Eleventh House-iversary

Added 2021.08.17

So we spent another year in this house, this year mostly dominated by the pandemic. Our effort to save a downpayment for the next house is on-going, though the current dramatic increase in home prices means we will have to delay more than we’d hoped.

This year, the house survived the historic snow and ice storms, but little else of note happened to it. Perhaps for the first time, we went a year without any home improvements or major furniture changes. I did reclaim the end of the living room where B had his Lego table; now it’s my chess table and his Legos are confined to his own room.

The neighborhood continues to grow on the eastern and southeastern edges (and a brand new high school is almost finished over there too). One big downside of moving will be losing the access to the pool and walking trails we’ve enjoyed so much over the years. But we are still agreed that we’ll move when we find the right house. As a way of reminding us that we want to move, the people who live in the house behind us started a rock band during the pandemic, and they are content to practice in the middle of the night, for hours during the day, and on any and all days of the week.

Past House-iversary Entries

In the past, I had separate entries for each house-iversary post, but in 2019 I combined them into this omnibus edition — to save myself trouble linking between them, to keep from cluttering the web unnecessarily, to avoid repeating information between entries, and to make the topic easier to find (for me, anyway). Below are edited versions of the previous entries. They are in chronological order.

To skip to a particular year, use these intra-page links:

First • Second • Third • Fourth • Fifth • Sixth • Seventh • Eighth • Ninth • Tenth

One Year In The House (2011)

Today is the day. The one-year anniversary of getting the keys to our brand new house. There are no balloons, there’s no cake, and there are no gifts being exchanged. Just this note in my blog. Twelve days from now (Aug. 29) marks the end of our second year in Killeen, but somehow that’s not quite as big to us as moving into the house.

Our opinions on the house haven’t changed much since we moved in; we still love it.

We’re still glad we bought the smallest house available in our neighborhood; not only is the design better than some of the others, but it looks like we’ll have it paid off in half the time (at our current rate of making payments, the mortgage will be gone in about 12-15 years instead of 30). Also, the smaller size means saving money on electric bills and energy spent cleaning and maintaining.

There’s not much more to be said that I haven’t already posted in the last year: we added a few shelves, painted the garage, and seeded the back yard.

In the future, we plan to touch up the paint in a few places it’s been scratched or dinged. And we might even paint a room or two a different color, but nothing fancy. We’re still looking for the right table/chairs combination for a corner nook in our master bedroom, a storage bench for the foot of our bed, a diagonal corner shelving unit for the dining room, and few other minor accessories.

Also, we continue to note things we’ve learned in the past 17 months (since signing off on the construction) that will hopefully help us the next time we buy or build a house.

Second House-iversary (2012)

Wow. Two years. That means our house isn’t new anymore. It means we’re two years older than the spry, optimistic versions of ourselves that packed up everything we owned and shoved it in a truck to bring it over here. It means our daughter will be two years old in less than two months. She’s been with us almost every step of the way.

Reading my hectic and poorly organized blog entry from two years ago (“First Blog From The House”), it all seems so distant and far away. I’d have forgotten most of it if I hadn’t recorded it there. My entry from a year ago was short and to the point (rare for me). I plan to ramble a little more in this entry, so get ready (or move on to a site known for brief articles).

The House

Our house is holding up well. It was well-built (we watched every step, remember?) in most ways. We’ve scuffed the walls and corners a few times. The more obvious ones are pointed out by Rebecca daily: “Uh-oh. Boo-boo.” Most will be painted over during the next year as we continue our slow process of choosing our colors and themes for rooms. We’re in no hurry — it’s not a show-house.

The carpet is flattening in heavy traffic areas. We don’t notice until we move something and see how the carpet used to look/feel. It is (as advertised) stain-resistant. Rebecca has helped us prove this.

Because it was brand new, we’ve experienced none of the issues someone might expect with an older home: water leaks, mold, inefficiency, roof damage, etc. Since the included appliances (water heater, central heat/air, oven/range, dishwasher) were brand new, they are also still functioning as if they’re new.

One complaint about the heat/air is the filter size. Every store that carries air conditioner filters has dozens of sizes, but none of them have our size. We’ve checked checked every store in town with no luck. We’ve had to buy all our filters online. Home builders know what the standard size filters are; they should use those sizes — especially in these assembly-line houses. (Note: In 2019, I finally found one filter that was the right size for our house. Just one, at Walmart.)

