1 year

It's been one year (well, it will be by 6:30 this evening) that Jakob and I signed a stackload of papers to become homeowners. It was kind of nerve wracking for the first bit with actually having to take care of something to large where so many things could go wrong. Luckily I have some amazing parents who live a few minutes away and came over (and continue to come over) on many occasions to either quell my nerves about something or help me fix something that I had no idea how to fix.

We haven't done much in the way of remodeling this year (thanks in part to my losing my teaching position) but we did tear up the back yard. It was a pile of weeds anyway, so we decided to destroy it even more, and in the process found out that our sprinkler system wasn't hooked up to anything, so next spring we've got our work cut out for us. We're just now getting to the point of putting up pictures, swords, shields, decorations on the walls.

Thankfully our neighbors next door moved out and that house now sits vacant. The first set of neighbors was a blind woman, her husband, their adult kids (with a baby that cried forever!) and about 6 cars, which they would proceed to park wherever they chose. They finally moved out and I thought the house was being sold, but I was wrong--it was rented by that family and it was being rented again by another family . . . or should I say families. There were a total of 5 families living in that house with the next group that moved in. They had more cars and more kids than the first and those kids didn't care which yard they played in or who they disturbed. They have all moved out and now the house is vacant.

I have managed in this past year, to annoy our other neighbor with asking them to keep their kids out of my yard, away from our cars, and for them to clean up after their dog when he decides to use our lawn as his toilet. Needless to say, those kids and parents don't chat with me anymore. But on the other hand, I have met with another set of neighbors that live up the road and he is really a good guy. He's a hunter and has helped me a few times (especially when the snow would start coming down, he would come out and help shovel it and chat with me while doing it).

But we've had some ups and downs, and now with property tax coming up (I didn't know they did that separately and wanted it all in one month!) we're understanding some of the joys and illusions of having a house.

But we wouldn't trade it one bit.