One Year

I can't believe it's been a year since we're moved into our house! It seems like yesterday that we took the plunge and put in an offer on our first home. We had been vigorously looking at houses for 2 months, and had seen so many that they were all staring to blur together. Mike wanted something new that wouldn't need much work, and I was open to a fixer-upper. With such different requirements we pretty much requested to see anything and everything in our price range. Looking back on it we could have saved ourselves a lot of time and effort by being more selective in which houses we wanted to visit. After 2 months, 50+ houses, and a lot of aggravation, Mike decided we should expand our search to a neighboring county. I was hesitant because I knew that looking outside of our target zone potentially meant higher property taxes and/or longer commutes for the both of us. Expanding our search to another county also meant ditching our realtor... the realtor who had spent many hours showing us all those houses that weren't quite up to par. Needless to say, she wasn't too thrilled.

On day 1 with our new realtor we had 7 or 8 houses lined up to see. There were a few houses that Mike and I were excited to see, but when we actually saw the first few in person we weren't all that impressed. There was the early 90's bi-level house. Immaculate landscaping... lovely exterior... and about 13 cats lurking within. I can't even imagine how we would have begun to get the smells out. There was the cute bungalo which must have been photographed with a wide angle lens, because all of the rooms were only slightly bigger than walk-in closets. Oh, and there was an entire zoo of dead stuffed creatures in the basement. Birds suspended from the ceiling, bears ready to eat you... It was enough to give me nightmares for weeks. Finally we pulled up to the last house of the day. It was built in 2001, and the price had just been lowered an astonishing amount. One look at the outside and I knew I was in love. The minute we stepped foot inside I turned to Mike and said "I'm sold". Walking through the house it was obvious that it had all the 'new house perks' we were looking for (i.e., central air, lots of storage and an open floor plan). During our walk-through I also noticed that everything in the house was pretty much "builder basic". It was obvious that whoever owned this house had done zero upgrades to it. I liked the fact that even though it was newer, we could still add our own personal touches. We left completely enamored with this house, and told our realtor we wanted to sleep on it. We didn't want to seem too eager, although by the time we arrived home our minds were pretty much made up.

The very next day Mike caught me off guard and proposed.

24 short hours after that we put in an offer on the house... which was accepted! The next month and a half would be a whirl wind of lawyers, mortgages, inspections, and finally packing up our things and moving them into our first house. The house we would work on making our home.

It's been a year since we got here, and we are fully enjoying being homeowners. We have been making little updates here and there, and with all the other things we have going on right now I am ok with what we have done. Hopefully after the wedding is over we will be able to focus more of our energy on our home. I hope to document the changes we make along the way via blog, so I hope you find me interesting enough to stop by often and let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping in :)
Kristen