In the year 2020, after my National Youth Service (National Youth Service is a one-year mandatory post-tertiary scheme for Nigerian graduates set up by the Nigerian government during the military regime of the former head of state in the person of Yakubu Gowon to reconstruct, rebuild, and reconcile the country after the Nigerian civil war). I decided to get myself an apartment of my own. I'm now a full-grown woman who shouldn't be staying under her father's roof (so I told myself, lol).
I was among the first set of corpers that were given #33,000. The first person in the corper's lodge who got the credit alert of #33,000 in the middle of the night, screamed with so much joy. We all had to rush to her room. She gave us the good news and we were all expecting our credit alert.
The federal and state governments paid us monthly throughout the 12 months of service. I was a big girl back then, and I was able to save up money. The plan was to get a room and a parlour, self-contained. The house search began. I was so excited about it all.
My friend and I went from one house agent to the other. The houses they kept showing us weren't to my taste. After searching for several weeks, we saw two different apartments that were "okay".
One of them has a very large sitting room. The size of the sitting room was thrice as large as the bedroom. The rent was cheap, the reason being that it has a lot of repairs that still need to be done, such as the wiring, painting of the walls, repair of the door knobs, and ceiling fan.
The other apartment is in an old building. Everything (wiring, piping, lighting, door knobs) is intact, even though the sitting room and bedroom are not as big as the other ones. The bathroom even has a bathtub, I was so happy about that 😊. The walls were painted, even though not to my taste, but it's manageable.
After considering the two apartments and doing estimates of the cost of the repairs of the other apartment and how much it will cost to fully furnish it to my taste, I decided to go for the old building with everything intact even though the rent was more expensive than the other one that needs a lot of repairs.
I packed my things inside the apartment after paying for the rent and cleaning up everywhere. I was a proud owner of a neat and beautiful room and parlour, self-contained. "I am now a very big girl", I said to myself.
In response to the LOH's contest question
You've earned the money to buy a house and you have two options. The first is a big, beautiful house, but one whose best years are behind it. It needs a lot of repairs and remodelling therefore the price is low. The second option is a small house. It's not as beautiful as the previous one, but you don't have to invest time or money in repairs, so its price is much higher than the previous one. What do you choose? Are you on the "repair to my liking" team or the buy everything "ready and fast" team?
I'm definitely on the ready and fast team. I'll gladly go for the second option because it is pocket-friendly. If I want to do the repairs and remodeling of the house, the price of doing that in addition to the price of the house will be more than the price of the small house that's not as beautiful as the previous one. If you know me well, you'll know I love saving money.