So, we were so excited after about a month of changing the closing date, we finally had settled on a date to close on our new house that would soon transform into our home. The day was here! We had saved up money and knew we had enough to buy our very first home. So, after closing, I rushed back to our old place and started packing everything we had. I had the entire house packed and ready to move into our new home.  

Now when I say our new home I mean it was still under construction when we first looked at it. It was brand new no upgrades were needed. It was perfect the way it was, or so we thought. But boy were we wrong. We put so much money into our home in that first week that we did not even consider when we bought the house.  

As we were moving stuff in, we realized we needed blinds. So, since we were making this our forever home, we decided that we would get what we wanted instead of putting money into something to only have it up for a short amount of time. We have seven windows that needed blinds, only seven and it still cost us about 400 dollars. That is right 400 hundred dollars. We got nice cordless blinds because we have children. Those nice cordless blinds are a pretty penny though.  

Next, we realized we were going to have to do something with our sliding glass door seeing as though it is in our main living space and the sun just beams in it in the early morning. So, the next day my husband made yet another trip out to find something for the sliding glass door. What he found was really nice but the curtains are expensive especially the larger you go. So, there went another 200 dollars we were not expecting right after moving in.  

Our floors are hardwood, which we love. It is so easy to clean up spills and you know when they need to be cleaned. They are amazing. One thing we did not consider is how bad the echo was going to be in the house with no carpet down. The echo was so bad that with all the bedroom doors closed you could still hear every conversation going on in the living room. So, you guessed it, we went out and bought a nice area rug for 200 dollars and the expenses just kept adding up.

We had planned on getting a bedroom outfit for us, the spare bedroom, and a dining room table. However, we did not budget for a desk to go into the spare bedroom or a filing cabinet. I never imagined it would cost so much money. The desk itself cost 50 dollars and it was nothing extravagant. The filing cabinet was about 50 dollars and again it was nothing extravagant. I know that is not much but for what we got I feel like it could have been much less expensive.  

We wanted to feel safe in our home so we started looking into security systems. These can be an expensive necessity in today’s age. Well, after lots of research we decided to buy smart things as our security system and we have the control. We set it up ourselves and the alerts go straight to our phones instead of to a call center where response times are around 15 minutes. We get an immediate text. The initial setup cost though cost us about 300 dollars but there are no monthly expenses.  

So far we had spent about 1200 dollars on things and we were still staring at a backyard that needed finished. We thought the fence was in our contract along with grass for the backyard but come to find out our realtor did some negotiating without us knowing. Moving forward we now were looking at a backyard that we had to pay for out of pocket. Now here comes the real expense.

We decided we were going to wait until spring/summer to put in a fence. However, we live in the south where it is warm all year round. We also live in a neighborhood and our yard was the perfect yard for kids to cut through to go to their friend’s houses. Well, we bought a dog and have children so after a few months of living in our new home, a fence became a huge priority so we would not be out front playing in the road all the time and when we decide something, we just do it.  

We started getting quotes and within the next week or two, we were having a fence put up. Do you know how much it costs? Boy, let me tell you try your hardest to get it into the contract that the seller has to put the fence up. We put in a little patio in the back and put up the fence. It cost up to 8,000 dollars. The fence itself was 5,000 dollars. Please take this cost into consideration when you buy your first home if your yard is not already fenced in.

So now we are up to around 10,000 dollars on things that we were not even expecting to have to purchase and we are still looking at a yard with no grass, no swing set, no grill, and no patio furniture. Now, these are all luxury items, but it makes a difference when you have kids to be able to allow them to go out in their own yard and play. For everything we want in our yard, we are expecting to have to pay yet another 1,000-2,000 dollars if not more but after that, we will have ourselves a nice little home.  

My suggestion when purchasing a house is to look to see how many windows you are going to have to have blinds for and curtains for. Make sure you take into consideration the echo in the house and if it is bad keep in mind you might have to buy an area rug. Look outside and take a mental note of everything you will want back there. Go look at what you want and calculate the cost of the purchase of your house that way there are fewer surprises when it comes to cost. 

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