One complaint about the water: We can’t get cold water from a tap in the summer. At best, it’ll be room temperature or slightly cooler. This is surely due in part to the Manablock plumbing system and the fact that our water hoses run through the crawlspace above the ceiling. I can’t imagine how hot it is up there. I don’t know how deeply the city’s water mains are buried; the water might be warm down there too.

One complaint about the house:: Small garage. The law shouldn’t allow builders/sellers to call it a “two-car garage” if two average-sized cars can’t fit inside at the same time. We tried right after moving in — before installing shelves and before we bought most of the lawn implements that we have now. Both cars (Mercury Sable and Dodge Neon) technically fit, but then neither can open its doors. So whoever parked the second car must exit through a window or trunk. Even if the garage WAS large enough for two cars, the designer should assume the homeowner will need space for lawn implements, shelves, kids’s bikes... I know the lots are narrow, but still... call it a “1.5-car garage”.

The Property

Most days, I still feel the lot is too small. For those who’ve lived on narrow city lots their entire lives, you’d feel right at home here. If you’re from NYC, you might even feel like you have a lot of space. But I spent my childhood on a five-acre lot, my teen years on a 0.75-acre lot, and my parents currently occupy something like 80 acres. So a 1/16-acre (or whatever it is) seems like a closet to me. I’ve skidded my bicycle longer than our current lot.

We didn’t notice this so much the first year, but ever since the last house on our street was finished... We have two-story homes on both sides and all the houses facing us across the street are two-story, so it feels a little boxed-in.

It’s barely wide enough that we can park one vehicle on the curb in front of our house — which we started doing to keep other people from parking there — people who like to stand on others’ lawns, drop cigarette butts, or play loud music in their cars. And the back yard is big enough for Rebecca to run around in for a few more years — maybe even have a large inflatable for one of her birthday parties someday.

The Lawn

Centex (our builder) sodded the front lawn and side strips before we moved in, leaving us the choice to seed or sod in the back yard. I chose seed for the advantage in price. If I had it to do over again, I would order sod in a heartbeat (we had the money for it.) That was August 2010 after a hot and dry summer.

I used a lot of water to help our front/side sod get healthy before winter, and even more water in my fruitless attempts to grow grass in the back.

2011 was much hotter and much drier. It’s amazing I got the back lawn established at all. We went several months without rain and four months where the high was never below 95°F. All the while, construction workers were trekking back and forth over our side and front grass, painters were standing their ladders on our side lawns, and (once) a large digging implement had to roll across the edge of the lawn to finish installing the power main next door. School kids walked on our grass — because it was a shortcut before the adjacent houses were finished. I picked more than a hundred roofing nails out of the side lawns and many dozens of those shiny discs they use. In mid-summer, we thought our tree had died; all the leaves browned and fell off. I watered daily for two weeks and it came back.

In 2012, I finally feel like we have a lawn. It’s been cooler than last year, with a milder winter preceding it. It’s been wetter, with rain at least once a month and sometimes heavy, long-lasting showers. Also now we have adjoining lawns on both sides, so less water is wasted by soaking into empty dirt lots.

The back yard still has trouble spots, but they’re negligible and mostly relegated to the corners. Mostly, I’ve worked on smoothing it this year — shaving off bumps and filling in low spots. The front yard has often been the subject of admiration from neighbors, though I’m close enough to see its weaknesses too.

The Neighborhood

We learned some lessons the hard way, including some about our neighborhood.

For example, we’ll never again buy a home in a neighborhood that’s still under construction. The noise was nearly unbearable for the first year — only bearable because the end was in sight. We’ll have to go through it two more times as they build on the lots behind us, but this time it’ll just be the noise, not the trash, damage to the lawn, contractor trucks blocking our driveway, and water theft that we experienced when they were building on our street.

And when we look for our “forever” home (some time after this one is paid off), we’ll look for a neighborhood without an HOA. Yes, there are perks: relatively low fees, a pool from May through September, walking paths with two duck ponds, the rules meant to keep the are from looking trashy... All that is nice. But there are also restrictions against improving (or even repairing) your home’s exterior without applying for and receiving permission. You can’t plant a shrub or tree without getting permission.

