First Gen American.com

Category: Home Ownership

  • Knucklehead Unplanned Expenses

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet So, it’s official. We’re moved into our new to us old farmhouse.  I gave a tour to a colleague of mine a week before we moved in and he’s like “Wow..there is no way in hell my wife would ever move into a house in this state.”   He didn’t say it in a mean…

  • Babci’s Dream House

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet We’re on dumpster 11 in the rehab of our 2 family.  The sad thing is that we haven’t even started gutting the inside yet. That’s just the major exterior repairs like roof  (3 layers) and rotted siding and trash removal.   We found some old tractor tires, rusted milk buckets and barbed wire during our…

  • Useless and Beloved Living Spaces

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet I can’t help but comment on my house hunt yet again.  It’s been frustrating on many levels, but today I wanted to touch upon the crazy and useless spaces in today’s McMansions.  Because I want to find a place with in-law apartment potential, I’ve been looking at homes in the 2500-4000 ft2 range.  Today…

  • Spendaphobia – I think I have it

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet I’m house hunting. It’s clearly something that’s right for my family.  The thought of living in a bigger home that can house my mom on a little more land is SO appealing…but I’m going through sticker shock.   The good news is that having bought 2 fixers already, I can clearly see the potential in…

  • Househunting and Tradesman’s Posh Digs

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet You may or may not have read in previous articles that I’m doing a little house hunting of late.  It’s not that we’ve outgrown our home, but we feel it’s a good time to invest in the real estate market and trade up to some digs that are big enough to house babci someday,…

  • Why my Underwater House Worked for Me

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet There has been a lot of buzz in the PF world about Strategic Defaulting on a Mortgage. (For you non-PF’ers that’s the term used to walk away from a mortgage even though you can afford to keep paying.)   First Financial Samurai talked about friend of his who is about to walk away from a…

  • Risk Taking – Going Back into Debt

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet During my last Coffee Talk, I spoke about how one of my downfalls was my conservative nature when it comes to spending and investing.  Given the stock market scares me and I already do most of my retirement there, I was looking for an outlet for the extra cash we’ve been saving.   Between wanting…

  • Babci on Remodeling: Do 1 Room per Year

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet The 3 family house my parents bought in the 1970’s was $10,000.  They paid cash for it and it was near condemned.  The 3rd floor apartment had  a toilet right smack in the middle of the kitchen where the sink was supposed to be and it had a ladder to access the 3rd floor…

  • Is Your Big House Making You Fat?

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet In my last post, I was wrote an article about a very distinct absence of rich people at my local lake and it led to some very interesting comments from Kris and Jacq.  Basically they both said that the richer the neighborhood, the less people you see outside playing.  Kris notices it when she…

  • How to Make a Junk Mail Yurt

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet I’m so excited about the following guest post from Mike and Molly’s House. She is like a younger, slightly less eccentric version of Babci with her own chickens and all.  I’m sure someday her daughters will be blogging about all the crazy things she used to do with raw eggs.  Molly even makes her…