The Smell of a First Home

I was touring homes with an investor client yesterday and I kept having flashbacks to when I was searching for my first home 14 years ago. 

I sometimes remind my clients that here will never be a second chance to buy that first home!  It is a special experience.  Many of the first time homebuyers that I work with lately are looking for Pottery Barn Perfect. (or maybe Pinterest?)  They turn their noses up at white appliances and any counter other than granite.  They are hoping for a master bathroom with a double vanity.  The basement must be finished and the backyard must be fenced. The concept of a “starter home” has dramatically changed.

  With my investor we are looking at “houses” or “properties” more than what I consider a home. We are judging, estimating, measuring, planning what can be ripped out or torn out or replaced or painted.  We are evaluating a product and financial return.

It was the smell of oil heat that brought back the memories.  A smell that many of my clients don’t recognize – it offends or irritates or confuses a nose that has never smelled it before.  But that smell reminds me of what it was like to walk through old houses in Washington, DC as a newlywed ready to buy a home and start a family. 

We weren’t looking for stainless or granite – but rather a decent dining room space to host friends and families – and a closet sized room that we could turn into a nursery.  When we toured what was to be our first home –built in 1941-  it had a very strong smell of heating oil, a green tile bathroom, a wall oven that had to be 30 years old, and a coal-fired boiler that had been converted to oil.  It still had the door on it from when coal was shoveled into it!  It was not big or fancy or at all updated – but we fell in love.  We improved the home over the 10 years we lived in it – room by room.  We brought our babies home to this little rowhouse with a “Welcome Baby” banner attached to the wrought iron front porch railing.  We rocked our babies on the front porch and explored the neighborhood by stroller.  Our tiny back yard was fun for gardening and sand and water play and the wee ones did not seem to lament not having a large open green space for kicking or throwing a ball.

After 10 years we made the decision to sell and move - in search of a better fit for our growing childrens’ school needs.  But we have happy memories of our first home and never regret taking the chance on a less than perfect dwelling.