I Finally Bought a House

As of this afternoon I am a house owner. Or, put another way, I have a mortgage.

I’ve been living in rented accommodation since I was 18. In the next few weeks I’ll be moving in to my new house, which will be soon the place I call “home”.

The photo above isn’t fantastic and today was quite overcast in Carlow, so it doesn’t look as well as it could do. And yes, it’ll definitely need a fresh coat of paint!

But it’s mine, or at least it will be once I’ve paid off the mortgage 🙂

In other news, AIB have informed me that since they now “own me” they’re waiving fees on my personal bank account 🙂

The house has been empty for a while, so it’ll need a bit of work before I’m able to move in properly.

I’d love to be able to make use of some of the cooler tech that’s available out there these days ie. make it into a “smart home”, though I’ve already realised that the availability of some products and services on this side of the Atlantic is a bit limited.

Kevin documented his setup recently and my mouth was watering!

On my list, for now, are:

• Nest – both the thermostat and the “protect”
• Sockets – there are never enough of them
• USB chargers – in the sockets

There’s a lot of other stuff I’d like to get, but my first challenge will be packing up 13 years of my life and moving it all across the town.. And did I mention shelving? I’ll need quite a bit of that. Again, nobody puts enough into houses and I have quite a few books.

I’ve got my eye on a few bits and bobs I’d like to get for my “home office”, like a decent desk. The one I’m currently using is “ok”, but it’s not great. I already picked up a decent office chair, so I’ll be able to leave the one I’ve had for the last 13 years behind when I move.

The kitchen is really important to me but it looks like I won’t need to do a whole lot with the one that’s in the house. As it was originally built as a kind of “show house” for the housing development it’s “fully loaded”, with a pretty good selection of white goods, decent enough counter space etc., Whether I need to replace some of these things over time or not remains to be seen, but what’s there will do to start me off.

The upside (or downside) to having lived in rented and furnished accommodation for so long is that I don’t own much in the way of furniture. Luckily, however, the house was sold furnished and while some of the furniture currently in situ is pretty awful it’s a lot better than being forced to furnish the entire house before I can move in.