Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Hosting Our First Guest in the House
After more than a year in our new home, we finally hosted our first guest last month. While the ability to have overnight guests was a partial factor in why we elected to upgrade to owning a home versus renting a one-bedroom apartment, the amount of time that it took to actually have someone over is more a testament to just how few people we know. In any case, while some of our plans for guest accommodations worked out, we also learned a few things in the process. So, as we mark this milestone, here’s how our first guest-hosting experience went.
Our guest set-up
When we bought our house, it was listed as a three-bedroom. This includes two bedrooms upstairs, but also counts the finished basement. So, when we were deciding how we wanted to set up our home, we elected to make one upstairs bedroom our main bedroom while using the other as an office. That left the basement as the designated guest space. This arrangement made sense to us since the basement also includes a full bathroom.
Our initial plan was to put the sleeper sofa in the basement so that it could be used as a family room during the day and a guest bed at night. Unfortunately, as I’ve bemoaned before, the sofa proved to be too tall to fit down the stairs. This meant that, before we could actually welcome a guest, we needed to do some shopping.
What we needed to buy
If money were no object, we would have found a futon or other bedding solution before having a guest spend the night. Of course, homeownership means all sorts of other expenses, so this purchase fell down our list of priorities. But, when we got confirmation that we would indeed be having an overnight guest, we realized we had to do something.
Although we already had an air mattress, it was pretty old and the pump didn’t work very well. So, we headed to Menards (our first-time ever, in fact) and found what I think is a pretty good deal. Not only was the queen sized air mattress we found a thicker than our current one but it also included a built-in pump. Best of all, it was on sale for just $30!
The other purchase we knew we’d need to make was a space heater. With the basement running colder than the upper levels of the house and our guest coming in February, this was going to be a necessity (if we didn’t want our guest to freeze, that is). We ended up snagging an oscillating tower heater model at Sam’s Club that was on sale for $55.
In addition to those purchases, we had previously bought a few things to make up the guest space. These included picking up a towel set for the basement bathroom and a set of sheets for the (inflated) bed. Aside from that, though, we thankfully didn’t have to spend a ton of money to get the space in decent enough order.
Test and adjust
As I mentioned above, we knew that it would be cold in the basement — hence the space heater purchase. But, we couldn’t have predicted that our guest would be visiting during the largest snowstorm we’ve experienced since moving to Springfield 10 years ago. What’s more, unlike past snows we’ve seen where the subsequent days bring 50 degree+ temperatures that melt any flakes, it remained under 20 degrees for much of the week! This meant that, while our heater was doing its job, we needed to find some other ways to keep our guest warm.
Luckily, it turns out that adding our duvet to the bedding did the trick in terms of keeping them toasty at night. As for what we did during the day, that was easy: we invited them upstairs. Honestly, this probably would have happened regardless, but it was obviously more important during that frigid week.
Speaking of bedding, it turns out that an air mattress isn’t the best option in cold temperatures. So, to reduce the cold feel of the mattress itself, we put a warmer blanket on top of the fitted sheet. It’s all about layering!
In the future, we would still like to get “real” furniture for the basement so we won’t have to rely on an air mattress. However, given the limitations of our budget at the time, I think it was the right call. Plus, as a backup, we do have a chair that can fold into a cot. Perhaps that will get a trial run in the future — but for now, it works nicely as a sitting chair as well.
Despite the setbacks of not having the items we hoped for and enduring the coldest week of the winter, I think our first house-guest hosting experience went pretty well. Personally, I appreciated that they were able to have their own space (complete with a full bathroom) and I thought this set-up worked well for everybody involved. So, when will we be having our next overnight guest? Your guess is as good as mine — but we’ll be ready for when that happens.
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