[quote=Navydoc]This is my first holiday season in a home I own in 16 years and I can say it is absolutely better. I decorated the house without concern for nail holes, I recently finished a home gym in the basement (dywall, electicity, rubber floor and all) and am currently framing out the stage for the home theater. Wet bar is next.
Do you think I could do all this in rented housing? I’m having the time of my life doing it too.[/quote]
We’re having the same experience in our new house… but I had a funny realization the other day: We rented our old house for almost eight years; the only “renovations” we did were yard improvements, a little painting, and some built-in furniture; we’ve done that much in a month in our new house…
But frankly, we could have knocked out an annoying wall, added insulation, refloored the kitchen, changed out the underpowered toilet, cut down a tree, etc, and the landlord would have been fine with it. It just never occurred to us to make an investment in our rental… partly because we weren’t sure how long we’d stay, and partly because we’d never had a long term rental before.
As for the other question, the old guys who prefer their mistresses should have chosen a better wife.