Monday, October 29, 2012

HGTV Observations

Last night I was watching television in lieu of sleeping--I just don't sleep well when Eli is out of town--and I realized I've spent most of my TV-watching time on ABC, USA, and TNT.  It's been a long time since I watched HGTV, and since I didn't want to procrastinate too long, I flipped over to it.  Its 30-minute show lineup is perfect for being productive between shows.

A new show was on, one I haven't seen: House Hunters Renovation.  The gist is that people are looking for fixer-uppers.  I wish I could tell you more, but I didn't end up watching much of it. But, I did hear something for the first time that I've never heard on these house-hunting shows.

House Hunter (paraphrase):  We got approved at [$ amount], but I'm not willing to spend more than [much lower $ amount] because we have dreams and goals and things we want to do when we retire instead of pay on a house.

Wow!  This is very much my attitude toward our little house.  It's a starter house.  We'll have it paid off before Elsie graduates high school.  We will not upgrade or move unless we have to, really.  We could spend more on a mortgage payment, but then we would be "house poor".  We have dreams for our retirement, and a large house with a large payment does not mesh with those dreams.

I see a lot of shows on HGTV where people set a budget and then end up going over.  I don't know if this guy stuck to his guns, but I hope that we can.

Cheers.