No-temp-ka-kits

Kristin Aagard: Home and Dough
journaling reads:
Our last house owning experience wasn't great. The house was nice enough…in Bird Island which is a nice small town with just enough amenities to make it not the boondocks, but still safe and you can walk lots of places. But life snowballed into not a fun time. I had undiagnosed and untreated depression….our relationship deteriorated….and the financial crisis of 2008 hit us. These three things caused us to lose the house (and we split up for a couple years).

Life moved forward and we fixed our relationship, I got my depression diagnosed and treated….and we lived in a small 2 bedroom apartment. Our boys were getting bigger and we needed more space. So…time to look at a house again. I was scared. I didn't want to go through the heartbreak of buying another house, making it a home and losing it again.

Cainan REALLY wanted to buy a house instead of rent. The boys wanted their own rooms and we wanted another dog. So, after looking at our finances, we figured out what we could spend each month on a mortgage and I decided that we could buy another house. We've learned some things since that first house buying: Live within your means is the biggest one. Know what you can spend and stay there. Don't let anyone influence you.

We bought this house just 4 months ago….it's a trailer house on a basement. It's certainly not perfect and I find myself wondering from time to time if it was the right decision. But it feels right and we are making it our home. Hindsight being what it is, I think we needed the first experience to truly learn the lessons we've learned to make this house buying – and home ownership- experience the good experience it's been. We are pretty happy here.