Yesterday, I closed on the home I've had my eyes on for several weeks. I have the keys to my house, loans in my name, and a title that says I own this particular piece of property. It felt very anti-climactic and the work still ahead won't be cheap or easy. But the transition from renter to owner is one I welcome. Apartment life necessarily means you've got a whole contract of restrictions on what you can and cannot do. Freedom from that is also something to enjoy.

However, the reality is I don't actually own the place and I won't have complete freedom of ownership. The loan agreements make it clear I've got three decades to truly get to the point where I can say, "This house and this land are mine." More annoying than that wait, though, is the simple fact that I'm going to be taxed to own the house and the land underneath it. The government has assumed the right to declare I owe it some percentage of the value of the property. I'll be taxed in order to provide wealth and services for others. If I refuse, the tax lien on the property will be used against me. Delinquent taxes will be imposed as well as interest. If I don't comply, various forms of other property in my possession will be subject to seizure and a tax warrant will be issued so the police can drop by and take what is necessary to fulfill my liability. Refusal to cooperate would result in being forcibly restrained and likely arrested.

The Travis County Appraisal District currently has the property under the guns of the taxes imposed by the Austin Independent School District (1.6230 per $100), the City of Austin (0.4430 per $100), Travis County (0.4872 per $100), and Austin Community College (0.0900 per $100). I expect to be held liable for the recently imposed Travis County Hospital District, which is currently at 0.779 per $100 of value. I am ever so grateful that the City and the County decided to lower their tax rates to accommodate for the new hospital tax. So very grateful. I'm told the Travis County Tax Office will collect the taxes from least 82 other taxing jurisdictions around the county, so other homeowners get to deal with a variety of different tax situations.

I don't look forward to this part of homeownership at all. It will continually generate friction in my life as I see the money I'm coerced to hand over squandered, wasted, misplaced, forgotten about, given away, and spent on people and services I would never spend a dime towards had the threat of physical force played zero part in my decisions. The potential "revenue" the various political institutions I'll be located in will increase and unless I want to be beaten up, sent to jail, or even shot, they'll get their money.

Isn't this a wonderful system? This civil society thing I heard so much about in school really just hits ya home with its virtue.

But the bitching I foresee on this blog can wait for now. Back to the house itself and the happier subjects of improvements and recommendations.

This picture of the front of the house highlights the wide and long porch. For the moment, we'll keep the pale green trim color. The double size parking slab is a welcome feature. Both the small and the large exterior light fixtures have ambient light-sensitive eyes and come on automatically at night. This picture of the rear shows off another highlight: the tree-studded backyard. Lots of potential there.

The house was built by American Youthworks and was built under the auspices of Austin's S.M.A.R.T. Growth plan and Green Building Program. It was only available to first-time homebuyers. I'm aware that there were several city incentives wrapped into the building project. But since I promised this would be the happy section, I'll skip the politics and move on.

It's located in the center of the Martin Luther King Blvd., Airport Blvd., Highway 183 triangle and therefore slightly to the east of traditional east Austin. The area at first glance looks run down and poor, but the real estate trends indicate the area has bottomed out and is now rebounding with higher property values and more interest in renovations. The crime rate isn't significantly worse compared to where I live and only moderately worse compared to where my roommate currently lives. Not much shopping in the area, though. Commerce is limited mostly to small independent restaurants, gas stations, pawn shops, etc. I was shocked at the sheer number of religious establishments littered everywhere.

The house was built over 2003 and 2004, so I will be the first occupant. One of my best friends will live with me and help with half the monthly payment. Cameron will likely paint his room a dark shade of blue. He's getting the master bedroom since he has the larger bed. I'll get the two rear rooms: one for my bedroom things and one as my study. Since I'm utterly sick of the institutional white of apartment complexes and most homes, they will be painted in a dark forest green and dark maroon. The walls in my bedroom will be green and the trim will be red. The reverse will be true for the study/guest bedroom. I'll leave the standard beige carpet alone until the funds accumulate to pay for tearing it out and replacing it with something else.

Eventually, I plan on knocking down part of the wall separating the two rooms to open up the area some. It won't be a simple hole, though. I'm looking for the right doors to install to provide some level of privacy in case someone wants to use the room to sleep over. The rooms' only cable and telephone outlets are in that wall, so I plan on moving them to the floor to get them out of the way and to avoid cutting extra holes in drywall elsewhere.

The living room, kitchen, and hallway connecting the bedrooms to them is all floored in vinyl tile, so rug shopping will be a big part of our future. All the windows in the house slide open to the side, so standard curtains might not work. We do want something and it won't be the blinds we've grown tired of seeing.

Setting aside the bedroom changes, our first major project will be the installation of a privacy fence along most of the property line, from the front face of the house around to the backyard, enclosing about 2/3 of the 50' x 150' plot we're on. I want it to be at least six feet tall. We're also toying with the idea of planting bamboo along the inside of the fence to add a dramatic touch to the property. Much still needs to be discussed and learned about that before we seriously consider it.

Cameron has been talking about putting a Koi pond in the backyard. Nothing extravagant, it would be narrow in the middle and kidney-shaped so we can lay a rock slab across it for a bridge. We think it should have a small fountain at one end and a bamboo shishi odoshi ("deer scarer" or "deer chaser") gently filling with water and tipping over to *tonk* from the other. We're not sure about the wheelchair ramp connecting to the rear door. It doesn't prevent us from putting in a decent deck, but it would get in the way. Personally, I'd like having a ramp to wheel things in the house through the kitchen.

Our incomes aren't gigantic, but we will be paying less per month than we pay now for our apartments. Hopefully, pooling our costs and splitting them will allow us to save up for these and other changes.

I've secured homeowner's insurance through Natalie Morgan at Liberty Mutual, who also provides my car insurance. My real estate agent, Joann Odenwelder, helped me from beginning to end. Though I am only the second closing on her list, she just got started this year and I trusted her in all aspects. She pointed me to Wanda Stevens (thanks for the bottle of champaign at closing!) at Mortgage Acceptance Corporation and I brought her on as the loan officer/broker. I already mentioned Joann's excellent referral regarding the home inspection I had done with Joey Biddle from Quality Home Inspections. I recommend each of these people to home shoppers in the Austin area.

If you need a Texas Hill Country real estate agent or an Austin real estate agent, give Joann a call. I can vouch for her honesty, reliability, and effectiveness. For more than one property I was interested in buying, she and I had trouble getting quick and accurate information regarding the houses. Both seller's agents and builders were often hard to get a hold of and nail down. Joann relentlessly kept pressure on them to remind them of their obligations and my time limits. If she hadn't been so persistent (both on them and on me to decide exactly what I wanted), I wouldn't have the house keys on my keychain. If she has a drawback, it is her inexperience with the minutiae of real estate transactions. But not once did that turn around to bite me in the ass because she always tracked down the correct answer.

I've heard differing accounts whether Clarence Darrow, James Otis, or Sir Edmond Coke coined the famous phrase, "a man's home is his castle." It is heavy with meaning. Hopefully, I will see the day when that statement and it's implications will come to pass.

Now, on to Home Depot.