We bought our first house and are all moved in as of June 12th (sorry about the late post). We are still getting settled into our little house in Overland Park but the dust has not settled yet. Since moving in we’ve replaced the electric range/oven with a gas model and then made a lot more dust by cutting out part of the built-in cabinets to install a dishwasher. Hopefully the list of home projects will stop growing soon!
The decision to finally leave our “adult home town” of Lawrence, Kansas was a tough one. It is where Jessie and I went to college, grew up, eventually met each other, graduated, rented a couple houses together, grew up (even more), and really felt at home. All in all it was a good run; practically a decade for me, a couple years less for Jessie. We will especially miss North Lawrence and being close to the river trails.
In addition to leaving NoLaw we had to weigh our options between buying and renting. At first, we were strongly opposed to taking on the extra risk and responsibility of owning. But after a month of looking, rentals that met our needs were surprisingly elusive. Not to mention it was looking like we’d have to pay at least $200 more than we were in Lawrence! And that’s for something with no frills and in a less-than-ideal location. Large dogs and travel trailers definitely limit options.So we went back to the drawing board and took an objective look at the big picture costs of buying and owning a home. All things considered we concluded that in our specific market/situation it was financially more favorable to buy. Plus we would have access to some much more desirable locations and the freedom to make changes to best suit out needs.
In the end, as an apples-to-apples comparison (insurance, utilities, commuting, etc.), we are paying significantly less than when we were renting. Of course we don’t know exactly how the big picture numbers will work out until after the house is sold and all numbers are accounted for but there is a lot of wiggle room before renting would have come out ahead. Anyway, we tried to approach it like shopping for the best tool to fit a specific need and we are definitely happy with how things have turned out so far.
That’s enough about facts and figures. Lets talk about why we decided to move in the first place.
The three primary reasons for moving were:
1.Needed a decent space to work on the Airstream – At our old rental house in Lawrence there was hardly enough space to park it in the makeshift gravel “driveway” and it was quite the production to maneuver the thing between a giant old tree and our house. There was only about 6 inches between aluminum and our dining room windows. Sure, we managed to park it but there was no way that we’d have enough space to work. Not to mention there was nowhere to store all the tools and materials that would be needed.
2.Jessie’s commute to school/work – Jessie just started grad school at KU Med and the commute for her from Lawrence would have been a whopping 1.75 hours per day minimum! We agreed that this would not be feasible long term and it was confirmed when she had to make the long commute for the first week of summer classes before we moved. From our new house her total daily commute is more like 30-35 minutes.
3.My commute to work – It was 1.25 hours per day and, despite the fact that its a fairly pleasant drive considering the scenery and lack of traffic, the wasted time and cost was definitely wearing on me. Now my total daily commute is 25-30 minutes.
A few months ago the biggest hurdle in “Stage 0” of the Airstream project (and life in general) was figuring out where we were going to live. Having that checked off the list is a huge relief because now it is just down to assembling the necessary tools and setting up shop. Oh, and finding more time.
We can finally see “Stage 1” on the horizon.
