My husband and I dreamed about being homeowners for years before we had the means to make it a reality. We both fell into better jobs and slowly saved as much money as possible to muster a down payment. On top of the cash in savings, we also had to improve our credit scores which took considerable time. I had a few defaulted credit cards from my 20s that needed to be cleared while my husband had medical debt of his own. When we each got our credit scores over 700 points, we started looking seriously at houses available in our area. Thankfully we settled on a location and signed the paperwork a mere two months before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Now people can’t find houses even if they’re willing to pay above the asking price. Of the people who thought that they could get an empty lot and build slowly, they’re now realizing how tough it is to do that with building supplies hitting a historic high. We were thankful that we could afford getting a gas line installation because some people can’t even afford a home to begin with. Instead, we’re adding improvements to our home and we can’t lose sight of how fortunate we are in that respect. We want a gas line installed here so we can get a gas power furnace and a gas powered hot water heater. We’re even considering a tankless hot water heater, but we’re not sure if we like the idea of not having hot water on demand when you need it. This is especially true if your power goes out for any extended period of time.