So, how long does it take to embody homeownership as a perpetual renter?
In the summer of 2025, I had an abrupt epiphany that pushed me into buying a home. I was tired of renting, tired of poor apartment management, tired of having reasons to move – like the time roof rats found their way into my walls and the landlord opted out pest control… a saga for another day.
It all started as an innocent inquiry not thinking it was actually going to turn into something tangible. I had a realtor, a decent savings, and a deadline to find something before having to rent yet again. After spending the summer searching high and low, I ended up with a cute new-build townhome, and it still blows my mind that I have a mortgage and can just decide to paint my walls without considering consequences.
I was recently notified that I have officially owned my home for 6 months and it stopped my rambling mind in its tracks. How has time gone by so quickly? I still have things in boxes because I need more cutesy bookshelves for my knickknacks. I still haven’t’ picked a color to paint the walls. I am still daydreaming about what I can do to the yard. Somehow having the freedom to do so has also created an unexplainable pressure. If I choose the wrong color, do I fail? At what? Who knows! But in all seriousness, I have been trying to quiet my nervous system. Like this is our home. No one can take it from us, and I won’t have to figure out where to live in a year.
Usually after 6 months I must evaluate staying in one place or not. There are always varying factors to consider. How are my neighbors? Are there constantly random people hanging around? Am I tired of the gentleman who randomly decides to perform impromptu karaoke on the light rail station platform across the street at 2AM? I never stopped to ask myself do I want to stay? Moving on always seemed par to the course. There was a time in life I thought I had to move at the end of the lease. Growing up, my family always moved from place to place with little explanation; that’s just the way it was. So, when the time came to renew, I just found somewhere else to go.
Most recently, I moved every year due to break ups, family members in need, and the aforementioned rodents. What an adventure. I’m so very grateful and somehow I’m still wondering if the proverbial shoe is going to drop. I still tell myself to slow down. I can curate the space in as much time as I choose. A friend of mines jokes saying it took them a year to get rugs in their home after buying. And it’s true, it took me months to pick curtains and how fitting is it that the rod didn’t actually work, falling apart after being held up by command strips. Yep, I still hesitate putting holes in the walls.
I know that eventually I will come home and it will feel like walking into a hug–at least that’s what I’m going for. When that day is, is to be determined. What I can say is that no matter how long it takes, I won’t ever get over the fact that I did it. I’m the person at the parking garage who had to do a promise to pay because my card declined trying to get out and there were no other options. I’m the girl who kept half her belongings in the trunk of her car because she didn’t have a room and was sleeping on her friend’s couch. To embody homeownership is to honor my story. How amazingly blessed am I to make it here?
I don’t know if it will ever feel real, but what I do feel is the sense of belonging that I don’t think I’ve had in a home before, and that has made everything worth it.
