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Part
I: Shopping & Buying! (The Fun Part. Or... Maybe Not.)
Everyone
knows that buying a home is the largest single purchase a person can
make in their lifetime, but buying your first home is also one of the
most thrilling, exciting, fun, frustrating, difficult and emotional
roller-coaster rides anyone can have. Let's face it-- you've got a
lot riding on this purchase, and because of that, buying your first
home can be a very stressful experience. While many important factors
go into the decision of buying a home-- not the least of which are
location (and location and location ) not to mention that pesky
budget!-- design can be counted among the most important. In fact,
design-related issues, such as how updated the home is, the overall
visual appeal (both inside and out), and the layout all factor
greatly into the purchase. People often have immediate and even
visceral reactions to houses or spaces when they first walk into
them, depending on the property's design and decor attributes. That
said, it’s not surprising then, that sometimes these design-related
issues can factor in a little too much to the decision-making process
(yes, we just said that!) and end up influencing a first-time buyer
into walking away from a great house or even buying a house that may
not be the right one for them.
When
shopping for your first home and evaluating a potential property from
a design perspective, there are a few things to remember...
to
that end, please allow us to introduce our 'First Time Home Buyer
Design Rules':
#1.
Repeat After Us: “It’s Only Paint. It’s Only Paint. It’s ONLY
Paint...” (Or Carpet.)
Too
often first time buyers are turned off of a property because the
seller has painted the walls purple. Or chartreuse. Or whatever
colour gets under your skin. Yes, ‘blech-y’ colours can give a
room a certain ‘blech-y’ feel, and we all know that dark colours
make a room appear and even 'feel' smaller than it really is, but
looking past the ‘evil powers of paint’ and training your eye to
see the reality of the space (especially when others are unable to)
can save you not only heartache but cold hard cash! Likewise a nasty
carpet-- don’t let disgusting, dated wall-to-wall turn you off an
entire property if the rest of it is right for you. Sure it's gross,
but there are plenty of flooring options these days that are a breeze
to install and are also easy on the pocketbook!
Conversely,
you may walk into a house that appears to have everything going for
it. Maybe it's even just been-- gasp!-- completely renovated! At any
rate, it looks as bright and appealing as a shiny new, er... nickel.
It could even give you that 'too
good to be true'
feeling. (ie. That house for this price?) If you happen to run across
a property like this in your home search, please remember the rest of
that old adage-- 'it
probably is'.
Hold on. Take a breath. It might look
like the house of your dreams, but it could also potentially be a
nightmare. Do your due diligence and make sure either way. Remember--
good design does not always equal good quality. So don't make a dash
for the flash, and don't be fooled by a 'smoke-and-mirrors' reno. A
sad-but-true fact in the housing market is that some (and we say
'some', certainly not all) people who are interested in making a
quick buck often cut some serious hidden corners while making things
look surface-perfect. So buyer beware even those most visually
appealing properties!
2.
COMPROMISE
is the Name of the Game
We
know. That’s a hard one to take. After all, you've worked hard
scrimping and saving and sacrificing to save up your down payment...
so why shouldn't you get everything you want in a home? Good point,
but sadly, not realistic. But we can sympathize. We’ve all been
there-- you have this dream of your perfect starter home. It’s
cute. It’s quaint. It’s cosy. And light, and airy, spacious and
everything else you’ve dreamt of... And then you start touring
properties and nasty old reality hits you right smack in the nose.
And that sucks! But the main point we want to make is that as a first
time home buyer, you need to go into the search for your first home
with your eyes wide open. Remember, this is your very first step on
the property ladder, and you need to think of this initial purchase
as an investment in your own future. So be prepared to compromise.
Your first place probably won’t be that vision of perfection you
have in your head. You might not get that light airy open-plan feel
you’re longing for. Or that perfect layout. Or those huge bedrooms
and amazing master bath. And you’ll most likely have to play some
serious ‘give-and-take’ on one or more of the Big Three:
Location, Budget and Layout. Now, we don’t mean to sound like the
voices of Doom & Gloom, but the good news is that if you know
these things in advance and are prepared to deal with them, you’re
way ahead of the game. Just remember that in terms of implementing an
amazing design and smart renovations plan after you’ve bought your
first home and when the time is right, you will be adding value down
the road, building equity, and making your own personal mark on your
very first home. That’s some exciting stuff!
Janet
says:
When
my husband and I bought our first home together (he had previously
owned his own townhome) we were a very young couple with a newborn
baby boy. I had my nose and my design-standards set quite high, and
consequently, was shocked when our meager just-starting-out budget
did not buy me the things I wanted. What
was up with that?
Seriously, was I to be made to endure dusty-rose wall-to-wall
carpeting? And walls to match?? (It was the early 90's-- 'nuff said.)
