Member-only story
How owning a home changes everything
When I woke up on 30th November 2019, the ceiling looked different. There were light fixtures that I wasn’t accustomed to seeing, the first thing when I open my eyes. The air smelled different. The bed felt different. Oh yeah. I was in my new home.
The previous 7 or 8 weeks had been an emotional rollercoaster of epic proportions. What began as a casual “let’s have a look at houses for fun”, turned into a situation where I was voluntarily moving large sums of money from my account to the law firm that was handling the purchase of the first home that my fiance and I would be buying together.
I mean, this was proper adulting. Alongside getting married, having your first child, and turning 40, this was one of those rites of passage to being a grown-ass man. I didn’t know many people who had gone through the process of home ownership, other than members of my family.
It seemed that most people were busy establishing themselves in careers and relationships, whereas buying a house seemed like a far-off, heavy undertaking, something to be done when the stars of ‘enough money’, ‘right neighbourhood’ and ‘perfect house’ all aligned.
Somehow, we stumbled into this process, immediately falling in love with the 2-bed, 2-bath that would eventually become our first home. It was the last place we saw during a whirlwind…
