Live and Learn...

They say that time heals all wounds.  They also say that life's bumps and bruises make us who we are.  This is all fine and good, but what happens if some of the mistakes you've made in the past are so disastrous that the very thought of repeating said mistake sends you into a state of panic?

Indulge me in a moment of Sophia Petrillo (a la Golden Girls):

Picture it: It's 2007, Sudhir and I have been married for about 4 months and are living in a pretty sweet apartment in Hoboken, NJ.  It's a 1 bedroom, 700 square foot place on the top floor of a high-rise building, floor to ceiling windows, and a fantastic view of the Empire State Building.  Being that we had just gotten hitched and had a bunch of money from the wedding as well as 2 of my bonuses saved, what better way to spend it than to invest in a home.

To say we had sticker shock, is an understatement.  It's downright ridonkulous how very little half a million dollars will buy you in that particular part of the country.   We ended up settling on what we thought was a fantastic deal.  a 2-story row house with a backyard (which is unheard of in that city).  It was a 2 bedroom, 2 bath and about 1240 square feet of space...all for the bargain price of $550K.  We're talking about a place that was built in the early 1900's, that had baseboard heating, and no central air.  The living room had basement sized windows and it was dark and dingy.  Be that as it may, all I saw was potential.

We immediately set out to renovate the kitchen.  We completely gutted it and installed the modern kitchen of my dreams.  See Below:

Pretty nice, right?  Anyway, to make an already long story, less long...we bought at the height of the market and basically sold at the pit of it.  The amount we lost on this place when we decided to up and leave the NYC area is more than the cost of my parents 3600 square foot home in MI.  Essentially, we had to write a check for our life savings to leave a house we had sunk so much money into already...

It's enough to scar a person.  For life.  Or so you would think.

About 2 weeks ago, we found out that our apartment may not be leased to us again because our building is going to be converted to condos on our floor.  Awesome!  This is when we first began thinking about looking at homes to buy.  Shortly thereafter, we fell head over heals in love with this place:

While it scares the bejesus out of me to consider entering into the precarious world of home ownership, I'm equally excited to start a life with greater sense of permanence in KC.  We made an offer today so we're keeping our fingers crossed till we hear back!