Looking Back at Year 1 in the SH2.0 Pleasant Ridge House
Today marks the 1-year anniversary of my moving into the Starter Home 2.0 Pleasant Ridge project as a first time home owner, so I wanted to take some time in this blog post to reflect on some of the lessons learned from the unique experience I've had of living in a house I designed and how it has shaped my worldview the past 12-months.
3 Lessons Learned from a Year Living in the Starter Home 2.0 House
- The Importance of Ownership: Over the past few years, I've read multiple articles claiming Millennials to be the 'renter' generation, suggesting (wrongly, in my opinion) that owning a home is no longer a good long-term investment. However, even if that were the case, I would argue the greatest benefit I have experienced as a homeowner, is the psychological boost it has given me to want to care for and improve my surroundings, whether it is the interior of the home, the yard, or the surrounding community. It is almost as if there is some sort of built-in trigger about being physically and emotionally invested in a place that compels homeowners to constantly want to better the environment in which they live, something that is critical to the development of strong neighborhoods, and something I never experienced as a renter.
- The Freedom of Closeness: I think there is some hesitation for people buying homes in urban neighborhoods because they are nervous about the close proximity of surrounding buildings taking away the freedoms they have living in isolation somewhere out in suburbia. That said, living in an urban environment where I've been able to walk to restaurants, bars, shops, church, the park, the rec center, the bus stop, and get from my house to my office in 5-minutes has made for an incredibly freeing lifestyle if you ask me.
- How to Be a Good Tour Guide: Whether it's been neighbors, friends, family, colleagues, or appraisers, it's been very flattering to have numerous people reach out to me over the past year with an interest in getting a tour of the Pleasant Ridge house I designed. In the process, I feel like I've become better able to articulate the story of the Starter Home 2.0 project and play off of the emotional reaction it evokes in others as they experience the different spaces throughout the property.
Overall, it's been a really great year and I'm interested and excited to see what this blog post and the Starter Home 2.0 project at-large looks like come September 30, 2017.
