Dancing at My Desk

The Joys of Home Ownership (and No More House Hunting)

Just a little over two years ago, my husband and I bought our first home. We had been renting from a family member ever since we moved back to NE Ohio from New York and we were searching for a home that was a good compromise between what we really wanted and what we could live with.

Mind you, we aren’t really all that picky. We had some basic criteria in all the houses that we looked at:

• At least three bedrooms
• A nice size of property (at least an acre)
• A house that was in move-in condition

Other than that, we were pretty flexible. Seriously. And I honestly thought that I would really enjoy house hunting.

Not so much.

It seemed like every time we found a house through our diligent searching, it was either a great house on an odd piece of property or amazing property with a house that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It was horribly frustrating. There was the house that was running fans in the basement to try and hide the mildew smell from the horrible leaks. There was the house that had (literally) a high school football stadium in the backyard. There was one house I couldn’t even walk through because I had the creeps the whole time. I fondly think of that place as the Boo Radley house of NE Ohio.

The worst part was when we found a house that was great (on paper). I was unbelievably excited to see the house and I genuinely thought it was “the one” for us. When we went to see it, the house had been trashed by the previous owners (it was bank owned). I walked through the entire house (that reeked) and said I hadn’t seen a kitchen. When my husband kindly pointed out that I was standing it, I was stunned. They (or someone) had ripped out everything. Plumbing, cabinets, appliances – it was a bare room. That smelled rancid.

I was heartbroken and was really ready to throw it all in and resign myself to a life of renting. Then we came across the house that we ended up buying. It was perfect in so many ways. Yes, it needed some updates but I was looking forward to the work. I wanted to paint every room (9 total), redo some of the floor plan, put in new windows, and in essence, make the home our own.

It’s been two years and we’ve painted two rooms. That’s right; two. And we did get several new windows. Hey, we’ve been busy. But now I’m getting the urge to make this house our own. I’m starting to buy little things for the house and plan color schemes (more on that nonsense later). And all of this planning and dreaming has told me one very crucial piece of truth for my life.

I am not an interior designer.

So, this is going to be an adventure to say the least. But, at least I’m not house hunting.