It would be one thing if it was obvious the anti-trashy rules were being enforced, but it’s not. There are lawns here that have never been mowed or weeded. Other properties have loud parties complete with shouting and thumping — in the front of their house — on a regular basis; keep disabled/trashy vehicles outside; leave boxes and other large trash alongside their homes for weeks at a time; allow their pets to roam free and soil others’ yards; and so on — all things prohibited by the HOA that have gone on since we moved in.

If I started seeing less and less of that, I’d feel better about the HOA dues and restrictions against sensible activity.

And when we look for our forever home, I want to be surrounded by older or at least middle-aged people. There’s something very unstable and nerve-wracking about being surrounded by 20-something-year-old soldiers. Nothing against the service that these men and women give to our country (I know many have deployed to active war zones multiple times), but when soldiers aren’t on duty, man do they like to blow off steam. And some of them are just “kids” in the sense that they’re in their early 20s, never been to college, never held real-world bill-paying jobs, have never been adults outside the Army’s care/control...

On the plus side, I think it’s (mostly) a great place to raise kids. There are dozens of children around in her age group. The ones that stay here will go to school together, play together, go to each other’s birthday parties, swim together, and so on. In a more spread-out neighborhood, she might not have that. And there’s the playground and walking paths. The few drivers who go too fast are being called out by other neighbors to slow down a bit). Schools here are better than most of the places I’ve lived.

The City

On Aug. 29, we’ll have been in Killeen three years. We still like the city, despite learning that many people here don’t like it. Maybe they should live in Seminole, Okla., for a few years and then return.

Sometimes the streets are a little crowded for my tastes; usually when a large group of soldiers has just returned. And the town needs at least one more large supermarket, preferably over here on the south end where all the new homes are going up.

Overall, we’re still very pleased we made the decision to move to Killeen, and the further decision to buy this house in this neighborhood. I can envision much worse scenarios, and have lived through several.

Third House-iversary

The house is holding up well after three years, though there are growing signs of wear-and-tear. In the past month or so, I’ve used the builder-provided touch-up paint to cover a few marks and scratches on the walls, and used joint compound and paint to cover a couple of small drywall cracks that had appeared during initial settling in late 2010. The carpet will have to be replaced; it hasn’t stood up to constant foot traffic

I’ve added shelves to the house since this time last year, including the big and bulky garage shelf system, extra shelves in the laundry room and master closet, measuring cup/spoon holders in the kitchen spice cabinet, a shelf above the door in bathroom #2, and Ikea shelving units in the kitchen and laundry room. Additionally, I rotated an electrical outlet from the south wall of our master bedroom to the north wall of the laundry room (which involved no electrical work; just some drywall repair) in order to move the chest freezer into the laundry room.

When our washing machine began to leak just days after Benjamin was born, we bought a new one. I gave the old one to my Dad to repair or sell, but it turned out to be fine so we told them to keep it as a combined Mother’s and Father’s Day gift. (M loves our new one.)

I’m growing accustomed to the small property size, but not enough to enjoy this size lot forever. My wife and I have come up with a long list of “deal-breakers” for our eventual “forever home”, and lot size is one of them; I’d like at least a half-acre.

Later this month, we’ll hit our four-year anniversary of living in Killeen, something that we still enjoy. This year, several new businesses began popping up, like Sam’s Club and CVS. I learned that another 4,000 homes have been approved in a development to our south. I hope this increases the chance that a new supermarket will sprout up over here on the south side of town, perhaps along Schlueter Loop (hint, hint). Another great location for a new supermarket would be at Stagecoach and Trimmier, which is within a five minute drive for more than a thousand new homes that have sprouted in the past three years.

Fourth House-iversary

Today marks four years in this house, and 12 days from now we’ll have been in Killeen for five years. In most ways of looking at it, it actually does seem like five years.

This is the first year I can say our lawn is at 100%. There aren’t any more weak spots in the corners or edges. Everything’s grown in and appears healthy.

A few months ago, we surpassed a magic point in our mortgage — each monthly payment now goes more toward principal than toward interest. I’ve read that this usually happens after 15-18 years, not four. This means we’ve been doing a bang-up job of paying our mortgage. And about a year from now, we’ll be able to quit paying the mortgage insurance required for FHA loans (since we didn’t have 20% down, we had to get an FHA loan, which requires mortgage insurance for at least five years). We’re looking forward to that date; it’ll mean smaller monthly payments — which in turn means we can pay even more extra off the principal each month.

