A Decade In

Summer of 2015, shortly before me

Summer of 2025, after 10 years of me

I have been wondering why I let such a momentous 10th anniversary slip by. It was on August 20, and it was the 10th anniversary of closing on my house here in Brentwood. I made a bigger deal out of my first anniversary and my fifth. But for the tenth I've been waxing less sentimental.

I don't think that reflects any cooling towards this fine contemporary Mediterranean right in the heart of Brentwood, CA in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta area, still part of the Bay Area but just barely. If anything I'm just as amorous as ever.

But it's a settled marriage now. The house and I are in full symbiosis. There is nothing about it that's in pressing need of an upgrade or repair. Oh, there are things I'd like to do, but last summer marked the first 'vanity' upgrade when I had the front door replaced with a super-fancy fiberglass jobber, together with rebuilding and re-tiling the front porch. That wound up being a lot more expensive than planned since the door replacement revealed some dry rot, but I took all that in stride. I'm an experienced homeowner now. One learns to expect curves.

We're just so settled, this house and I. There are no worries. I take comfort in the knowledge that should need arise I could pay off the remaining balance on the mortgage. The only reason I'm not doing that is that the money earns a lot more invested in Vanguard than I'm paying out in interest on the mortgage – and then there's always the tax break to consider as well. It's the monthly payment that matters – principal, interest, property tax, insurance – and that is a done deal. At this point in my life there is no practical misfortune that could render me incapable of paying that monthly obligation. Unless I decide to sell, I'm here for life. It's a wonderfully comforting thought.

Which means that the comfort extends into the intangible along with the very much everyday and tangible comforts. And boy, is this ever a comfortable house. I made it that way. It's full of places for me to nap in and contains no end of goodies for my edification and entertainment. It's a one-man house, filled up but not cluttered. It's clean as a whistle (naturally) and well-furnished. It exudes warmth and welcome. People like it. So do I.

Still, 10 years is definitely a watershed. In that decade the house has doubled in value. I've put about $200K into it, so my on-paper profits would be smaller than one might expect. But I don't think much about that since the house's value to me is in how I live in it, and not how it might sell someday. As far as I am concerned, it will sell when I'm no longer living in it, and in all likelihood, that will be because I am no longer living. Until then, we will glide along, my house and I.