Happy New Year or, My New House

In November 2011 something significant happened in mine and my beloved's life. The lease on our rental house ended and we were faced with the choice of whether to renew for another year (a huge commitment in the world of rentals) or to move out. The prospect of apartment/rental house hunting was less than palatable. Staying another year in the interminably cold house were currently inhabiting was downright frightening. So we reached a conclusion: we must purchase a house of our very own.

I immediately panicked. Now, I had no trouble agreeing to get married. No qualms about expanding our little menagerie to include a cat. No issues with buying a car. But the idea of committing to thirty years in a mortgage and to literally tens of thousands of dollars in debt left me cold. Never mind that people do it every day. Never mind that we wouldn't be paying any more per month than we were currently paying in rent and would essentially be paying rent to ourselves, I was dry of throat and shaky of hand. I love buying shoes and groceries and books, and this seemed like an awfully huge commitment to a building.

Eventually (obviously) Norris talked me down off the ledge, and I consented to viewing a house that he had found online. This, as fate would have it, turned out to be the house pictured above. That's right: we broke the cardinal rule of home buying and signed up for the first house we looked at. All it took was one walk-through and we knew it was right for us. 

And the timing was right. Around Thanksgiving we received the text from the realtor that the owners had accepted our offer. Around Christmas we were signing the deed and moving in. 

And now, around New Year's I am unpacking and making a "honey do" list for Norris of things to do around the house. Our house. And I have to tell you, it feels pretty damn good.