Some of the minor complaints we’ve had in the past have lessened. The nearest house with the loud parties has been empty/quiet for months. The only vehicle left on our street with a modified exhaust system has been (mostly) quiet for a couple of months — since I complained to the HOA. At least he’s quit revving it for hours on end. The nearest house with the largest/loudest barking dogs has also grown quieter in the past two months — since I complained to the HOA.

(I don’t know whether either was contacted by the HOA. But the constant, ongoing noise ceased at both places within two weeks of when I submitted my complaints.)

We only went to the pool a couple of times this year, for multiple reasons: (1) unusually cool spring, (2) pool gate broken for some time, failing to open to our magnetic key card, and (3) trouble with our children’s behavior. I think all these issues are behind us now; the pool is open through September so if it stays hot we hope to be down there several times in the coming weeks.

I’ve grown accustomed to the tiny lot size, though I occasionally wish for more elbow room.

Now that we’ve paid 35% of our mortgage, I’m beginning to wonder about moving away (2021? 2022?) RLF will be 11 or 12; it’ll be the only house she’s ever lived in. BWF will be 8 or 9; also the only house he’s ever lived in. They’ll both be in school and other activities. I’m reminded of myself in Choctaw at age 11 and how difficult that move (to Bulverde) was for me. I’m sure that my wife and I will consider their feelings, the school district boundaries, and their friends, along with our own concerns when we move, but that’s a long time from now.

Right now, we’re fully comfortable in this house and in the neighborhood.

Fifth House-iversary (2015)

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the day we got the keys to this house. Most of the negatives/positives I listed in previous entries don’t bear repeating. Most of them have fallen into the background noise of our lives. It is the new normal, by which any changes will be judged. There are a few new milestones:

Longevity

I’ve now lived in this house for 12 percent of my life. It ranks number four on the list of places I’ve lived the longest. This house is now the fourth place I’ve lived five years or more.

1. Seminole (Okla.) apartment, 8.7 years
2. Bulverde (Texas) house, 7.5 years
3. Choctaw (Okla.) house, 5.2 years
4. Killeen (Texas) house, 5.0 years

Mortgage

Within a month or two, we’ll reach the halfway point on our mortgage — we’ll only owe 50% of what we originally borrowed. (We already owe less than 50% of the total price.)

Neighborhood

Just a few weeks ago, the last adjacent lot (behind us) was filled with a house (no residents yet), but there is still ongoing construction in our neighborhood. I’m not sure why, but we assumed it would all be finished by now. It has reinforced our conviction to never again buy in a neighborhood under construction.

Changing Faces

Most of the neighbors we met during the first year are gone now. That’s the nature of a military town. There are now only a handful of families who’ve lived in Yowell Ranch longer than we have. The friends we visited up the hill Sunday planning to be gone by the end of the year — getting out of the Army and going back to their home state. The people who hosted the birthday party on Saturday are moving by the end of the year.

Our immediate left/right neighbors are still the same — both came a year after us, but both heads-of-household are nearing the ends of their terms in the Army and will likely move as well. Both have children that my kids have played with and recognize.

By the time RnB are both in school, there will have been 95% turnover on our street.

Looking Forward

We look forward to spending another 5-7 years in this home, at least until it’s paid off completely. It is large enough for our needs and close enough to the places we go — shopping, church, restaurants, dance lessons, etc. While we can’t predict what the housing market or city will be like by that time, prices were already near bottom when we bought, so there is every indication we’ll get back at least what we paid in. We do worry about ongoing cuts to the Army. Some of those cuts, including to the civilian workforce, will happen here, but exactly how it will play out over the next few years is anyone’s guess.

If/when/where we do eventually move will strongly depend on several factors: (1) state of my wife’s job, (2) state of Killeen/Ft. Hood economy, and (3) how well our kids are adjusted to their schools.

Sixth And Seventh House-iversaries

(For unknown reasons, perhaps including blog fatigue, I did not write house-iversary entries in 2016 or 2017.)

Eighth House-iversary

Good grief. Today marks eight years since we walked into this house for the first time as owners. Time is steadily slipping past us and showing no signs of stopping.

