is it common to hate your house a year after moving in?
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Anonymous
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Between unexpected expenses, still-unpacked boxes, rearraging furniture, and more headaches, I am remorseful over buying this house and leaving my cozy, tiny apartment.
We have a nice house; I just hate the upkeep and the expense. Please tell me this was you and your happiness level returned to normal. |
Anonymous
| It is called Buyer's Remorse. Sometimes it is the reason someone is only in a house for a year before moving. |
Anonymous
| I wouldn't say your happiness level returns to the old normal, but I'd say you just get used to the more labor-intensive life style that being a homeowner entails. We have been homeowners for about 8 years and still somedays I long for the nice simple living that I used to have in an apt. But, what are ya gonna do? We need the space (and we don't even have a big house; we have a 12K sq ft townhouse), etc etc etc. |
Anonymous
| Well I hate to break it to you...but EVERY house has unexpected constant costs and upkeep. Maybe you should be in a condo. |
Anonymous
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I don't know if it's common, but I sure experienced it. We've had a lot of problems with water, both through the roof and in the basement. Once those problems are finally resolved and we can get on with the more rewarding projects, I know I'll feel a lot better.
Even so, we've been in our house nearly three years and I love it more and more. It's far from perfect, but it's our home. We're in a rapidly changing neighborhood (Brightwood/16th Street Heights) and we've gotten some really nice new neighbors. |
Anonymous
| I hates our last house, HATED it. And I was the one who found when we were looking, we stayed in it just over 6 years before we left the area. We also put a ton of work into it and I never made peace with it. We are in our 3rd house as a married couple and I have only felt that way about the one house. |
Anonymous
+1000. Our recent house has been a money pit. It is more comfortable now, but I will never love it. OP: You could still be in shock about the expenses of houses in general. This is our 4th house, so I know I can like or dislike a house. |
Anonymous
+2 I effing HATE my house. It has been a never ending litany of things to fix and improve, the neighbors are loud, July 4th feels like I am in the middle of Mogadishu, etc etc. I cannot WAIT to move in a couple of years. |
Anonymous
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My mother the realtor gave me a tip when I bought my first house. Before you move in or as soon as possible after you move in, take one room or project that you've always wanted to do, but couldn't do before, and do it. That may be painting walls (if you came from a rental where you couldn't paint) or tearing out something and replacing it. etc. Then, when you're having buyer's remorse, go into the room with the project and remind yourself why you wanted to own instead of rent--because you got to make the decisions for what you wanted.
In my first house, I tore out some built in light fixtures that drove me nuts and replaced them. When I was feeling down about the house, I could look at the lights and realized that I would never have been able to do that with a rental and I would have been stuck with old, ugly lights that I didn't like. We only had one small inconvenient door out to the back yard (from the kitchen). 18 months after we moved in, I took out the double window in the family room and added atrium doors from the family room out onto the deck. Whenever I needed to be reminded why home ownership is good, I could open the new door to the deck and appreciate it and let those changes that I made to the house lift my spirit a little. In my new house, we closed about 3 weeks before we moved. We took the time to paint a few rooms and I bought and added built in furniture in one room for our office. Now, I can walk into the office and look at the built-ins and realize that I would never have been able to put those into a rental. |
Anonymous
| we specially bought a new house to avoid all of the issues. We have had problems but the warranty covered it. |
Anonymous
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I moved 10 months ago, and I LOVE my new house.
I don't think it is that common to hate your new house, but clearly some people do. |
Anonymous
| We bought a rowhouse when we moved to the area because we couldn't afford a SFH. I thought we were making a big sacrifice, but four years later, I couldn't be happier with our place. Because it's small and affordable, we've been able to easily maintain it and make every room just the way we like it. I think I will always live in a "cozy" place from now on. |
Anonymous
| Personally I could never go back to sharing walls and ceilings with others. Since we purchased our house we had the list of items the inspector told us we would have to fix and things that we wanted to do. Each winter we'd paint and re-do one room, each summer do a yard project, save money for the bigger projects and expenses and tuck away stuff for the unexpected. We've lived in the house for 10 years and there is still things to do or change but by taking it slowly and working thru things we've made it our own. Not sure I could do the same with our next house but for a starter home we've made it our own. Are there obvious things you don't like - for us it was lighting fixtures - so we made a big push to get rid of the old and put in the new. The yard also need a lot of upkeep but we couldn't do it all at once - to costly so we pick a few priority items and went from there. |
Anonymous
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I've been a homeowner for 13 years. Owned a townhouse for 12 years and there were some bumps in the road, but I never questioned my decision to buy. I did question my decision to buy in that location, so when I finally had enough compelling reasons to sell (and give up my $1100/month mortgage, sigh), I did.
Bought a bigger, pricier SFH in Arlington last summer. After two hurricanes, an earthquake and a derecho that have all damaged my house... I still love it. Yes, the unexpected costs can be annoying sometimes. Yes, the yardwork on 1/8th acre is more time consuming than my tiny townhouse lawn. Yes, older houses can be more expensive to heat/cool and they still do so unevenly. Yes, I miss my much smaller mortgage. Yes, I miss the updated bathrooms in my old place and wish I could afford them RIGHT NOW. Still love it. OP, try unpacking all your boxes. Get the furniture the way you like it, or figure out why it's not working where it is. (too big? too small?) really try to pinpoint why you don't like your place. If you haven't really done anything to make it yours, start doing so. Paint over colors you don't like. Put up crown moldings if that's your thing. Put down rugs or replace outdated window treatments. Change out outdated light fixtures for new ones that are just your style. What would make this house yours? Also, was this house your spouse's idea and you caved to pressure? Because that is harder to fix. 
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Anonymous
| I just moved into a new house. But I'm wishing I bought a different one.Is there anything i can do? |