Exciting, nervewracking house stuff. . .
Aug. 7th, 2003 12:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSo -- those of you who know us in person know we live in a three-family house. Actually, we own a three-family house. Three stories. It's a converted Victorian, built in 1898 or so.
Around 1920 or so, someone added a kitchen and bathroom to the attic, added a separate entrance, finished it, etc, and turned the attic into a separate apartment, with a separate address and everything.
Then, in 1954, someone took the main apartment (the first and second floors), and threw a couple doors up, one at the top of the foyer stairs, one blocking off an entryway, and turned it into two apartments. They turned what was probably a bedroom into a kitchen upstairs -- the bathroom was probably already a bathroom by then.
We live in the middle apartment. Both the bottom apartment and the middle apartment are a little wonky, because they're each sorta half a house, but they're nice.
We've always intended to someday take over the bottom floor, remove those two doors, and have a REAL house. I mean, when we moved from the aparment that we lived in before to this one, we actually LOST square footage, and we certainly lost ROOMS -- our apartment has a hall, a bathroom, a kitchen, a pantry, a bedroom, a couple closets, and this room I'm sitting in now, which has everything else we own (books, stereo, booze, computers.) We've lived here for three years, and we haven't unpacked, because there's no place to unpack INTO.
On the other hand, with the rent money we get, our housing was, all in all, really pretty cheap. Here's how we think about it. We've got this mortgage we pay every month. Take the amount of mortgage, subtract the rent money we get from upstairs, subtract the rent money we get from downstairs. What's left, that's what we're paying in rent. Now, there's still some left over. But, in effect, we're paying LESS rent than either of our tenants. (And we get the equity in the house, so that's even better -- in a sense, we're paying the rent to ourselves, eventually) I mean, that's the deal with owning a house. In general -- there are exceptions -- it's cheaper to own a home than to rent one. Because, think about it -- if you're renting a home, then someone else owns it. And that someone else is paying some money to own it. But they're renting it to you. So you've got to be paying what it costs them to own it, plus a little bit tacked on for their profit. I mean, if you were paying LESS than what it costs to own it, then the person who owned the house would lose money, and go bankrupt, and no longer own the house. . .
Our downstairs neighbors just left us a note saying they intend to move out at the end of the month, when their lease expires.
Okay, on the one hand, this is REALLY REALLY COOL. We can now get the house that we wanted when we BOUGHT this house. I mean, that's been our goal all along!
On the other hand. . . this means that our "rent" is going to more than double.
Another way to look at it: you know how much an apartment costs? That's how much LESS money we're going to have every month. . .
So -- if we can afford it, we're going to have the house we always intended to have.
If we can't, we'll have to rent it out again.
I hope we can afford it.
Around 1920 or so, someone added a kitchen and bathroom to the attic, added a separate entrance, finished it, etc, and turned the attic into a separate apartment, with a separate address and everything.
Then, in 1954, someone took the main apartment (the first and second floors), and threw a couple doors up, one at the top of the foyer stairs, one blocking off an entryway, and turned it into two apartments. They turned what was probably a bedroom into a kitchen upstairs -- the bathroom was probably already a bathroom by then.
We live in the middle apartment. Both the bottom apartment and the middle apartment are a little wonky, because they're each sorta half a house, but they're nice.
We've always intended to someday take over the bottom floor, remove those two doors, and have a REAL house. I mean, when we moved from the aparment that we lived in before to this one, we actually LOST square footage, and we certainly lost ROOMS -- our apartment has a hall, a bathroom, a kitchen, a pantry, a bedroom, a couple closets, and this room I'm sitting in now, which has everything else we own (books, stereo, booze, computers.) We've lived here for three years, and we haven't unpacked, because there's no place to unpack INTO.
On the other hand, with the rent money we get, our housing was, all in all, really pretty cheap. Here's how we think about it. We've got this mortgage we pay every month. Take the amount of mortgage, subtract the rent money we get from upstairs, subtract the rent money we get from downstairs. What's left, that's what we're paying in rent. Now, there's still some left over. But, in effect, we're paying LESS rent than either of our tenants. (And we get the equity in the house, so that's even better -- in a sense, we're paying the rent to ourselves, eventually) I mean, that's the deal with owning a house. In general -- there are exceptions -- it's cheaper to own a home than to rent one. Because, think about it -- if you're renting a home, then someone else owns it. And that someone else is paying some money to own it. But they're renting it to you. So you've got to be paying what it costs them to own it, plus a little bit tacked on for their profit. I mean, if you were paying LESS than what it costs to own it, then the person who owned the house would lose money, and go bankrupt, and no longer own the house. . .
Our downstairs neighbors just left us a note saying they intend to move out at the end of the month, when their lease expires.
Okay, on the one hand, this is REALLY REALLY COOL. We can now get the house that we wanted when we BOUGHT this house. I mean, that's been our goal all along!
On the other hand. . . this means that our "rent" is going to more than double.
Another way to look at it: you know how much an apartment costs? That's how much LESS money we're going to have every month. . .
So -- if we can afford it, we're going to have the house we always intended to have.
If we can't, we'll have to rent it out again.
I hope we can afford it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-06 10:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-06 10:33 pm (UTC)And I hope you can have it all. I looooove homeownership. And Victorian houses. What style is it -- Queen Anne, Italianate, Richardsonian Romanesque?
(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-07 05:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-07 05:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-07 05:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-07 07:29 am (UTC)If you decide to rent it out again, I'm looking for a place to live...
However, I have no real idea where you two live.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-07 04:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-17 12:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-07 04:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-07 04:29 pm (UTC)