The House

On August 31 it was our one year anniversary of the day we bought this house. Since we worked so hard and so long to be able to purchase a house, the one year anniversary was really fun for me. For us, purchasing a house was not just another big purchase, not something that happened very easily (to tell that story I would have to write a book, which I might someday, but not today) and so it has never been something that I have taken for granted.

I feel so thankful every single day. 

I don’t know how we got this house. I mean, I know how, but…It’s perfect for us. It was on the market for several months before we bought it, priced significantly higher when it was first posted. Maybe that had something to do with it not being sold? It also had an icky flooring situation in the basement, but we took care of that. I just can’t believe that nobody snatched it up before we did. Honestly, this is better than I thought our first house would be. 

This was the first house we looked at and we made an offer the next day. It was accepted within a few hours. We live in Robbinsdale, which is just outside of North Minneapolis, seriously about three miles from where we were living before. It is so much quieter and safer though. We still get to be next to North, and we are still in a very central location which was important to us. We also live one block off a parkway which connects to miles of trails all throughout the Minneapolis area. Just wonderful. 

I once heard someone say that you should never buy a house that you can’t live with just as it is…otherwise you will never, ever stop doing projects and putting money into it. I’m not sure if they meant structurally or cosmetically. Part of the fun for me of owning a house is getting to do some projects to improve it, but it’s all easy cosmetic stuff. I could live with this house, just as it is, for a really long time. However, if we stay here for a really long time we have some exciting ideas to improve the kitchen, potentially add one more bedroom, fix our two garage situation, and it would even make our yard bigger than it is. But we don’t need to do any of that to be happy here. We are just happy. 

A lot of people also talk about home buyer’s remorse, that time when you regret not waiting for something else, wanting something else, or wishing you didn’t have your particular house to deal with. I can honestly say that I have not had one day or moment of buyer’s remorse. Not one. And it’s not like we don’t have issues to deal with here. We have a bunch of doors and cupboards that don’t stay shut or just don’t shut well, we have plaster walls that get holes when we try to hang pictures, we have old plumbing that Steve has had to deal with several times and has us considering buying stock in Drain-o, a poorly designed bathroom/ventilation so that mold likes to grow there…blah, blah, blah. I don’t even care. 

I just feel so thankful every day. And I love living here. 

Our yard is almost twice the size of the average city lot, which was one of the reasons we loved it. We went from having basically no yard to a bigger than average yard. It’s awesome. Honestly, one of the only reasons we might move someday is because we would actually want to live in the country and have 5 or 6 acres, a few more animals, and some serious produce growing on our land. Right now we have other priorities that don’t include large plots of earth and growing things…we have found we aren’t super good at growing things anyway. The whole south side of our property has a built in garden that we tried out this year. Maybe when we get better at it…Anyway, we have a fabulous yard AND we have a built in playmate directly across the alley, which is something I am also thankful for on a daily basis. The girls not only have our yard to play in, they have Ava and her yard and unending hours of magical childhood playtime. I have realized that this is a rare blessing. How often do you buy a house and find a best friend for two of your kids? Not only do all three of them get along famously, I can also see them playing in her backyard from my backyard. How much better could that be? I don’t think it could be. 

Did I say how thankful I am yet? 

I am so thankful.