The idea of owning a home was always scary to me. Sounds weird, I know. But the thought that you’d have to pay a big mortgage and insurance while being responsible for anything that could go wrong was scary. And we all know that things will go wrong all the time. Yet, here are owning two homes in a year. Both were quite a surprise and yet fell into our hands with ease. Luckily we own both homes without any mortgage, which helps us breathe a bit easier on this journey.
I am thrilled to be more involved in sharing our homes with you all—updates on our jobs in making them up to snuff. Unluckily for us, both houses need quite a bit of work, which is scary, but we are here for it. Lucky for us? All the updates and work we have upon us should make great blog posts if I can get my motivation together.
Now I am ready to share how we went to owning two homes in a year.
The Surprising Development of Owning Two Homes in a Year
Owning two homes in two different states is, truthfully, a bit tricky. We have our primary residence in Washington, and we live full-time. And now we have a second home in Idaho that we use occasionally. Right now, we use it mainly to get work done, clean it out, and prepare it for guests. Details of both and how we acquired them will have their section for clarity.
Washington Home
We’ve lived in this home since January of 2011; honestly, it was already “ours” before it was officially ours. Briefly, Jason grew up in this house until he was roughly 12. Jason’s Dad kept it and only rented it to the family throughout the years once they moved out. We moved in, and several years later, there was talk of selling us the house. A rough cost was thrown out between the parents and Jason, but nothing moved forward.
Instead, they gifted us the house as an early inheritance last year, and it became ours officially in June of 2021. All this while I am pregnant and trying to figure out Mom’s bills. And we also were trying to make quick trips over to Spokane to see her while she was in the hospital.
We had been in the process of getting bids to replace the roof and HVAC system all along this timeline too. But then Mom passed, and I was about to have Lily. So then, none of the needed updates could happen because life had other ideas of where our money and time were required.
The main home needs many updates, and the HVAC system should happen within the next month. YAY! The roof desperately needs to be done too. We are trying to figure out how to put all the balls into play to make the home safe and sound. It’s all taxing, though. We are just over here trying our best.
Idaho Home
Oh boy, did this home take us by surprise! When Mom passed, we were not exactly sure if the house was going to us or not. We knew I had control of everything, but there was a chance the house & land would revert to Peet Shoe Dryer. My stepdad, Gene, owner of Peet Shoe Dryer, passed a few years back, and the Peet Shoe Dryer business may have been taking back the land.
Since I am writing about owning two homes in a year, you can tell the case as it came to me. We decided to keep it and see if we could turn it into a vacation rental. We were figuring that a vacation rental would allow us to keep it for our own yet hopefully earn a bit of money from it simultaneously.
Turning it into a vacation rental will still be a little down the road. First, we need to complete several house projects (yes, more money & time) before we’d feel comfortable putting it out as a place to stay for strangers.
Two Homes One Year
And there we have it how we acquired two homes in the one-year time frame: both owned and ours but both needing many upgrades and repairs. Of course, owning two homes in a year with this amount of work is not recommended, don’t go out and look for it yourself. But here we are, and the journey shall be shared here.
