Natwerk Designs

Seniors, when you purchased your first house, did you expect it to be move-in ready?

I am referring to the buyers I've seen on HGTV who expect to buy a house with a deluxe kitchen with stainless steel, bath, exquisite backyard,etc. Don't couples today want to select items that reflect their taste? Have they no imagination? I expect the house to be clean and neat, inside and out and the fixtures (electrical, furnace, air conditioner, washer/dryer,etc, to work properly. I am not talking about the very well-to-do.

Public Comments

1. 25 years ago we bought our first house, and i can assure it was a palace to what i was leaving. My parents had very little, and housekeeping was way bottom of the list. Living in squalor was not my idea of the way people lived, so we went for the best we could afford, and look after it we did, and for the 1st time i felt part of a normal society. I feel i'm choking up just with the thought of everything back then.
2. Yes , move in ready meant no repairs to be done .
3. That was not a problem. The house was brand new. We had to buy carpeting, curtains, fencing, landscaping and do any improvements over the years that we wanted. We did not just go into debt for immediate satisfaction. I agree about some of the potential buyers on HGTV programs who expect everything to be perfect. I have to laugh at their comments regarding decor with "That is not my taste" or rude remarks about wallpaper, etc. Some of them seem so spoiled. They cannot seem to see beyond the furniture or curtains. I like to see the few who will appreciate finally having a decent place to live, especially those who have saved for a long time to do so.
4. A house should be in proper working order but you should do your own decorating and landscaping to make it yours. Yes, the buyers on HGTV are lacking in imagination and too lazy to do the work themselves.
5. All we had to have done is have a carpet put down or the wood floor replaced (can't remember what the floor was called....wood squares about 12"x12", and it was messed up in spots. We used the old flooring for wood kindling, and a neighbor took some to use as a wall covering for one wall in his den....PARQUET? They put a carpet down. My troops helped move in and paint. That was in 1983 and we're still here.
6. Times certainly have changed, haven't they? My husband and I bought a fixer upper to save money when we bought our first house. We spent the first two years painting, removing wall paper, upgrading counter tops, etc. What you speak of is the curse of the Mc Mansion generation. It's also the reason that so many of them are borrowing more than they can afford and sometimes losing everything. Instead of DIY (do it yourself), it now seems that it's DIFM (do it for me).
7. We bought a new house when our younger daughter was 8-months-old. We had to do a lot to it anyway, but we are still here. We put a deck on it, I have always worked in the yard, got a picket fence, but we moved from an apartment into the house and still love the house. Guess we will be here until we fall over working out in the yard or something. It was so cheap compared to the prices today, has hardwood floors, handmade pine cabinets in the kitchen, a full basement, a deck we added across the back, sliding glass doors, painted inside, put siding on the outside, and of course had to put up a mailbox and cut down a huge tree in the yard. I still work in my flowers and mow the lawn myself. We still have the same furnace which came with the house, washer and dryer we bought when we moved here, and the same stove. That was in 1969!
8. I've bought two houses in my lifetime; one in 1980 and one in 1988. Both were brand new, but back then houses weren't as stylized as they are now. There was no such thing as granite countertops, fancy stoves, mega windows, etc. I find this new trend baffling and a bit embarrassing. Maybe I'm just too conservative, but what I see on HGTV leaves me cold.
9. Part of the fun of putting a home together is living with hand-me-downs and making do with old appliances, etc. Then as we could replace things with better, we did. I remember going to the laundromat twice a week. Then when we got new things we really appreciated them and took good care of them so they would last.
10. 35 years ago our house was move-in-ready as it was a new built home. The whole neighborhood had new homes. We were able to choose carpet colors which I liked. We only lived there 10 years and then bought another home. It was not new but had been lived in for 5 years. We changed all the carpet and repainted every room. We too stayed there for five years. In all we have bought 4 homes but our first home was the only new one. Poppy
11. My first house was a fixer-upper. It was in pretty bad condition but it had good "bones". I owned it for 9 years and worked on it as time and funds allowed. I loved it. Never did get everything done that I wanted to do. When I bought it there was no 'fridge, no stove, no washer and dryer, the heating system was archaic and there was no air conditioning. I've never owned a new house. All my homes have been fixer-uppers to some degree but none to the degree that the first one was.
12. No not my first home but then no home would be move-in ready for me as I like to make a home my own. I think the ones we see on the t.v shows are homes that they are asking top dollar for. If the seller wants top of the line today prices then I do think the house should look like a top of the line home. I sometimes wonder if the seller really can see what they are trying to sell. The truth is in there somewhere.
