Home Sweet Home

Well... it's official: I AM A HOMEOWNER. Just typing those words makes me feel way too adult. Quick, someone tell a fart joke!

I have to say that the actual closing was so much easier than people had lead me to believe. I was expecting to be stuck in a hot room for two hours, comprehending about 5% of what was being said and signing my name on 200 different forms. In reality, the whole thing was over within 45 minutes, I understood about 65% of what was being said and I signed/initialed my name maybe 25 times.

Not bad at all.

And at the end, we got our keys, and that was that. BAM. Homeowners. Kind of surreal.

I'll spare you every tearful sentiment about how amazing it felt to be in my very own home, how content, happy and proud I was to be standing on my own property. Instead, take a look at me doing a roundoff off my deck. And pay no attention to the near-buttcrack slippage.

Did I mention it took us about 15 minutes to actually figure out how to get into the house? We had this big, built-up moment where Eric was going to take a photo of my hand turning the key for the very first time. Well, he got the camera set, I put the key in the lock... and nothing happened. I tried a few more times, then Eric "Nick Burnsed" me (please let me know if you got that reference without clicking the YouTube link) and took over. He couldn't get the door to unlocked, either! So we walked around to the side door.... no dice. Finally, after about five minutes spent working on the side door (also, there were expletives), it opened. Talk about a sitcom situation, am I right?

So, I'm sorry I don't have a symbolic photo of my hand, a key and our front door. We didn't even have a chance to take the ubiquitous "happy couple standing on the front porch" photo while we were there. Those will come. But for now, here's Eric enjoying our apple tree:

Seeing the home completely empty made it feel like it was ours for the first time... also, probably because it was ours for the first time.

But there were a few things that had to go. For instance, we've got these beautiful French doors off the living room, which were lined with clunky curtains when we arrived. I took them down immediately.

[Please don't pay attention to the fact that the camera's flash totally made my shirt see through. Hot. Real hot...]

But one thing that stayed in the house that did like (besides the dart board in the basement - cha ching!) was this awesome Bay View Historical Landmarks poster (also in the basement). 

While at the home inspection, we took a liking to the poster and enjoyed learning about all our new neighborhood's landmarks. We'd like to frame it, eventually.

We were able to fit a few boxes into our cars so we could start unpacking things. Obviously, the most important boxes made it to the house first.

[What? Like YOU don't have a box labeled "knives, cat stuff, magnets" somewhere at home...]

It was hard to leave the house last night - even though we only had a couple IKEA Expedits, some clothes, painting supplies and knives, cat stuff and magnets at the house, I wanted to sleep there!

The rest of the weekend will consist of nothing but painting our butts off (not literally... though I wish I could), and Sunday is the BIG move; everything leaves the apartment and gets moved into the house. We've bribed our brave helpers with dinner, high fives and smiles. My high fives are particularly awesome, so it will be worth it, I'm sure.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast looks less-than-stellar for moving. As long as my stuff doesn't get all soggy, I'll be fine. But I guess that just means I won't be able to step out for a breather in this, my most gorgeous backyard:

I've got big plans for that baby.

So, that's that folks. Thanks for coming along on the ride listening to me obsess over this place. Hold on to your hats, because this is only the beginning. Stay tuned to watch it all unfold into the cutest little house that ever was. Or watch me slowly lose my mind.

Either way, it'll be quite a ride.

P.S. Did you notice the subhead on my blog has changed? Did you notice there IS a subhead on my blog??