There's No Place Like Home

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone. I hope you are all celebrating the arrival of fall in a laid-back, indulgent style. As much as I love summer, I do like the crisp fall weather, the smell of the air, the arrival of Halloween and my birthday, and best of all, the fall FOOD. I think fall seasonal flavors are my favorite of the year. Delicious apple ciders and pies, warm hearty soups, rich delicious squashes. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. But I digress.

I write this to you from my home. And when I say "my home," I mean the place where I live. But in the near future, when I say "my home," I will be sitting in the same place and mean something entirely different.

Kris and I are planning to buy the house we live in.

A short while ago our landlady approached us and informed us that she was planning to move out of state and sell the house. And asked if we would like to buy the house. Since we were blindsided, we said we'd think about it. Immediately my reaction was terror and I rejected the idea outright. "Own a home? Become a landlord? I'm still young! I'm not married! I'm not ready for any of this!" which most of you will recognize as the patented Karen Reaction To Anything That Might Be Good For Her (i.e. It Will Be Hard And I Might Fail, Run Away!). Kris's reasons for rejecting the proposal began and ended with the idea that the house does not have central AC, but once I pointed out that as homeowners, we could install central AC, he quickly changed his mind. And after getting over my initial shock, I did too.

A little while later, we met with our landlady again, got a full tour of her part of the property and an idea of her plans. She plans to move in mid-March. This kicked us into high gear. I finagled a raise at work and went back to Barnes & Noble to get my old cafe job back. Kris will be funneling the money he had been saving for recording into the Down Payment Fund.  Pretty much everything we do will be house-related for the next six months.

We have no idea what we're doing. We're excited and scared and anxious and everything. We will accept help in any form it comes. We need advice and guidance from those of you out there who've gone before. We need understanding that we won't be able to do much if it costs money and we won't be available because we'll be busy working. We need hands to help us improve this half of the house so we can rent it, to help move our stuff to the downstairs, and to help improve the downstairs apartment to make it somewhere we will like living (if you've seen the decor of our foyer, you have an idea of what we're working with). When it's all over, we'll throw a big party at the house to celebrate our achievement and thank you all for all your help and good friendship.

So there you have it. Kris and I are becoming homeowners. I am freaking out. And I am freaking excited.