Exactly one year ago, we closed on the sale of my condo. In some ways, it feels like it was just the other day and in other ways, it feels like it’s been longer than a year. I think the fact that I looked at so many condos makes the timeline a bit muddy in my mind. But I know that only looking for a month last year is a lot quicker than most people experience. And I know several people who didn’t get the first or second place they put an offer in on. So to only have to put an offer in on one place was very lucky and I’m still so grateful that this is my home.
Even though I have been a homeowner for a year now, I consider this to be my home for only about 6 months since I didn’t move in here until April this year. I wasn’t expecting to have to stay in my rental as long as I did, but the renovation took longer due to multiple reasons and I knew I didn’t want to live through a renovation when I could be living in a different location. It did make things a bit more expensive for me since I was paying for rent during that overlap plus I had bills at both homes, but it was worth it to me to have peace in my home and not construction noise all day.
Looking back at the photos of the condo from the listing, it doesn’t feel like the same place to me anymore. I was really able to make this my home and fit my style and aesthetic. It’s not finished yet and I still have things I need to get, but it’s much more like my home than my rental or what the condo looked like before the renovation.
Originally, the plan wasn’t to do a huge renovation, but as we got started it made more sense to do everything at once instead of doing some before I moved in and some after I was living here. And we made a few significant changes such as making the passthrough between the kitchen and living room much bigger so it felt like the two rooms were open to each other. That idea was something my parents heard when they were interviewing contractors, and I think that change made such a difference in how the space feels. We also had to get new kitchen cabinets when the original plan was to just refinish the ones that were in there because the original ones were damaged and wouldn’t be able to support me putting dishes in them without risking having them fall off the walls. So obviously that had to be fixed. I don’t think we necessarily went overboard with the renovation, but we did do a lot as we discovered things that needed to be done. And at least now anything else I want to do (which is only my closet and my bathroom) are things that can wait for a few years since the changes are about the appearance and not the function.
I haven’t had to change too much in my life since moving because I’m only a few blocks away from my rental. My life still has the same routines and I still go to the same places I went to before, like the same grocery stores. But I think the quality of my life has improved a lot. Having almost 3 times the space has been a huge and positive change. I didn’t realize how nice it would be to have my office area separate from my living room. I have a kitchen that is really functional and that has appliances that work and don’t make it harder to cook. And I’m very fortunate that my costs haven’t changed too much compared to what I was paying before. Some of my bills are a bit higher, but others are lower. And paying property taxes was a bit of a shock with how much they are, but when you split up the cost over a year, between those and my HOA fees, it’s about the same as I was paying in rent.
But I think the best thing that has happened to me in the past year of being a homeowner is just feeling more settled in my home and really feeling like I have a place that is mine. My rental felt more like my place than any other place I had lived before, but I had no idea how much more I could feel like my place is my home until I moved into the condo. Part of it has to do with the renovation and changes we made to how things look. But there’s just something different knowing that this is my home and my piece of LA. I’m not dependent on a landlord to maintain a space and I don’t have to worry about the rents increasing and pricing me out or having a landlord that wants to tear down the building to modernize things and needing to rush to find a new home (which is what is going to happen to my neighbors at my old place as soon as the landlord can kick people out). I have felt like LA has been my home pretty much as soon as I moved here. Even living in the dorms in college, LA felt like home.
But even though I have felt like LA has been my home for over 20 years, I have spent the past year owning a part of LA and really being able to build a home and not just moving into a space to try to make it feel like mine. And I can’t wait to continue my life in LA in this home and see what the next year and beyond have in store for me!
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Now I Think This Is The End Of The Renovation (or I Keep Thinking I’m At The Finish Line)
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