the money pit

Being a homeowner definitely has it's positives. You actually own your property and are granted the freedom to change/update/upgrade anything you please. The money you put into all the work and mortgage payments is actually being put to good use and will eventually (hopefully) come back around to you in larger numbers over time. They are the benefits of being a homeowner...

But the home that I once looked at as a great conquest - a diamond beneath the ruff - at times only looks like a huge money pit that I will forever be drowning in. My home is what you would call a 'fixer-upper' - a 'handyman's special', if you will. What owners of 'normal' homes would consider a to-do list - one filled with simple things like paint the bathroom, clean the kitchen floor, or fix the running toilet - is nothing compared to what ours looks like. Things like gut and remodel entire kitchen (ridding of the 1950's oven and stove), gut and remodel guest bathroom (so the ceiling is no longer caving in - saving the lives of the guests that actually use it), and install fence in backyard along with demolishing life-threatening, eye-sore firepit in the corner of the yard (just one of the many odd things the previous owner left for us...) are a little more overwhelming. These to-do lists are so long that the thought of actually completing all of them seems like a distant dream - one that may never become a reality.

I am certain I'm not the only new homeowner experiencing these stresses. And I'm not necessarily feeling buyers remorse - I think I just feel like a sucker. A sucker who took on this huge project with no safety net and no guarantee that it will ever be finished in the condition that I want it to be. Sometimes I just feel like putting a For Sale sign up front and buying a new construction home. But I don't know if that would be quite as fulfilling for me.

I guess I am just a glutton for punishment...and to-do lists.