Originally posted at twentysixcats.com
I can’t believe it’s November already! October flew by… We’ve been in the house for a month now, though it seems longer. My in-laws are coming on Thursday to visit their granddaughter, so I have been trying to get ready for them. As I’m unpacking and putting things away, I’m trying to somewhat child-proof my living room so I can invite one of my friends and her 10 month old over!
I can’t believe how much stuff we have. How did we fit it all into a 900 square foot apartment?? I spent some time putting books in the bookcase today, which has helped get rid of some of the boxes in the den.
We have a living room and a den, but the den is acting as more of a basement right now. The carpet was pretty nasty so we ripped it up and got rid of it. There’s tile underneath, and it needs a good heavy-duty cleaning before we get new carpet installed. We also need to price out new carpet for that room and see how it fits into our budget. I’d love to get it in soon, but I’m afraid that I will have to wait a while before we can afford it. In the meantime, we can paint the dark wall paneling to lighten the room. But all that has to wait until we finish unpacking the boxes that are down there.
In the future I would love to see the den as our TV and computer room (leaving the upstairs living room as a visiting room). However, the plugs down there aren’t grounded yet. That’s another expense; getting an electrician to come and work on the wiring. Houses are expensive! :-)
Other things are getting done though! The exterminators came today and sprayed our crawlspace for the powder post beetles that were found during the inspection. I am so glad to have that taken care of – it was paid for when we closed on the house, but for various reasons we weren’t able to have them come until now. We have to wait a few weeks before we can put the insulation back up. In the meantime, it is SO cold downstairs!
Sometimes I get tired of all the things that need to be done. I mean, the house is definitely liveable, but there are little things that would be so nice to fix. For example, it would be so nice to have grounding on all the plugs instead of just the plugs in the living/dining room. I have to remember why we bought this house when I write the mortgage check – we’re paying $150 less a month than we did renting. When we go to sell in the future, we’ll hopefully see all our hard work pay off and make a profit. But in the meantime, it’s hard!
At the same time I’m excited to have a place of our own. I think all the little annoyances (like, not having an outlet at all in the bathroom!) keep me humble – reminding me that I’m still only 26; I have a lot of life left to live and I don’t need to have “arrived” yet.