Amy Palanjian and Josh Doležal
1940s Tudor, approximately 1,600 square feet
Windsor Heights, Iowa

When I moved to Iowa in 2009, my father casually told me that I should buy a house. Jaded New Yorker that I was at the time, I scoffed. I was used to sky-high city prices and didn’t realize that someone my age, even with a steady job, could actually buy a house…until I started making friends with homeowners who were significantly younger than I.

Fast forward nine months and my boyfriend and I were house hunting. We knew that we wanted to live together and that we’d be getting married (we are!), and we were eager to take advantage of the federal tax credit that was then available for first-time homebuyers. But soon, the reality of the market quashed our enthusiasm. After seeing countless houses and losing two—we had an offer accepted on one house only to learn that the seller had gone into the hospital and would no longer sell, and then we were outbid on a second house when a competing buyer offered a crazy amount of cash down—we were frustrated and disheartened. Everyone was telling us that it was a buyer’s market, but in the Des Moines area, it most certainly was not. So when our real estate agent emailed photos of a house that had everything we were looking for, plus a renovated up-stairs (which, in the 1.5-story house style that is common here, was incredibly rare), a screened porch, and an extra half lot of yard, I jumped.

I saw the house that day and decided that it was lovely—but perhaps too lovely for us. (In retrospect, I believe I reacted that way because I didn’t realize we could afford something so nice.) I quickly got over myself, and Josh came to see it the following day. We made an offer that night and moved in about a month later. We quickly set about toning down the brightly painted walls, building raised beds for our vegetables, and making a list of projects—including installing new flooring upstairs. Even though the responsibility of caring for a house often feels enormous, I have to admit (cliché alert) that there’s nothing quite like the feeling of building a life in your very own home.

See page 2 for tips on buying eco-friendly wood flooring.