I don't know where the last year went, but on Saturday it will have been a year since we closed on the house. I'm thankful to have that awful financing experience further behind me (and now my credit score is at 845, if you can believe that).
Financially, it was a good idea considering that our mortgage will be lower than a comparable rental, even after the property tax kicks in. Zillow puts the house at $11k, more than where we bought it, and I assume with more expensive houses going up around us, that will continue to trend upward. Of course, I try to be realistic too, after the mess that was my first house. I thought that experience might have soured me on owning a house for the rest of my life.
Money aside, I think there was a psychological thing going on with houses for me that I had to overcome. We moved five times in four years, including to Seattle, back to Cleveland and then Orlando. I wouldn't describe that as fun, but it felt like we had quite a bit of mobility, and we were free to explore. As if being non-committal about where you live was a thing. Being able to sell the Cleveland house (after four years) in 48 hours felt even better. It seemed insane to put money down on a house within a couple of weeks of being here, but it was logical.
After a year, I feel pretty good about it, for a ton of reasons. I had some purchase regret at first, but after saving a little money and spending more time at home once I started working quasi-remote, the anxiety went away. I've been comfortable where I live, but the last time home felt like home was probably '04. All the chaos and change made it hard to feel like the house was home.
We're pretty comfortable in the area, too. We've gotten to know some of our neighbors. We're definitely in the 'burbs, but not too far away from anything. We have a few local establishments we like. It's super easy to get on cruise ships and see rocket launches. Oh, and there are some theme parks a mile down the road. You might be familiar with them. There is no winter here, either.
Do I miss Cleveland? Not at all. I miss easy access to Cedar Point and the Winking Lizard, but that's about it. Do I miss Seattle? Every day, but I'm not sure I would want to live there full-time. Actually, if I could spend summers there, that would be perfect. We don't have the Cascades, but Space, Splash and Big Thunder Mountains aren't bad.
There was a time when we had written Central Florida off the list because of schools, but once I started to look deeper into it, it was clear that it would just depend on where you went. There are some really terrible schools here, but despite the size of the Orange County district, some of the schools are pretty solid. Simon's pre-K teachers have been absolutely amazing. If things stay on schedule, he'll go to a new elementary school down the street starting in grade two. The high school he goes to (once the lawsuits and nonsense go away) will only be a few years old by the time he gets there. Of course this all assumes that we stay put, but it's not a bad place to be.
I can't say that it has been a joy to work with KB Home. We had to act as their QA department during construction, which frankly scares me because I could only point out the issues that I knew and understood. For example, they originally wired a light switch to the pantry on the outside, so you'd have to reach behind the fridge to turn on the light. The half-wall at the top of the stairs could literally be moved six inches in either direction until they shored it up to a beam below it. But what really rubbed me the wrong way was the way the customer service guy tried to play everything off as him doing us a favor. Referring to repairs as a "courtesy" or attributing everything to settling. Stuff that had to be resolved was mostly the result of shitty work in the first place, and the contractors who fixed stuff weren't shy about saying so. Honestly, Pulte was no better on my first house, but you still hope for something better.
We haven't gone nuts decorating, and in fact we still don't even have curtains in the living room. We did have a guy paint the kitchen/dining/living room area though, as well as our bathroom. Sometimes I watch HGTV and just want to hire an interior decorator, but what I hate about that it isn't "you" at that point, it's what someone else wanted for you. The house is definitely cozy, but it needs some accents here and there. It just doesn't feel like an area where we want to put energy most of the time.
We've thought about building out the patio on the side of the garage, with a big old bird cage, but we're not anxious to spend money on that just yet. I'm not even sure how much we would use it.
The worst thing about building is that after it's done, you see all kinds of things you wish you would have done. Different flooring, different options, etc. The thing that I miss the most are six-foot windows, which I had in Cleveland, but see very rarely in Florida. Our builder just put up a new model for the next phase of the development, and they've got those bigger windows. They make such a huge difference in the amount of sun that comes in. (Odd observation: People in FL seem obsessed with covering their windows 24/7 using blinds, which seems pretty weird in the Sunshine State.)
Regardless, I'm still pretty happy to have a house again. It's a little more house than we need, but I love having 143 square feet of office space all my own, and the most functional kitchen of any house I've ever lived in. What makes it ideal has more to do with the people I share it with, the work I get to do and the sunny location. Without all of that, it would just be another McMansion.
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