room upstairs, added a riser and stage, sheetrocked a window, and converted it into a theater room.
It's still not a very attractive house. I don't think I have any pictures from the front. Given the horrible drought we've had, I'm not going to take any now.
My wife has poured a ton of energy (and money) into the backyard. She has added a pool, a pergula, a bunch of paver stone paths, and lots of landscaping. It has become a popular summer hangout. Here's the backyard when we bought it:
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/16947588_RBKi5-M.jpg
Here is what it looks like now:
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/141600129_UT5xH-M.jpg
It has survived two hurricanes since we moved here. The second one, Ike, knocked out our power for two weeks. Here is our tree on our neighbor's house:
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/377302577_VK2Qc-M.jpg
OK, this is all pretty far off topic from photography. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading along. I'm just excited about having finally paid it off.
And no, this will not significantly increase my budget for camera gear. All that house payment money will now be directed to savings. I'm looking forward to achieving financial independence. I don't want to call that retirement, because I don't know if I'll retire. I just want to be in a financial position to have more choices with what I do.
When we first got married, we moved into a friend's parent's house and "house sat" for them. After that, we moved into a 1 bedroom apartment for 5 years. It was a bit cramped, but we were so busy with our lives that we never really noticed. Living in a small apartment gave us more time for working, playing, and enjoying married life.
When we decided that it was finally time to start a family, we moved out to the suburbs and bought our first home. It was a stressful purchase. It was a huge amount of money to us at that time. My wife also wanted to stay at home once we had kids, so we had to plan for getting by on a single income. In the end, everything worked out OK and it was a really nice house for our us and our babies.
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/21454030_iPqih-M.jpg
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/21454033_qKKNM-M.jpg
Several years after we settled in and really felt at home, our lives were uprooted. The company that I worked for was bought by an Oklahoma City company. My bosses survived the acquisition and wanted me to move up to OKC with them. We knew no one in OKC and knew nothing about the area, so we decided to rent when we first got there.
It quickly became apparent that the style of houses common there were not to my wife's liking. As an example, the item at the top of her list was a better walk-in pantry as our old house's pantry was just too small. In Oklahoma, I couldn't find a walk-in pantry in any houses in our price range. I had no idea whether my career would keep me in Oklahoma, but I decided that I'd get my wife a nice house so that she wouldn't object if we stayed.
We decided to build a house. I've heard lots of horror stories about building houses, but our experience was good. Our builder was a wonderful person - smart, honest, and resourceful. We ended up with a house very different from our starter house. We went from a 7,200 sq ft lot to a 1.5 acre lot. We increased the house size by 25%.
The home we built was somewhat unusual, but it really suited us. We had no formal dining room. In the playroom/guest room, we had a wall of shelves that pulled apart to reveal a murphy bed. The kid's closets had a secret passage connecting them. We had a theater room upstairs that was access by a stairway hidden behind a bookshelf. I'm sure that it sounds crazy, but we loved it.
Here's a shot of the front before we landscaped it:
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/11256598_2XoKx-M.jpg
Here is my wife's gorgeous kitchen. She really misses that kitchen.
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/7925249_mqDaa-M.jpg
Here's the family room with the bookshelf/door open. The big green thing on the floor is one of those inflated bouncy things. When it was cold out, we would set that up in the family room to give the kids a place to burn off energy.
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/11263145_vH6xS-M.jpg
It wasn't long after we got settled into the house before I decided to leave the company I was working for. It was, and still is, a great company, but it just wasn't working out well for me. I ended up taking a job back in Texas, which thrilled my wife. While she liked Oklahoma OK, she felt much more at home in Houston.
We did very well financially with both of our first two houses. We were really worried about being able to sell our unusual Oklahoma house, but it sold in just a couple of months. We were also able to get an acceptable house in Houston for less than the one we sold in Oklahoma. Because we had so much money to put into the house, I took a gamble and financed the new house with an adjustable rate mortgage that would be fixed at 4.5% for five years and then float. It was almost a full percentage point cheaper than a 30 year fixed. I decided that we would embark on an aggressive plan to pay the house off in 5 years and avoid the interest rate risk. I've heard a lot of criticism of adjustable mortgages and I agree that they are not appropriate for everyone, but getting one saved us a lot of money.
The house we bought in The Woodlands (near Houston) isn't as nice as the one we left in Oklahoma. It doesn't have any secret doors. It's on a 1/4 acre lot. Like most houses in Houston, it was made as cheaply as possible. Still, it's not a bad house at all and we've improved on it while we've been here. It's home now and I suspect that we'll be here quite a while.
It's in a wonderful neighborhood. We have all made lots of friends here and have frequent neighborhood parties.
It is still a bit of an odd house. The formal dining room has been converted into the "kid's office" complete with 6 old PCs for the kids and their friends to use. We enclosed the game room upstairs, added a riser and stage, sheetrocked a window, and converted it into a theater room.
It's still not a very attractive house. I don't think I have any pictures from the front. Given the horrible drought we've had, I'm not going to take any now.
My wife has poured a ton of energy (and money) into the backyard. She has added a pool, a pergula, a bunch of paver stone paths, and lots of landscaping. It has become a popular summer hangout. Here's the backyard when we bought it:
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/16947588_RBKi5-M.jpg
Here is what it looks like now:
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/141600129_UT5xH-M.jpg
It has survived two hurricanes since we moved here. The second one, Ike, knocked out our power for two weeks. Here is our tree on our neighbor's house:
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/377302577_VK2Qc-M.jpg
OK, this is all pretty far off topic from photography. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading along. I'm just excited about having finally paid it off.
And no, this will not significantly increase my budget for camera gear. All that house payment money will now be directed to savings. I'm looking forward to achieving financial independence. I don't want to call that retirement, because I don't know if I'll retire. I just want to be in a financial position to have more choices with what I do.