A Roof of My Own
So something really big happened last weekend that I haven’t mentioned on this blog yet. Mostly I’ve held back about it because I guess its not really “trick pony” related. And while I like to keep this blog mainly devoted to the Trick Ponies of Chincoteague (and the occasional Dachshund post), I couldn’t not post about this because its a pretty big deal, in my life atleast. Anyway….I bought a house!
Really scary actually – I was on the verge of a mild heart attack throughout the whole process. At 25 years old, my husband and I have been saving our money for this day since we were about 16 years old. You probably don’t believe me when I say this, but its true. We met when we were 16 – at our very first jobs. We have both always been really really good savers (I guess something we can thank our parents for instilling in us at a young age). So since we were 16 years old, and started our very first jobs at a local art store we have been stashing away our hard earned cash. Now mind you we weren’t hermits, and he did go out and do things, we went to college (bought expensive books) and basically lived – but cash consciously. No big ticket purchases for us (well ok my husband bought his beloved big plasma tv and I bought a pony last year….but thats it I swear!). But our main goal in saving has been a house. Being design oriented people we both have dreamed of the day when we could own something that would allow us to paint the walls, decorate the way we see fit, and basically do whatever we wanted!
Now neither one of us has high-paying jobs (actually far from it) – but the fact that we socked away enough cash for a down payment really “payed” off. Not to mention our parents were great enough to have us get credit cards at a young age which allowed us to rack up a pretty high credit score. We were always sure to pay off our bills in full each month.
So now onto the house part. The process was rather nerve racking – looking at houses was the easy part. But when I first saw “our home” I wasn’t totally convinced it was the one I wanted. I liked it, but I didn’t feel that “oh my god I have to live here” feeling. You know the feeling you get when you see a horse you must have! 🙂 So I took a little convincing to get on board with the home. So we made an offer – which the sellers countered and then of course being first time home buyers we chickened out and walked away from the table. After saving our money for so many years it was hard to us to justify letting it go all of a sudden. But a few weeks later (and after seeing a few more dump houses) we finally came to terms with letting our money go. So back to the table to make another offer.
Late night pizza while we work
This time it was accepted and we were on our way into the process of scary home buying. Inspections and snags that come with buying a 40 year old house began to pop up. And with each little road bump we got more and more scared we wouldn’t be buying this home. We worried about affording the monthly payments, we worried about everything. Luckily we had a great realtor that kept us on track, and my dad who is infinitely filled with knowledge about everything never failed to calm our nerves.
Ammo settles into his new home
So last Friday, we signed a few papers, forked over a majority of our savings, and got keys to OUR HOME! Ahhh! I of course then I hopped in the car and headed to a competition with the ponies – I think I have my priorities straight!
So since I got back last Sunday my husband and I have been hard at work getting ready to “officially” move in this weekend. We’ve been staying at the house until the wee hours of the night painting walls and stripping carpeting. I’m so exhausted, but so happy to be doing this manual labor. And as we are nearly finished “re-doing” one room I feel this great satisfaction. Not only did we buy a house at 25 years old (rare in this economy and at our age) but we’re making it our own with our bare hands. My blistered and sore bare hands that is.
Painting
I’m looking forward to many happy years in this home with my wonderful husband and our Dachshund Ammo. Its just a shame there isn’t a little shed barn in the back yard for the Trick Ponies. (humm..project in the future?? haha)
So as a final thought I leave you with a little video about how Ammo decided to help us christen our new home. Don’t you just love a Dachshund!
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R.O.T.F.L!!!! I LOVE that little s**t-eating, ‘yea what’re you gonna do about it’ look on his face when you’re asking him if he was the culprit. I’m not a Dachshund person (knew one-too-many excruciatingly obnoxious individuals, with the exception of two lovely red long-hairs a person I boarded at the same barn with owned) but I have to say yours is a riot.
~Kit~