In 2013 my company moved our entire office from Santa Monica to Austin. This post is part of a series about things we learned while being first-time home buyers. In 2013 we were moving cities (compliments of Mr. Employer), and we decided we should explore buying a place of our…
The other day I got home from work and noticed a small puddle in my garage. It had been raining all day, so my first reaction was to look for water coming in from the outside. There were no obvious signs of it coming from under the garage doors or…
Just a heads up, this post is sponsored by the fine folks at Chase. This should go without saying, but all opinions are our own and came straight from our own noggins. As a kid, The Neverending Story was just a trippy movie about a child warrior, an awesome lucky…
Just a heads up, this post is sponsored by the fine folks at Chase. This should go without saying, but all opinions are our own and came straight from our own noggins. A few months ago, our household caught a mild fever. This particular fever tends to hit a lot of…
When it comes to homes, Joanna and I agree on a lot of things. For starters, we both want one — eventually. We both want a big yard, an open floor plan, and a mortgage that makes us house rich. We both like hardwood floors, white cabinets, and mid-century modern…
I was at a friend’s house yesterday, enjoying all the perks of homeownership vicariously: a driveway, garage, yard, neighborhood, walls to paint whatever color you please. It felt so luxurious. Someday I’m sure we’ll jump on the homeownership bandwagon. And when that day comes, I will love each of those…
Johnny and I found this graph pretty interesting, so we wanted to share. As you can see, the age for home ownership seems to be going up. The percent of young people who are homeowners today is much lower than the percent of young homeowners a few decades ago. So…
The days when I have the most piled on my mental to-do list are often the days when I get the least done. Makes no sense. But I feel so overwhelmed by everything I’m behind on that it’s crippling. And so I just do nothing. I’ve tried explaining this phenomenon…
Last Friday night, Johnny, Sally, and I ate at a barbecue place near our home. Sadly, it didn’t even begin to live up to my (and now Johnny’s) expectations of good barbecue. My Southern roots have spoiled us both. Afterward, we decided to take a drive around a new neighborhood…
Johnny and I find ourselves revisiting the buying vs. renting dilemma from time to time, and we’ve heard from some of you who are doing the same. Renting definitely has its perks, like not having to pay for a new dishwasher when ours suddenly breaks down. But Johnny and I…