I'm a plot driven guy. I'm not a big fan of meandering narratives or mystery created by artificial flashback/flashforward devices. I like my books, movies, TV, etc to take me from point A to B in a relatively straight line.
So, we should probably begin by talking about how we got to this point. I've wanted to own a home since high school, mostly to assert my own creativity and not be bound by anyone else's opinions on how or where the what should happen. I love place and space and rooms and buildings and I wanted one of my own to care for. Its kind of like wanting a puppy that costs a $1000+ a month to own. Except with a house, there's a LOT more cleaning up of crap and it doesn't give off free heat.
So we started househunting this summer. What I didn't realize is that in marriage, everyone is bound by another's opinions. In the end, it turned out to be a great thing, but the process was grueling. We did a lot of looking, a little fighting, and a bit of moping. Its tough to find the "right" house in the market that you both like. No matter how much you abstractly discuss your pros/cons, the houses that you finally go look at create visceral reactions that can be at odds with everything you agreed to. We looked at a billion houses, we changed neighborhoods, we considered scrapping the whole thing and staying at my mother in laws house for the next 25 YRS.
Everybody told us that would happen, but you just don't understand until you go through it yourself. Everybody also told us that when you find it, you just KNOW. Now, I hate metaphysical mystical crap like that, but damned if we didn't walk into this place and just go, YUP. It was the perfect marriage of both of our pro/con lists. It was just right. It was a better house than I would have picked myself. It was a better house than my wife would have picked herself. We looked at three houses on this block. We were on the fence for all the others, but this was a nobrainer.Ah, teamwork. I hate the concept, but in practice it usually yields great results. (Well, that's when I'm working as a team with my wife. There's lots of other teams that are just dumb. Like political parties, baseball teams, or architectural collaborations.)
So we settled at the end of Sept. We moved in last weekend. I'll relay that story another time. For now, behold the existing house pictures...
