Bear with my thought process for a moment ... I'm on vacation at my mum's house today. As I type this, my husband is being a dear and vacuuming the floor with her central vac, and I started thinking about carpet vs. hardwood. She has wood and her central vac works like a charm against dust, dog hair and toddler mess. We recently bought a new vacuum, too — a Bissell upright that works amazingly in our mostly-carpeted house, but might not be so great when we swap our super-awesome blue carpet for laminate or hardwood. Then I thought, maybe someday we'll upgrade to central vac.

So, then I thought, that's the thing about home ownership (wise words coming from the oh-so-experienced seven-month veteran) ... there's always something you need to buy. When people embark on the house-buying journey, I think they consider selling price and closing costs, and then heating and insurance expenses, and the like. But what about after you've moved in? Assuming you were living in an apartment beforehand, like we were, you probably don't have near enough stuff to properly furnish a house, for starters. Our spending began with a simple table with two chairs for our eat-in kitchen. It was from Kijiji and it was $50. No big deal. Since then, we've managed to get by pretty well with hand-me-down pieces. 

But then there were plenty of elective expenses, of course, for things that didn't really need flixing or replacing, like paint and supplies for painting, new door knobs, floor tiles and grout. And all of those changes have been beyond worth it, in my opinion, but still cost money. Associated with those projects are costs that are investments, though, like our power sander, for example, which will certainly be used again and again.

When there are things that you need to buy to undertake the tasks that were formerly taken care of by landlords — namely lawn maintenance and snow removal. We have acquired rakes and shovels, a snow blower, a lawn mower, a trimmer, hand-held pruners, a hose and a wheel barrow, to name a few things. And if you want to be ambitious, and work on curb appeal, you'll also, like us, spend money on mulch, soil, flowers and veggie plants.

Beyond all that, though, there are going to be general musts — the kinds of expenses that come out of the blue and need to be dealt with in a timely fashion. You may recall that we've already replaced a toilet. And I'm certain that won't be the last unexpected cost we face as we spend years in our home.

Despite our need to budget as a soon-to-be family of four, we are extremely fortunate to be in a position to occasionally purchase items for home improvement, but we certainly can't get everything we want. Did you factor these costs into your first home purchase? In your opinion, what are the best or worst investments for a new home?