Well, my wife and I finally bought our first house. For all the roller coaster the process was we are so very happy and we're moving tommorrow.
I had to share one little tidbit... when we first looked through the house we found a finished room in the basement (finished means it had a drop ceiling and hardwood floors). There were two little doors on one wall and our realtor said, "I feel like I'm in a hobbit's house in this room." Right after that my wife declared it my D&D room and I'm so excited to fix it up like a hobbit hole for our weekly sessions.
My plan is to keep the hardwoods and make the rest of it look similar to Bilbo's house in Peter Jackson's "Fellowship of the Ring." Oriental rugs, wood trim, stucco walls, and "candles" on the wall. Eventually I'll put a bar and keg system down there to give it a pub-like atmosphere for entertaining and a late-inight session every once in a long while.
Congratulations--my next house will have a dedicated game room too, no matter what!!!
Perhaps I'll serve some mead in my gaming bar...
Perhaps I'll serve some mead in my gaming bar...
Look for a "kegerator" - it's basically a fridge with the CO2 tanks and room for kegs of beer. The beer tap handles are built into the door. It's on my list of "wants" for a game room.
Congrats and may you always be happy in your house ! And happy gaming.
I wonder: how much costs a decent house in the US ? Over here in germany, even small houses are very expensive, as they are very solidly built (sometimes I wonder if dwarves wrote the building guidelines). Even in a city with about 100k inhabitants, a newly built house in the suburbs with perhaps 100 m² living space on a piece of land perhaps 400 m² in size costs about 200k to a quarter million US$ - give or take a few ten thousand.
If you build a house here, its normally a once-in-a-lifetime thing to do, given the costs. You pay for it thirty years or more, usually until you retire from work or shortly before.
AFAIK, it is very different in the US. Any comments ?
Stefan
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I wonder: how much costs a decent house in the US ?
It fluctuates wildly based on where in the country you are, Stefan... Down here in central Texas, expect around $150,000-180,000 for a 3 bedroom, 2000 sq ft house. Just down the road a bit in Austin, Texas, tack on another $7000 or so, depending what side of the city you are building on. My brother lives up in Hood River, Oregon, and they just built a new house for about $170,000 - $200,000 or so (my memory for other people's finances is pretty crappy, please forgive me). The swing is just really crazy.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Housing prices in the US are very regional. Here in southern California, the median price of a single family detached home is somewhere in the neighborhood of 500k. The median price for my suburb (Encinitas) is 800k. Homes are typically 1,500-2,500 square feet (3-4 bedrooms, 2-3 baths).
Thanks for all the warm wishes and blessings, folks!
As for the kegerator, I'm already looking for one. we've got a great sotre here called Beers of the World. They've got probably one of the largest selections of beers, brewing materials, and paraphenalia in the country. It's like the WalMart of beer.
I live in upstate New York and we bought a 1500+ ft.2 home with three bedrooms on a 50' by 170' lot for approx. $110,000.
Any other suggestions for the new gaming space?
AFAIK, it is very different in the US. Any comments?
It's very regional. Here in Central Oregon, we're going through somewhat of a housing boom - a lot of previously undeveloped areas are being parceled out into subdivisions. Pretty much cracker jack box houses with a postage stamp-sized lawn (which is a terrible shame). 'Round these parts, it's the price of land that will put a pinch in your pocket. Example: Mid '80s, my dad had the opportunity (but not the cash) to buy two acres of land on the river for $50,000. That land is now going for $500,000 per HALF ACRE.
Real estate is big money, the further west you go, the pricier it gets. You eventually run out of room when you go west, though - mountains get in the way. :P Of course, why anyone would want to buy a house on that side of town is beyond me - in winter, the roads suck badly (think steep grade) and you get more snow than the east side of town. These are probably the same people that think since they have a 4x4, jacked-up wanna-be Hummer or a Land Rover, "we won't slide on ice." Fools.
AFAIK, it is very different in the US. Any comments?
As you've gathered from the comments, it is hugely different. In my time in Berlin, it seemed everyone lived in apartments unless they were well-off. Compare the other posts in this thread to my own experience in Mississippi (rural and Southern): A 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with 1/2 acre of land for the cool price of $45,000.
It really does depend on where you live. =)
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Yea, housing cost definitely depends on the industry and everything in the area. I live in a moderately "upscale" suburb of Philadelphia and a good 3 bedroom house is over $300k. I've also looked at housing in the Poconos (about 45 minute drive away from where I live) and a 4-6 bedroom house there was going for between $100k and $200k.
My dream, once my fiancee and I finish our educations and get some decently paying jobs, start to pay off our massive amount of educational loans, etc, is to find a nice plot of land and custom build (and yes, we plan to have a room someone in there set aside for DnD... I wonder if there's any special building design that we could put into the room to make it really cool for DnDing). Of course, I still haven't figured out if we can even afford the type of house we want and a piece of land (no idea how much those cost). At any rate, I hope the housing boom in my area starts to die down so real estate prices start to drop, because it's getting pretty ridiculous.
Yay for new homes!!!