A New Dream
Last night I went to see the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at Powell Hall, to see a friend of mine who was singing in the St. Louis Symphony Chorus. I hadn't heard classical music played in a long time and really enjoyed it (particularly the violin concerto with this guy that played violin AMAZINGLY... I'd never seen anyone play like that!) and I was talking with my friend's fiancé since I was sitting with him, about how he used to play viola and I played a little piano. Of course seeing a performance like that makes you want to go play around with your instrument... I said to him, "I'm going to have a grand piano someday."
"You gotta have a house to put it in," he said.
"Yeah, maybe I'll get my own house sometime."
"You gotta have hardwood floors in it!"
"Yeahhhh..." A dreamy smile crossed my face.
I've never been interested in buying my own house. I don't have enough stuff to fill it, don't even WANT that much stuff to myself, wouldn't want to do all the maintenance like lawn mowing and gutter cleaning and sink fixing and whatever else. Plus buying a house just seems like a daunting process. But my own room with hardwood floors and a piano...my own piano room just for myself...that's almost reason for me to consider it right there. I am about to transition into my 30s after all... maybe I should make this my goal for my 30s... to have my own house with a piano room just for me. Whether or not I have some man to help me buy it is irrelevant. I should work towards it anyway. And even if I can't afford the grand at first. A baby grand. Or an electric piano like the one at my parents' house. Anything with 88 weighted keys would work.
Of course buying a house means I'm settling wherever I buy it... so I'd have to think about that some more. Do I want to stay here? Move? I don't want to commit to a decision yet. But when I think about my own piano room, it makes me want to speed up the process a bit. Maybe I'll say by the time I'm 40 I want this to be a reality. Seems realistic enough, doesn't it?
Labels: life
posted by Kristi at 11:26 PM
5 Comments:
You should totally think about this seriously! A house - or a condo even - can be a great investment. If you wait until you're 40, you'll have wasted EIGHTEEN YEARS throwing away rent when you could have had a house half paid for by then. And you could buy a house somewhere and not necessarily live there forever (of course, this is coming from the person who moved every 3 years - and yes, my parents bought houses in most places where we lived). If you can get 5 years or more in a house, that's usually pretty good. So it doesn't have to be something you see as a 30 year investment.
Also, with a condo, then you wouldn't have to worry about lawn-mowing. My great-aunt has a gorgeous condo with wood floors. When you talk about a wood floor and a grand, I thought of her condo and how much room you could have in a place like that!
Seriously, you should think about it more!
As long as you move somewhere that the property values are increasing at a decent rate, you will always be able to sell after a few years, and make a buck or two. So, you really shouldn't worry about the "settling" part.
I hear ya on the not having enough stuff to fill a house, or even wanting that much stuff. Sometime a house with minimal furnishings is nice to look at, if done correctly.
You'll figure it out. You're a smart one.
A condo sort of defeats the purpose of having my own piano room. I don't want to be disturbing people around me with music late at night... I'd feel less disruptive with my own separate building.
A duplex style condo would probably provide enough sound insulation to fit your needs.
Whether you consider buying or not.. putting a little aside each month towards an eventual down payment is sound advice regardless. That is of course unless you already have stashed a way enough for a 20% downpayment already.
Owning your own place, I fully recommend it!
Co-Bin
I couldn't agree more that paying rent is nothing more than financial hemmoraging. Even if you could get into a condo, you'd be better off, although as others have said, be sure you get in where your chances of reselling are high. A house will never depreciate. It's always a good idea if you can make it happen.
That said, you might consider looking into a Yamaha Clavinova (we have the CLP-150). Sounds just like a grand, but you can put headphones on and jam in private! Never needs tuning or new strings, save songs that you compose, smaller footprint means you don't need as large a room, costs less than a grand, and so many options that a real piano can't offer (volume control, headphones, multiple voices and all sorts of settings). There are also 50 pre-programmed songs that you can play along with or just enjoy listening to. Not a bad substitute for the real thing. Just a thought!
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