(Master of my Domain- A Homeowners Story)
I swore it would be the last time. It was such an ordeal. I knew in the end, I would have a new home in my ideal area. My commute time to work would be only thirty-five minutes. Twenty cyclings, if I could just drag myself onto my bike on the cold mornings. I just remember the stress. I remember contacting the estate agent and putting in our final offer. I wondered if there was actually another bidder or were we being gazumped. I’d stretched all finances to the limit. I’ve begged, borrowed and the bank of Mum and Dad also came to our rescue.
We had been renting for four years. We have put off having a family as our one-bedroom rented apartment gave us no options. We decided early that we would do everything within our sanity to buy our own home. That sanity promise was nearly broken. Last Christmas when we swapped our E20 gifts I remember thinking was it worth it. I worried all this scrimping and saving and doing without, would put a strain on our marriage. But it lasted and probably made us stronger. It was us against the world or the crazy world of homeownership at least. We won. We joined the league of homeowners. Slaves to a mortgage and increasing property taxes. At the whim of a government that can overnight take from our pocket in the form of water rates or increased amenity costs. But I would not have it any other way. Until you are sitting in a rented apartment with a week left on the lease and nothing else, and I mean nothing else, available, you can not know the joy of the Estate Agent’s phone call to say your bid has been accepted. That’s how close we were to storing everything and moving home to our respective parents. Home where the commute is 90 minutes and there are eggshells underfoot. When you need to call ahead if you have a friend dropping in or there is something you want to watch on the TV. I thought I had left all that behind 10 years ago. I was nearly back. Weeks from being back until the phone call.
I wondered if I was dreaming when I got the call back to say our offer had been accepted. I remember the joy of success, the financial fear, the unwillingness to shout it from the rooftops in case it fell through. But it happened. Our own space to grow as a family. Our own space to create a home. A blank canvas and I had the paints.
When we moved into the first of our three rentals all we had was a few suitcases and the feeling of freedom. We were both young and in good jobs but as time went on, we realized that we couldn’t rent forever. New restraints curtailed our freedom. The penny pinching was endless. We had a few slips or sanity relapses as we called them. The package holiday to Portugal, the endless weddings we couldn’t say no to. Everything we could save was put away. Our deposit grew and eventually, we caught up with inflationary house prices and passed out our nearest bidders. We knew we overpaid. With a mixture of desperation and necessity, we choked out our final bid. Its acceptance brought freedom and a future we could control “Master of my Domain- A Homeowners Story”.
Our few suitcases had grown into a mix of 20 boxes and some furniture pieces. Mainly donations and freebies from online websites. They would however not fit into any vehicle that our friends had. We were recommended vanquotes.ie by a friend who had bought a house a year earlier when they moved back to their hometown of Cork. Their move was bigger than our one, but they knew vanquotes.ie had various sized vans and covered all areas. Their reviews were great and we filled out the easy online form. By the end of the day, we had 4 local van removal companies call us and offer their services. We choose the same one our friend had used as they were available and there is no better recommendation than that of a friend.
The move was effortless. We read the handy blogs on their website instructing us about how to pack and make the move easier. They arrived on time and quickly loaded their Removal van. It literally took an hour for them to load our lives into half of their spacious van. Thirty minutes travel and another hour to unload. Two hours and our lives were transported to a new beginning. We sat in our new home with permanent neighbors and smiles on our faces. A takeaway was ordered and it was eaten off boxes in our living room. A bottle of wine was opened and we clinked glasses looking out into our new back garden. A new home, a new beginning.
Owning a home brings more than a key to a door that only you possess. It brings a place of belonging. A membership to a club that releases you from the merry-go-round of rental agreements that are running out from the second they are signed. It gives you the opportunity to grow as a family, join a community, and contribute to a neighborhood that now includes you. I don’t think it’s a basic right but it is a developmental need. You need to breathe and the air needs to be clean. It needs to be unpolluted from the barriers that hold you back as a family.
All the sacrifice is worth it. We have found ourselves again. We are Master of my Domain- A Homeowners Story.
