Home Keeping: Paying Off Our Mortgage

 

We bought our home 'buy owner' and closed in October of 2001. Just a month and a few days after 9/11. This is what the house looked like when we took possession of the house.

There were no trees! Only dwarf alberta spruce by the front door, and some overgrown arbor vitae? That window a/c was the only air conditioning in the house. It was being heated by a coal stove in the basement.

It's a good thing Tim and I both are not afraid of hard work. We got this place very inexpensively and since then have put a ton of sweat equity into the house. It's lovely and charming now.

We started off with a 30 year mortgage, and after about 9 years, we refinanced to get a much lower interest rate, and we made it a 15 year mortgage. We started paying extra on the mortgage every month, and except for about a year while Obama was in the White House, we did that faithfully.

We were due to make our last payment December 1st but yesterday we went and made the last payment! 

Praise the Lord!

Tim has always worked hard, and we've always worked to be debt free. We chose to not do big, fancy vacations, eat at home (especially when we had lots of kids still at home), buy used vehicles, and shop at thrift stores. (my kids still love to thrift clothes, and household items!) 

We chose to invest time into relationships with people, hosting and sharing life with people. We did take vacations to Florida every year, but only because we stayed with family or the guest motel the mission Tim's family was a part of had for years. Our whole family could stay for $20 a night, with our own kitchen, and access to the pool. It was right on the lake and in the same town Tim's mom lived in. It made it an affordable vacation. We did the beaches, went to the space center, when all the buildings used to be free to see space rocks, space suits, etc. We had loads of fun with cousins, too.

These choices allowed us to live on one income, and for us to be able to home educate our kids. In it all, God has faithfully provided good jobs, and work for Tim. 

Now we are completely debt free. Here in Pennsylvania we do have school taxes tied to the property tax and it is a decent amount. We plan to put a portion of the money we've been paying on the house into a savings to pay for the taxes, and also put the rest of the money into a fund for projects for the house. We need new windows and siding, and that will happen this next year.

Rachel had said we needed to celebrate, so last night my parents, Kyle, Wes and Rachel, joined us for dinner out.

I'm proud of us.

Today, Tim's sister and brother in law arrive to stay the night on their way up to New York. Our bil Richard grew up on a farm in upstate New York and even though the farm was sold two years ago, the family that bought it (neighboring farm who had worked the land many years since Richard's dad had died) allow him to come hunt on the property.

Tomorrow is our last co-op day for this semester, then Thanksgiving next week, and the following week I host our co-op mom's for a Christmas party! 

I'm in a celebratory mood! Let the fun begin!