coalcracker.net

I keep thinking I should post since it’s been a while, and Hank keeps reminding me of that fact, but there really isn’t much going on right now.  I guess that’s kind of ironic because I’m in the middle of purchasing my very first house.  It’s been a long time coming… I started looking way back in March and had a lot of disappointments and missed opportunities since then.

I’ll be glad though to finally get out of my parents’ house.  It’s not that I mind being there, but one bedroom just isn’t enough space for me and all my hobbies (especially my rapidly growing collection of homebrewing paraphernalia).  I also look forward to being on my own again and setting my own schedule, which I haven’t done since those few brief months in Virginia.  The fact that my new house is literally across the street from my parents’ house bothered me at first, but I realized it was only because of what other people might think, not because of my relationship with them.  For me it’s the best of both worlds, because I get all the space I could ever need but I get to stay close to my family.

I suppose after everything is said and done I’ll have to do a little writeup on my experiences of buying a home.  I’ve certainly picked up a lot of knowledge about real estate, mortgages, homeowners insurance, and other things.  I’m no expert now but I’m not totally lost like I was when this all started, and I think I owe most of that to the internet, especially the site Dumb Little Man.  The same day I was faxed my first good faith estimate for my mortgage, my RSS reader picked up an article from DLM about how to read them.  Clicking around on the sites in that post taught me a lot of things and I felt much more confident about it all.  I definitely recommend subscribing to DLM’s feed, they have all sorts of articles every day about making smart decisions and saving money.

Hey, look at that… three paragraphs… not bad for “not much”