Prospective home buyers should start small then scale up
Inthese rather rough economic times, where prices have risen so much just recently, in ation higher, interest rates rising in apparent e orts to address many economic issues that plague Americans these days, I had the opportunity to talk about this last week and then continued to think about solutions along with some pretty vivid memories about a past and then a current home.
How to resolve some of the housing questions? In other tough times, some people decided to x up or renovate their current home rather than buy new. At another time, several decades ago, an idea was to buy as big a home as possible and build equity. I used to drive along a road of such huge homes…with magni cent stretches of windows revealing no furniture within. Perhaps, reverting to maybe common sense, start small, possibly renting a small place while saving to eventually buy. Even that can be small to start, either enlarging that home or actually buying a bigger one. With lumber prices that skyrocketed over the past year and a half, even renovations might be more of a challenge, inspiring creativity big time.
An example of do-it-yourself was the house we rented and called the Shoe House in the late 60s. Our landlord had extended the living room so the exterior truly resembled that childhood “Old Lady in the Shoe” poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. Unfortunately for us, the “absolutely dry” old basement part of the house ooded during a spring rainstorm and I arrived home that evening to discover our kitty William trapped in his litter box, oating around the swirling ood waters. We do have happier memories, so we were delighted when my mother memorialized it with her needlework, even to eye colors of my ve children.
In our current and nearly 200-yearold home, there were a couple of electrical items to repair quite a while back. “Spooky,” dryly commented our electrician a er completing his work. Perhaps, I think, that’s why the spirits here have quieted over time now. The only sounds I hear from time to time is probably a mouse skittering behind a wall, with a nuanced rustling of our resident black snake Mosby in pursuit.
However some choose to address housing, I hope their e orts result in positive ways. Here in Rappahannock, there seem to be possibilities on the cusp of discovery. Bravo.