As I wrote this entry, I enjoyed re-reading the previous house-iversary stories of mine and seeing where I had been wrong. For example, in 2011 I indicated we would not repaint every room, but now we are nearly finished doing just that. In 2012, I begged the city for a new supermarket; since then we got at least seven new supermarkets — though only two of them are very close to us. In 2014, I bragged that my lawn was at “100%”, but this year I neglected it as I painted and I’m now trying to bring it back.

In previous entries, I mentioned certain complaints, and then later said some had been alleviated. It continues to get better. For the past four years, our street has been pretty quiet, with minor exceptions. The guy with the two loudest dogs finally left his wife and took his dogs with him. The guy with the loudest car let his house go into foreclosure and moved away. The loud shirtless renters with five children moved back to Florida — or wherever loud shirtless people with lots of kids come from. Our complaints today are less serious than before... A few dogs get out once in a while. The pool-cleaning company isn’t up to par. A few residents illegally park across the public sidewalk.

The only “serious” (#FirstWorldProblems) ongoing issue is a family behind us who held regular parties for a couple of years (and by “regular”, I mean several times per week). They weren’t always loud, but sometimes they were extraordinarily loud. Lately, I have detected a lessening of that. I hope it will continue to abate.

In 2015 we were reaching the halfway point of our mortgage; today we owe slightly less than 15% of our original principal. Barring any emergencies, we’ll be finished with the mortgage by our Aluminum Anniversary in 2020.

Also in 2015, I mentioned “95% turnover” of our neighbors; today there are only three original owners (besides us) on this street of 45 houses — and one of them is moving as we speak. So my original prediction was very close.

Electric Bills

Month after month in our neighborhood’s private Facebook group I see posts like: “Which power company do y’all use? Our bill is way too high.” In 100% of these cases, when asked, it turns out that these people have a rate very similar to ours, but their usage is way too high. The one who posted yesterday said he used 3,058 kWh in the past month and wondered why his bill was so high ($324).

For perspective, our highest usage of all time was 1,902 kWh in January of 2011. Our second-highest of all time was the following month, at 1,877 kWh. But the guy in the group was talking about August. Our highest-ever for August was 1,182 kWh.

In 100% of these threads, other residents begin chiming in with their thermostat settings, and my eyebrows can only go so high. They say they have their air conditioners set on 68°F. Or 72°F. “It’s so cold in here, we have to wear robes in the summer”, one of them added last week with a hilariously laughing emoji face. And then complained about the cost of her bill.

I typically read these to my wife so we can smile knowingly at each other and metaphorically pat ourselves on the back. Our thermostat is currently at 79°F. Our August bill didn’t break $100 this year.

Changes In The Past 12 Months

• Repaired drywall damage (Nov. 2017)
• New TV (Dec. 2017)
• Painted shelf in office (winter) — "Pure white", high gloss
• Caulked & painted exterior (Spring 2018) — "Vanilla Sugar", satin
• Painted garage shelves (April 2018) — "Pure white", high gloss
• Replaced caulk around kitchen cabinets/counter (April 2018)
• Painted kitchen (April/May 2018) — "Lilac & Frost" (lavender), semi-gloss
• Painted halls (May 2018) — "Spring Thaw" (gray), semi-gloss
• Painted master bathroom (May 2018) — "Lighthearted Rose" (mauve), semi-gloss
• Replaced master bath light fixture (May 2018)
• Replaced master bath towel rack (May 2018)
• Replaced north fence in back yard (June 2018)
• Painted master bedroom (June 2018) — "Red Red Wine" (dark red), satin
• Repair air conditioner (June 2018)
• Painted great room (July 2018) — "Tranquil Light Green", satin
• Replaced great room curtains (July 2018)
• Painted curtain rod finials silver (July 2018)

Of the above, only the fence replacement and A/C repair were hired out. I did all the rest with my own labor (and occasional “gopher” help from my wife and children). This means the fence was the most expensive and the A/C repair was the next most expensive — about the same cost as the new TV. The painting would have been BY FAR the most costly if we’d hired out for it. But since I used all my own labor, costs were minimal. Paint is relatively inexpensive ($20-$40 per gallon, depending on brand and quantity), brushes range from $5 to $15, and stir sticks are free. If you hire someone to paint your house, most of the cost is for labor (and you’re paying for expertise as well).

