Of course I bought my home to live in. And when I remodel it, it’s to meet my needs, not those of some future home buyer who may never exist.

I like to keep my options open, so I try not to buy houses that I can’t sell in a couple of years or that I wouldn’t want to live in for decades.

We are on our second house. We have been in our current house for 2.5 years. I actually think we may stay for another 10 years. Then again, we may move next spring.

The best house is the one where you can choose to live in it or choose to sell it.

I think the whole “dream house” thing tends to lead people to buy a bigger, nicer house than they can afford right now. Believe me, if I had to pick a house to live in for 20 years it would be a much tougher decision between small money and a need for a big house (especially as my 4 sons get older).

Then again, when the market was hot you had to buy the house quick or someone else would. As the market cools home buyers should have more time to pick the house they really want.

[…] Kingston Springs, Buyers Market, Selling, News and Information Katherine, in a post linked by Music City Bloggers, asks an interesting question: Doesn’t anybody buy a home anymore? You know–a place where they […]

We built our first and stayed there for 21 years. We’d still be there if we hadn’t gotten tired of climbing stairs and mowing too much yard. We spent so much time turning it into our dream house we barely got back what we spent on it. But it looked good!

My wife and/or her family have been in our current house since 1963. I stole her away when we first got married, but moved back in when her dad died and mom got sick in 1994.

If there were ever any doubt we weren’t here for the long haul, all you have to do is look at the gaudy colors we decorated the house with. We decorated in a beach house motif (in West Meade, fer cryin our loud!) Our neighbors were not pleased. But we were, so, too bad.

Anyway, I don’t think HGTV is representative of most homeowners. It’s like watching Jerry Springer and associating that with real American life.

Slarti…
Do you have pink flamingos in your front yard?

I’m coming in late (sorry - playing catch up) but wanted to add that we’ve found, since fixing up our house, that HGTV has also put unrealistic expectations in people’s minds. We have a series of major renovation projects on our hands. Even with Karsten renovating on a mostly-full-time basis and with contractors for the larger jobs, we’re looking and years and years of work. But a lot of folks we encounter seem incredulous that we’ve been living here for two years already and we don’t have the whole house “done.” HGTV seems to give people the sense that since a TV crew can refinish a house within the span of a half-hour program, everyone else should be able to do that too. Or at least in a matter of a weekend or two. To which I say “ha!” And “would you like to come over and help out?”

Totally true, kate. We moved in with only the downstairs bathroom finished completely. (The advantages of being able to drill, saw, or solder on subfloor tend to be totally overlooked by the female gender for some reason). Gradually, one room at a time, we finished the house. But since we were either both working full time (and thus had plenty of $$ and no time to put it to use) or only one of us was working (no $$ to buy wood & stuff and plenty of time to spare) so it took us 15 years to finish it totally. At which point, we decided we needed more room and just one floor for almost everything.