As someone who has owned a place for almost 15 years now, I can say that yes, it's worth every busted pipe, broken faucet, leaky water heater, non-functional furnace, dryer fire (!), CO alarm sounding at 4am, windstorm ripping off shingles, insurance hike, crappy neighbors moving in next door, and so on!
I'm planning my mortgage burning party (spring 2007!) which erases any doubts about buying a house... and the cigar list for it is growing and growing... :thumbs:
Congrats, and enjoy all the sweat equity!