Broader Scope

The neighborhood (Yowell Ranch), in which we were the 17th family on two streets, now has more than 1,000 households on 30 streets. (I counted 1,078 developed lots in Google Earth Pro, and the images are AT LEAST eight months old.) There are now TWO walking trails, a pool and a splash pad, three ponds, a two basketball courts, and a dog park. The empty plot of land to our neighborhood’s south has been announced as the future site of Killeen Independent School District’s newest high school. The school district bought one empty lot in our neighborhood — for walking path access from the neighborhood to the school. Our neighborhood’s east boundary has been a ranch all this time, but it was recently announced that Onion Road will be extended southward to the new school; it will form the new eastern boundary of Yowell Ranch.

The city has already announced plans to widen Featherline Road (Yowell Ranch’s western boundary) from two lanes to five, and then will do the same to Chaparral Road (YR’s southern boundary). All of these road construction projects are between us and our kids’ current and future schools, but shouldn’t affect anywhere else we go.

The city itself has continued to grow, but more slowly now. Our main highway became an official Interstate early in 2017. New stores and small shopping centers continue to be built. We expect a Dunkin Donuts / Baskin Robbins within a few months (possibly TWO, depending on conflicting news reports).

Our Ninth House-iversary

Today marks the ninth anniversary of when we first walked into this house as owners, and it’s our first “house-iversary” without a mortgage, which is by far our most important house-related activity this year. Also, in February, this residence became the place I’ve lived the longest — it finally surpassed my Seminole apartment (2001-2009).

2019 was also the first time in eight years that we had empty houses on both sides of us at the same time. Our longtime neighbors to the south (downhill) left the Army and left Killeen — they had been our neighbors since 2011. On the other side (north, uphill), the most recent residents left suddenly and the house sold within a few days. We already have new neighbors on both sides, including a girl aged right between our children. So far, neither new neighbor has yappy dogs or favors audio assault via woofer; if that holds up, our future is looking pleasant. (Update, 2020.08.17: one of them did turn out to have an occasionally noisy dog, but not nearly as bad as some previous neighbors.)

Changes or improvements of note in the past year:

• Bought new dining room table (Nov. 2018)
• Hosted Thanksgiving dinner (Nov. 2018)
• Moved office to master bedroom (Feb. 2019)
• Son got his own bedroom (March 2019)
• New Ikea dressers for RnB
• Switched electric companies (May 2019)
• Paid off mortgage (June 2019)

As I mentioned in the mortgage entry, we are still weighing options regarding staying here or leaving as originally planned. It will depend on factors that we can’t currently calculate. If we stay, it’s likely we’ll continue to make upgrades, the biggest one currently under consideration is replacing old carpet with wood and/or tile.

The neighborhood continues to grow — see screenshot above from 2018. (See 2018’s entry for more on that.) While most of the “city” part of Killeen continues to be several minutes away by car, it’s getting conveniently closer all the time.

Tenth House-iversary

Added 2020.08.17

Today was the big TEN, as in it’s been ten years since the day we first walked into this house has owners. In the past 366 days, probably the biggest physical change to our property is that I planted two trees, a maple and a crabapple, in the back yard this spring (March 2), both intended to eventually help shade the western end of the house — and thus help with resale value. Both budded out as spring progressed, though the maple had a hard time of it during July and August with zero rain and plenty of 100-degree days. I put a lot of effort (and water) into it and it survived.

Other changes include: new queen mattress for my wife and I, replaced light fixture in kids’ bathroom, repainted garage interior, recaulked shower, replaced vent in kids’s bathroom, and replaced kitchen faucet. (Most of those I had forgotten about until I sat down to update this entry and looked back through my Flickr photos. So, thank goodness for Flickr.) RnB also each got desks and accompanying chairs in their room — R in Sept. 2019 and B in June 2020 — which helps a lot with the schoolwork they have to do at home.

Due to the global outbreak of Covid-19, we spent a lot of time inside our house in 2020. The kids did their last two months of Spring school at home, and started the Autumn semester (today) at home. All of this showed us that the house really is large enough for us — but but we now better understand the McMansion theory of home-buying to which others around us subscribe. That theory goes: “If you’re going to spend most of your life indoors, you might as well have tons of space in there.”

A year ago we were still weighing our options regarding staying/moving. In 2020 we made up our minds: we’ll move when we can. What money we save by not having a mortgage (and the Pandemic stimulus payments finished off my wife’s last student loan), we began putting into an interest-bearing account to save for the downpayment on our next home. It is already enough to pay for 20% of this house.