I have probably talked about it before in other posts just in passing, but this is something that has been on my mind more frequently. It was most obvious when I replace the roof on my house, which came with a 30 year warranty. The realization was, "I’m never going to do this again in my lifetime." And that started snowballing into analysis of what else was going to be the last time I ever did something. I just bought a high-quality couch and I don’t expect I’ll be spending that kind of money on a couch ever again.
A lot of it is purposely buying things that will outlive you. There are some things that I’ve purchased that I didn’t expect to last as long as they have, like my office desk and its matching accessories. They’re business-grade furniture pieces and they are holding up amazingly well after 15 years.
On another viewpoint of that, I was considering my house. I have a 3 bedroom house. There’s the master, the guest, and the third is my listening room with my stereo. In that consideration, I came to the conclusion that I don’t need a guest room. I’m never going to have a guest in my house. I literally have no friends that would visit. If they did, they’d stay at a hotel. That room is literally wasted space.
The fact it took so long for me to come to that conclusion is surprising to me, and in a way, it’s not. It’s kind of instilled in you that you need to have guest accommodations. For why? Just in case! You never know. But I really should know. My life is not that complex. I don’t have or want a lot of connections. It’s just an old-fashioned tradition that doesn’t need to be in this modern world of convenience.
So I decided. No more guest bedroom. It’s going to be another room for me, not a room for some mystery nobody that’s never going to show up. Like JG Wentworth paraphrased, it’s my space and I want it now! Getting a high utilization out of this house is key to maximizing value. Otherwise, why don’t I have a two bedroom house? Because then I wouldn’t have a listening room.
In my daydreams, I thought it would be great to have a big house with a bunch of different rooms and each room could serve one purpose. I never really looked at what I had and realized I had the space to create a room with a defined purpose – and that purpose not be "being empty".
So, it was a year or so ago when I hosted a guest who had COVID and had to isolate in the guest room. And oddly enough, at the time, I didn’t realize that would be the last time I would have a guest staying in the house.
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