For the past six years, we have absolutely loved the nest we call home in the heart of Ghent. We were lucky enough to find the greatest apartment. It's huge in terms of apartments in this neighborhood with four bedrooms, balconies on both the front and back, and french doors throughout. Spring and summer nights are spent sipping wine outside, having the best conversations, and enjoying maintenance free living. That last point alone is what has always attracted me to apartment living. As a child, I'm pretty sure I must have lost a limb to a lawn mower and it somehow miraculously grew back. That's the only explanation I can think of anyway, to my deeply rooted hatred toward yard work. And lets face it, when something breaks or goes wrong, is there anything better than simply calling the landlord vs. having to deal with it yourself?
Then why on God's green earth are we even considering that the time has come to consider buying our own home? We have it made here! The rent hasn't gone up in the six years we've lived here, we don't pay for water or heat, and nearly everyone who visits makes us swear that they will be the first to know if we every put in our notice with the landlord. Sure, there are the less attractive things about living in Ghent. When it rains, you better pray that your car doubles as some type of amphibious landing craft. The homeless take a leak on the side of your building or if you're really lucky, on one of your tires. All a small price to pay for living among the cool kids.
The truth is though, that as fabulous as our life is here, I want to be able to paint my walls. I want to have people over without having to be concerned that someone on the other side of my walls, floor, or ceiling will think we're talking too loud. When I'm cleaning house, I want to turn up my music and sing at the top of my lungs if I feel like it. Oh, and then there's this little thing called a tax break. Having no kids and both of us filing our taxes as single, I get totally screwed each year when it comes time to file. As renters, I have no deductions so the personal exemption is always more than any of the things I might itemize. I'm tired of seeing people who actually pay very little to nothing into the system, walk away at tax time with an $8000.00 check compared to my $800.00.... if I'm lucky. Basically, I want to be able to say, no matter what, in the end, this place is ours.
I've searched the internet to try and find this process documented from someone's personal experience and perspective. Maybe I've been trying to put my mind at ease so I'll feel less nervous about it. It could be that I want to see someone go through hell so I'll think that it won't be as bad for me. I've come up empty though, so that's why I decided to start this blog. I want to chronicle this journey for myself and maybe indirectly help someone else who's thinking of doing the same. At this point, I have no idea how it will end. Will we be able to do it? Will we get approved? Will we find a house we love? As it stands now, the answer to all of those questions is anyone's guess. I'm just as anxious to find out how the story ends or at least how the next chapter starts.
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