Our house

This August we will have owned our home for four years. And I know how lucky we are and blessed we are to own a home, be able to continue to afford to own a home and all that jazz. But sometimes, I look at my house and I get frustrated when I think, we've been here for four years and we still have so much work to do.

When we made the choice to buy this house we knew we would have years of work ahead of us. Nate's great aunt was so elderly by the time she went into assisted living that there was much that had worn down and not been dealt with for quite some time. We knew that we would be moving into a "Fixer upper" and were able to get a better price on the house in exchange for that. And we were ok with that. It was so wonderful to start out in a house as opposed to an apartment so at the time, that was what mattered most.

We didn't anticipate a couple of shaky years worth of employment issues that would leave us just barely able to pay monthly living expenses for some time. So, when I look at it from this angle, it's amazing we were able to do things we have done so far: a new furnace/air conditioner, a new front and back door installed, new fridge, new dishwasher, painted master bedroom. Nothing to sneeze at for sure, but there's still more to go!

We're into a place where we're starting to feel comfortable with our expenses again. No, we are not rolling in the dough so to speak, but we're finally more or less recovered from those two years of uncertainty. And I'm more motivated than ever to finally get more things done that will make our house much more up to date and overall in better shape.

One such thing is painting our living room. I have been putting off this project for awhile now. We bought the paint during a sale two years ago and honestly, I have no excuses for it not being done yet. I just dislike painting. And I know I'm going to have to live with my living room being a bit messy for a little bit and that makes me cringe as well. But it has to get done. It's a cost-free project at this point that will bring me that much closer to the goal of the house being "fixed up" so to speak. So tonight, it begins. It's on like Donkey Kong. And I plan to finish this in considerably less time than last years six month long project in the bedroom!

There are so many other things I want to try and do in the near future that I feel like I have "Home project ADD." When we first moved in, Nate and I made a list of projects and sort of rated them in order of what we'd like to get done first and what was most urgent. I think we'll need to sit down and do that again and that should help considerably.

Still, as much as it may sound like I'm whining right now and as frustrated as I am at times, I love my house. I love our neighborhood, I love our yard, I love my quirky shag carpeted basement. And I wouldn't trade the memories and experiences we've had in our house so far for anything. They are the things that have made our house a home. Not just the updating and repairs done up to this point. And those are the things I try to focus on most when I get in these kind of moods! We are definitely blessed.

It is our house, our home. A place that we share together. That is what matters most.

"Our house, is a very, very, very fine house, with two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard, now everything is easy cause of you." -Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.