Faux Pas Of A First-Time Homebuyer

Some of us at Livingston Patch had to the opportunity to meet new residents at the Welcome To Livingston Picnic on Monday. I can’t help but remember 20 years ago when my husband and I bought our first house. We were so innocent and had a lot to learn.

We had just gotten married and after living in lovely apartments in Cedar Grove when we decided we wanted a house.  After looking at some interesting properties, including one that smelled so strongly of cat urine that I couldn’t even go into the house, we found a lovely expanded Cape-Colonial in Verona.  And we promptly began making mistakes.

The first was not appreciating the mindset of the home seller.  While the husband was courteous, the wife was extremely hostile.  At the time, I just thought she was a terrible person, but in hindsight I realize that the couple had lost at least 15 percent of the home’s value because they’d bought at the peak of the market and sold at the bottom. Moves are stressful enough, but add the loss they were taking with the strain of relocating with their two children and you get one justifiably cranky woman. 

And the first physical mistake I made with the house taught me that too much caulk can be a bad thing. In an effort to keep drafts and bugs out,  I caulked what I thought were cracks around the windows.  They were just the window openings and, yes, I caulked many of them shut.  I also caulked any tiny leaks in the plumbing, instead of calling a plumber.  Eventually a very sweet Joe The Plumber (out of West Caldwell – not the one you’re thinking of), asked me to surrender my caulk gun and let him do the plumbing. 

My husband, as well, made a few boo-boos.  Ina joyous moment of “I’ve got a new lawnmower!  I MUST mow NOW!” he managed to run over a water main cover with Murray, his name for his gas-powered buddy.  The racket was so loud that several neighbors came out to see what had happened.

Then there was the time he put down pieces of sod to make the back lawn look nicer.  What he didn’t count on was the assistance of our beagle puppy who picked up the sod, like chess pieces, and happily carried them all over the backyard.  I have a mental picture of my beloved spouse angrily chasing an exuberant dog who thought Daddy was just playing a game. 

The first house also gave us an idea of projects we could and should not do.  When we wanted tile in the master bedroom to minimize allergies, we did the project ourselves.  Bad mistake.  It took months to put down the subfloor and we spent many nights sleeping in a twin bed in a small spare bedroom. 

And then there was the small bathroom I decided to sponge paint myself.  Until I got the color mix right, every time my husband entered the room, he’d get nauseous.  But I did learn that I could successfully wallpaper a room, provided the paper design did not involve lines; it’s much harder to see mistakes when the pattern is somewhat abstract.  And I discovered that multiple layers of newspaper make a great barrier to weeds once they’re covered over with mulch.

We also learned that bees that nest in the treated wood used in gardens can be very aggressive.  After five attempts to get rid of them, my exterminator, in full beekeeper uniform, declared a “jihad” (his word) against them and successfully eradicated the hostile buggers.  Oh, and it goes without saying that bagging 10 bags of leaves, which we did several weekends, EVERY FALL, is arduous work. 

I guess the most important we learned about owning a house is that it’s always a work in progress.  It requires constant maintenance or else things will fall apart, get overgrown, and cost more in the long run.  Every time you think it’s perfect, something happens, you see something that could be better, or you change your mind and want things different. 

And for all the heartburn, all the cash spent, it's totally worth it.  Be it ever so humble, there’s nothing like owning your own home.