Stretching the budget for a dream
Hire the professionals to remove old wallpaper
Veronica Wood, 29, and husband Christopher Wood, 29, bought a house on Mill St. in an older part of Brampton in 2013. He proposed that day — she had told him she wasn’t getting married until they had a house.
This is what Veronica had to say about her starter home: What I wanted in my first home: I think you dream of what you really want your first home to look like — especially if you are leaving your parents’ home and hope that you can find and afford the same thing.
Trying to be realistic, I wanted my first home to be detached with single-car garage, three bedrooms, two parking spaces in the driveway and A/C. What I got: Exactly that, but I had to do it by bumping up our budget by $35,000, knowing the house is old and will need lots of upgrades. To get something decent and detached in Brampton, you’re looking at more than $400,000, not the $350,000 to 375,000 I had dreamed of.
What I love: My house is older and has some character: original hardwood floors and a wood-burning fireplace with brick around it. What I regret: WALLPAPER! I slipped into dream world when we walked through the house I and told myself it would be easy because of the countless people that say, “Oh just do this . . . ”
I snapped back into reality after we had purchased the home and I was ready to tackle the wallpaper. I found myself in tears of frustration because little did I know there were two layers of wallpaper on some of the walls (we just ended up putting up new drywall on those walls). So my advice to people buying homes with wallpaper: ask for some money off the asking price and hire someone to either take it off or drywall! My one favourite thing: Our sunroom. The owners had an addition put on the back, and it has nice big windows looking into our backyard.
We have learned a lot in the past two years of owning this home and couldn’t have done it without the support of our family.
Our reality may consist of fixing things around the house, but every night I walk in the front door, I smile and have this irreplaceable feeling of being settled and can say my dream of owning a home with someone I love has come true. My next dream: Growing a money tree to pay for all the upgrades the house needs.