And my worst pet-peeve-- parquet flooring in the dining room? (It's a
personal choice to hate it). And-- gasp!-- only ONE bathroom? (Horror
of horrors!) But here's the thing... in spite of everything that was
'wrong' with the house, the budget fit, and the huge yard coupled
with the water-view was too great to pass up, and so we bought it.
And, the bonus of all bonuses (if you looked at it with dusty-rose
glasses, that is), was that the house had literally just been
entirely renovated, top to bottom. (Little did we know that not a
whole lot of it was done properly!). Apart from the carpet which,
while seriously ugly, was brand-new, and the paint (likewise) and the
parquet (which I was reluctantly willing to overlook as I had my
fingers crossed for new flooring...), it was liveable and we had
bigger fish to fry-- like a colicky baby. So we decided to live in
it, as it was, for just a short time. We'd make changes, we said.
Sure we would. And soon. Very soon...
Yeah, right.
Fast
forward 8 years and two more kids....
3.
Put the Big Idea on the Backburner. Just for a While. (We Know. We’re
Sorry.) Or: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time
So
you’ve found a great property in a great location, and you’ve
managed to fit it all into your tight budget. Congratulations! You
probably also have a few great ideas about what you’d like to do
with it. Want to tear down a wall or two? Maybe put the kitchen where
the living room is, and add a second or third bath? That’s great,
and maybe any or all of those things will add a ton of value to your
place, and maybe if you do them you’ll come out a huge winner in
the 'equity stakes' down the road.
Or...
maybe not.
It’s
easy to get carried away with visions of design grandeur when you’ve
just bought your first home. Now, we don’t mean to stick a pin in
your big ol’ balloon dreams, but our advice to all first time home
buyers is this... unless your new home is truly unliveable, live
in it for a while.
Sure, go ahead and paint. Change the window dressings, and pretty it
up so that it feels more like home. Convert the former nursery to
your home office, or vice-versa. But live
in it for a while
before tearing down walls and relocating such major systems as
plumbing and electrical. You might find that the ‘idea’ of how
you thought you’d live in the house before you moved in is, in
reality, vastly different from how you are actually
living in the house. You know that plan to relocate the kitchen to
where the living room is? Hey, it might not be that great an idea
after all. You may be opening a can of worms that you might not want
to open. For example, what if the foundation under the living room
needs to be re-inforced in order to support the weight of all those
shiny new appliances you want to put in there? Or what if all the
plumbing needs to be not just re-routed but upgraded to accommodate
that fab new sink you want to put in your new island as well as that
third half-bath you want to pop in off the entryway? And what about
all the electrical? Hmm... that 'great idea' might be something you
want to reconsider, because those types of unexpected expenses can
add up to Very Big Dollars very quickly.
Janet says:
Oh,
boy. Talk about 'Visions of Design Grandeur'. Did I have them, and
plenty of them, too! For eight long years... (Ha. Who am I kidding? I
still have them!) But life can often get in the way of even your
grandest plans, and so I ended up enduring Dusty Rose for a very long
time (yes, even the paint!). But the good news is that when the time
came to do the big reno, which turned out to be a two-storey addition
and full-house reno, we were ready and we knew exactly what we wanted
(and, equally importantly, what we didn't want) largely because we
had lived in the house for so long. We had figured out what, exactly,
was really and truly doable and practical-- for example, I still
don't have the home office I always wanted, or a finished rec room in
the basement, or the butler's pantry I longed for because they
weren't practical or doable and therefore didn't make the cut. While
we compromised on a few things (there's that nasty word again) but
were able to get in a few cool surprises we weren't expecting-- like
a window seat in the new master bath (very luxurious!) and a ten-foot
deep wrap-around porch (heaven!). We had studied our house and done
our homework, and had even done a test-run with a medium-sized
project with the addition of a mudroom at the front of the house and
the conversion of our former walk-in front coat closet to a
half-bath, with the thinking that if our marriage could survive that,
it could also survive the Big Reno! Yeah. Go ahead. Laugh all
you want, but there are few things more stressful than a full-house
reno-- especially when you're DIY-ing as much of it as you can and
living in it with three little kids!
So
we rolled up our sleeves. We were finally ready to
tackle
the biggest, most exciting and frightening project that we had ever
undertaken... we had a big idea, the bank's blessing with a new (and
slightly scary) mortgage and three little kids, aged 8, 4 and 1...
Stay
tuned for Part II of “Buying Your First Home - The Design
Perspective”, when we tackle such issues as “DIY vs. Don’t You
Dare DIY”, “Beware the Dreaded ‘While We’re At It’” and
“OMG, It Cost What??”
Disclaimer: This post content is sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada, however the views and opinions expressed herein represent my own and not those of Royal Bank of Canada or any other party and do not constitute financial, legal or other advice.
