There's No Place Like Home

It feels like I've been away for forever.

But I have a good reason.



Over the weekend, Hubster and I flew to Iowa. And bought a house!!



Our very first house. It's really ours! (Well, pending something disasterous on the inspection and worse case scenario with financing. But parring those two nightmares...it's ours!!)



(Oh, and prepare yourself for a lot of exclamation points. I'm extremely excited about this whole thing.)



I have lived in an apartment every since I first moved out of my parents' house the summer after I graduated high school. It's been pretty much the same for Hubster (just five years longer.)



We've raised our two boys in apartments.



While it has been convenient in terms of needing to move for various reasons, and more affordable, it obviously has had it's drawbacks.



My boys have never had a yard. They can't go outside unless I'm with them. We have to be "considerate" of those who share walls and floors and ceilings (which means no Tonka trucks in the kitchen.)



The worst part about it has just been the whole temporary feeling. Each place we've lived, we think, "Oh, we're just here for a little while." We don't feel settled.



But all of that is going to change. We have a house!



Granted, it's not a beautiful house. It needs a little "love." But everything it needs are just surface treatments: paint, new carpet, new light fixtures. Things I probably would have done anyways, regardless of the home.

Living Room

(Needs paint, but the floors are nice)

Kitchen

(Needs new floor, but the cabinets are new)

But what the house has are things you wouldn't be able to fix. Location! (Isn't that the rule of real estate?) We are next door to what is most likely the best elementary school in town. We are in a gorgeous neighborhood (I can't believe we could afford a home in that neighborhood!) We are only two miles from the university and parks. It is just wonderful!!



Oh, and it has a yard.