13. I KNOW! What the heck! We sure knew we'd have to make it our own when we bought our first house. The ones who want to rip out perfectly good kitchens or bathrooms are the ones that really drive me nuts.
14. Of course not. Our first house was a repo from the FHA. It was a mess, but it was really cheap. A starter home, as they say.
15. Our first house was no great shakes,but the part I really enjoyed was painting it inside and out in colors that we picked. I took great pride in buying the paint and climbing the ladder. That house was really ours after we fixed up the front and back yard with plants and flowers we picked. Again,the inside wasnt fancy but we used unique shutters and bright colors. I still drive past that house and think that those days were probably the best part of our lives. I cant get into the HGTV shows because it seems as thouh the couples have different values. It's not that I was right and they're wrong,it's just different.
16. No. In fact that's why we bought it.
17. I haven't heard of the show but get the idea from the answers. Even in bad health I would expect to plant my own tree, flower, or what ever. We were very fortunate to get this house. We replaced the entire plumbing and wiring over the years and insulated and made numerous improvements and repairs. I remember being told the bathroom had to be my priority. The toilet sat on the cast iron pipe with no floor. It sort of wobbled on the pipe. I was outdoors most all of the daylight hours so really paid it no mind. I smile as I remember my wife's excitement at replacing the plumbing and putting a new floor down. She invited the neighbor to come hear the toilet flush! I would expect a house that I could improve on. I have done emergency repairs on most of the houses surrounding us and ours is in excellent shape now by comparison. Paul Harvey says don't fix the squeaky floor board or cabinet door that pops open. That's what makes it HOME! HA!
18. I bought our first house, in 1966, from a lady, who I found out later, was declared crazy as a loon. And the way she left the place, reflected that evaluation. All of the interior walls, were painted the same, with a hideous rose color. And the carpeting was a worn out shag. When we walked through the place, my wife started making plans to change everything to our fit our tastes. We lived there 25 years, I built my next house, to MY specs, and lived there 12 years, then moved to where we live now. This double wide is fine, besides, I'm too old, AND cheap, to make any big changes.
19. I've never lived in a new house. I can't imagine what that's like. My first house was a big nineteenth-century ruin on the edge of town that nobody wanted because it was being eaten by termites and sinking into the mud. After a couple of years of Herculean effort, I rescued it and restored it to more or less its original condition. A labor of love. And the result, I thought, was a jewel. But the philistines who bought it from me immediately tore up all my work and covered everything, inside and out, with cheap modern materials. A sacrilege.
20. I love watching HGTV but it leaves my mouth hanging open a lot and has to give the 'now generation' wrong ideas on what is important. It isn't all the fluff inside. It the house is basically sturdy and where you want to live, then you can change anything inside that you want over time. A lifetime of work in progress is a great home. Put yourself into it. What sold us on our home 35 years ago was sitting in the backyard and looking at the view around and behind us. No one can build behind us as it is a hillside (going down) and a farm there and then woods as far as you can see. Our home came with a side lot that wasn't deep enough for another home to be built on so we have that. WE just sat there all those years ago and said, "home". Over time we added on to our house, doing the work ourselves and we've painted and done all the things everyone else does. It's ours, ha, and we'll leave it to our son because he's put a lot of the 'dents' and 'scratches' that are in it now here. :-)
21. I have no idea what HG TV is, I bought my first house in 1963, paid cash for it $5,500. It took me almost 2 years to get the widow lady to move out. I never lived in that house, but my mother did. I have built 2 homes, totally rebuilt 2 and lived in a condo. I now live in my biggest, fullest home of my life and love the company.
22. That was back in 1970 and we did move right in. It is a older home with much charm and I truly love.it and we have no plans to move anywhere else. We have often talked about when we move in after getting married that we didn't have enough to fill all the rooms but that sure isn't a problem now. My husband salvaged the floor to ceiling closets in his old home place and reinstalled them in all of the bedrooms plus a linen closet in the hallway. We have the tall ceilings in all rooms but the kitchen and bathroom. The irony is that the lady who lived here before us; this HOME had been in her family since it was built; was a social worker----------and for 30 yrs that has been my calling too. We have had a fenced -in playyard for the foster kids and now the grandkids. My husband has his garden. We have added new appliances as needed but I prefer the older look of things. When my father was still working at one time he worked at the ice plant here in town. And yrs later my husbands job was helping to dismantle the old ice plant and he got the old book case from the office and installed int in our live room.