Saturday, December 10, 2005
House Buying
Well, if all goes as it should, tomorrow will be my last day free of major debt*. Because on Monday my girlfriend and I will be signing an agreement which will make us obligated to paying off an obscene amount of money over an unimaginable amount of time (30 years). However, I have several consolations while facing this frightening prospect: a) I think we’ve got a pretty good house at an OK price; b) millions of people take on the same amount of debt every day and manage to survive; c) now that I’m working from home, my mortgage payment is still less than what I used to pay on home rent plus studio rent; d) I’m lucky enough to be entering into this agreement alongside a wonderful girl I love and e) I’m almost 40, how much longer can I put off this mortgage thing anyway?
It’s been a stressful ride, and it ain’t over yet, but it may actually work out. From what my more responsible and have-their-shit-together friends tell me, it gets easy after the first year or two.
I keep joking to my girl that soon she’ll be up on a ladder in white overalls and I’ll put a dab of paint on her nose and then we’ll both laugh. And we’ll spend all our weekends ‘doing things around the house’. And thumbing through Ideal Homes Magazine (quick, be the first to identify that Joe Jackson song!) But on the whole it seems like the right time to be doing this stuff. And what a pleasure it’s going to be to hang a picture without worrying about getting the bond back.
PS Yeah I know I said I wouldn’t talk about real estate. But hey, this is big stuff for me OK?
PPS No, it’s not this place. (Sorry, I never did check it out.)
*Maybe. Maybe the debt starts when we settle in seven weeks—hmmm, I must check that…
Comments
>>I keep joking to my girl that soon she’ll be up on a ladder in white overalls and I’ll put a dab of paint on her nose and then we’ll both laugh. And we’ll spend all our weekends ‘doing things around the house’. And thumbing through Ideal Homes Magazine
Oh yes, you will, young Jedi, you will…
Posted by: anaglyph at December 11, 2005 8:41 AM
Good luck. I hope everything works out for both of you :-)
Posted by: jedimacfan at December 12, 2005 12:21 AM
That bit about the paint on the nose is hilarious!
Posted by: Guy Jeffrey at December 12, 2005 8:26 AM
It all sounds ace and I hope it gives you lots of satisfaction.
Posted by: Annie at December 12, 2005 10:27 AM
Thanks folks. Now we’ve signed the contract but they have to sign the contract and the solicitor can’t send it until he gets the loan approval and the mortage broker can send the loan approval until he gets the contract signed by both parties and the -AAARGGGHHHH!!! I can’t believe people do this shit for a living!!
Ever feel like some systems in society are there purely for the purpose of being as confusing as possible so a lot of people can set themselves up to charge money to work them out for you?
Posted by: UniversalHead at December 13, 2005 7:35 AM
Bureaucracy isn’t just a river in Egypt… wait, that’s not right.
Best of luck to you with the new home!
Posted by: steelbuddha at December 15, 2005 4:20 AM
>>Ever feel like some systems in society are there purely for the purpose of being as confusing as possible so a lot of people can set themselves up to charge money to work them out for you?
Duh!
Can you say Telstra? Can you say ? Can you say Insurance… Oh need I go on.
Posted by: anaglyph at December 15, 2005 8:16 PM
I had to buy a new mobile phone the other day as I’d lost my old one. The phone plans are so unbelievably confusing one can only conclude they are designed to be that way. The salesman in the Telstra shop kept telling me the phone was free with the plan; on further examination I discovered I didn’t receive the $7.50/month credit that I would receive if I didn’t need a phone. So about five times I said to the guy “if I would normally get $7.50 credit and I’m not getting it, then it’s costing me $7.50 and is therefore not free, is it?” He just wouldn’t get it, but kept repeating inanely that the phone was free.
Corporate bastards. Suit-wearing bean-counters sit in offices all day working out shit like this. It leaves me dumbfounded and amazed.
Posted by: UniversalHead at December 15, 2005 9:27 PM
As a suit-wearing, bean-counting, corporate bastard, I should point out that we have to work out shit like this because artistic, bohemian, free-love, gypsy losers like you are complete morons who couldn’t find your collective arseholes with an enormous funnel!
Posted by: Andrew at December 21, 2005 5:59 PM
Of course when I said corporate bastards that didn’t include corporate bastards who once played in hard-rock thrash bands with leather slave-hood-wearing lead singers … I think that goes without saying.
Posted by: UniversalHead at December 21, 2005 8:28 PM