Skip to main content

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.
 

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 5, 2012 at 6:50 AM

    Congrats, Katie!! It is such a great feeling to own your home. Scary too, and annoying at times, when the big expenses turn out to be your responsibility. But ultimately, in the almost-two years that I have owned, I have been completely satisfied! I hope you guys love it.

    -A

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner(s)!

Did you know that you can buy an entire chicken at the grocery story for less than $6? Well, you can. And if you are willing to put up with a little home butchering, it can make enough food to last you almost a week. I bought a chicken last weekend for our Sunday meal, and used the last of it just yesterday. This is a huge help when you are trying to mitigate the expensive cost of meat in your grocery budget. First, it needs a little work. I roasted the chicken for our weekend dinner, and I always butterfly it because it cooks faster that way. I'm not going to sugarcoat it--butterflying a chicken is kind of gross. Really gross, actually. But if you can overcome your squeamishness, it cooks great. There are a lot of great tutorials for doing this on YouTube, but here is how I did it.  Step 1: Remove the giblets (the heart, neck, and gizzard). This is disgusting because you must reach into a dead animal and pull out its organs. But once they are out, you can throw them away, ...
1 comment
Read more

Zumba Night!

Okay, so, I haven't updated my blog about my weight loss every Tuesday night like I planned. But I am proud to report that not only have I continued to go to the gym at least thrice a week, I even convinced N to join it with me! The exercise thing is going a lot better. Today I even looked at myself in the mirror while I was zumba-ing! I don't think that I will ever be the kind of person who loves, loves, loves going to the gym, it does feel kind of good, kind of virtuous to get all sweaty and be able to tweet, "I am at the gym doing zumba!" For those of you who don't know, Zumba is the new fitness craze. I guess if you were to totally simplify things you would call it a type of aerobic class, but it is really so non-aerobic-y. There is not a lot of pumping, or jumping. It is 100% dancing. A little bit of salsa, a little bit of hip-hop, and tonight, even a little bit of ballet. It gets the heart rate waaaay up, and I always end up drenched in sweat, and best of ...
5 comments
Read more

Books Burning

I came across this on one of my favorite twitters the other day. I meant to address it sooner, but there you are. Books are very near and dear to my heart. In fact, if I were to compile a top five list of the things most important to me, books would be in the top two, competing for top billing with a few key people. I cherish my novels and treasure my poetry. I covet nonfiction, and revere essays. My bookshelf is always full to bursting with what I feel is a well-rounded library of tomes that would interest even the most obstinate anti-bookworm. I have always maintained that everybody likes to read- those who say they don't have just not found the right book yet. This adoration and appreciation for literature being as ingrained in my being as the necessity to breath in and out, I am understandably outraged and that anyone- regardless of their convictions- would condone or participate in the banning or censorship of books. It is a concept as abhorrent to me as any evil ideal that m...
5 comments
Read more