Housiversary

One year ago this morning we sat in a Panera in the Next Town Over with our real estate agent, eating our Asiago bagels, debriefing from a long weekend in which we saw quite a few dud houses and at least one other house we liked and trying to decide where to go from here. And then we made the decision and we started filling out the paperwork -- right there in the Panera -- and decided to take the plunge and make an offer, even if it was 10% below asking price. As we made the decision I remember my hands started to tremble I was so nervous -- in ways both good and bad -- and the whole drive back home to Metropolis that afternoon we debated back and forth whether we would be more relieved if they accepted the offer or if they turned it down and we had to/got to start from scratch. Within a week the owners had agreed to our terms and soon we moved from frantic-househunting-mode to frantic-packing-mode(both of which were better and less stressful than the earlier frantic-job-searching-mode, but not by a wide margin) and three months later we arrived in Smallville and the Revivalizing began.

This evening I sat out in our backyard grading papers, watching the garlic grow and enjoying the spring weather, and was amazed to think how much the house -- and life -- has changed in the last year. I was mostly thinking about the joys of home ownership and teaching at a small liberal arts college instead of focussing on the six figure debt we have now incurred (in addition to the long list of projects destined to plunge us deeper into debt) but I suppose you take the good along with the bad. Those are the Facts Of Life, after all.