Home

We bought our house pretty fast.  We'd only been looking for three or four months and had only been in a dozen or so houses.  But, when we walked into our home it just felt like the right one.

And then we both went through a short period of was-this-really-the-right-decision mode.  Not buyers regret, but perhaps buyer's apprehension is a more apt term.  In retrospect I think this would have happened regardless of the home we bought simply because we're first time home buyers and its a pretty weighty decision to have made.  And things in a home go wrong--like when the dishwasher started leaking through the the ceiling in the basement one month in.  It was just the stress or responsibility of home-ownership we were feeling, I think.

And now that we've been here for more than a year and are really starting to make it our own we are just so pleased with the home that we have chosen.  Things are coming together.  Its a perfect Matt and Beth house, really.  Well, I don't think any house is every really perfect, but you know what I mean. 

The houseplants have never looked better for all the bright sunshine that streams into the living room.  I find myself gazing out the open windows enjoying the freshness of the breeze and watching the antics of the birds and rabbits in the yard often.   Doing the dishes is almost (but not quite) pleasant with the view of the yard and bird feeders out front.  I frequently make a little morning time before work to sew a few stitches on one project or other in my craft room while Matt cooks breakfast.  My yoga practice is accompanied by birdsong that drifts in from the pine trees and I slip off to sleep with the tinkling of the wind chimes from the patio.  The windows permit a delightful cross breeze both north and south as well as east to west.

The veg garden is lush and productive and fills our plates with the freshest, best-tasting produce I've ever had.  Having ditch rights is an amazing blessing making our gardening efforts all the much more cost-effective.  Peonies, roses, tulips, grape hyacinth, pansy, clematis and more bloom to brighten the yard.  The bees are busy moving around in all those flowers doing their pollinator thing.  We'd like to add more flowers to the place as we continue on here.  The trees to the west shade the house from the setting sun which cools the place off nicely in the evening time.  We enjoy a little break now and then swinging in the hammocks under the shade of our pines.

The basement is Matt's ever-enticing oasis on a hot summer day with a coolness that is notably more refreshing with each step as you descend the stairs.  Its also a great place for storing our squash, onions, and assorted home-canned goods with its consistent, cool temperature.  Matt has a workspace in the basement as I have my sewing room upstairs which is perfect because in typical artist style he tends to leave the place a disaster when he is struck by the creative mood.  But it doesn't matter because he is no longer making the mess in the middle of the kitchen!  He has his own room!  Hooray.

I'm so glad we just went with our gut and bought the place straight away.  And so happy to have a home of our own to do with what we see fit.  Like rip up sod and plant peas.  Or tear down dreadful wallpaper.  Or keep laying hens (this one hasn't happened just yet). Or install new electrical outlets just where they are needed.  Or...

To some it may not look like much, but to us....  We are so happy to be home.