Home for a year

How are we back so quickly from another trip around the sun?!  I feel the need to document these milestones before they fly by and I've moved on to ruminating over something else.  As of this month, we have lived in our house for an entire year. 

View of the dining / living room with our huge table

Honestly before buying the house, I had been quite apprehensive about home ownership for some time.  I wasn’t sure I was prepared for the responsibilities of owning (vs renting) and was slightly nervous about all of the extra room that we’d have.  I was also pre-dreading (is that something you can do?) doing yard work in the middle of the summer. 

But surprisingly to me, we’ve slipped into home ownership rather seamlessly.  We are all much happier with more room, with a yard, with a quiet neighborhood and kind neighbors on all sides.  We’ve been able to use the space for entertaining - a lot of entertaining.  Our kitchen is the heart of the home and because it is open to both living spaces and dining room, that’s where everyone naturally gravitates when they come over.  When we chose this house, we knew we were sacrificing a garage for a covered patio.  Even though I still really badly want a garage (and an in-ground swimming pool in the backyard), the patio is where we hang out when it isn’t summertime and 100 degrees in the shade.  We bought a new grill and patio furniture and so much of our time (and Bowie’s time) is spent hanging out underneath the fans out there.

Bowie's favourite napping spot

Obviously, there’s still a good amount of work associated with the house.  It means watering the flowers and ferns, so they don’t die from drying out a second time.  It means a lot of landscaping work.  It means changing out air filters when you remember to.  It means getting a pest inspector and cleaning carpets.  Because we live in a house built in the 1950s, it also means slowly adding to the list of home improvements.

Christmas in our kitchen

But we’ve also seen the magnolia tree bloom its large, fragrant ice cream scoop flowers.  We’ve put up and reluctantly taken down Fourth of July bunting, Halloween placards, and Christmas lights.  We’ve had both family and friends stay overnight, for a few days, for a few weeks.  Our house is good at hosting parties - pizza ones, dumpling-making ones, birthday ones, barbecue ones.  It’s also good at surprising people - like the TARDIS, bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.  The house has taken good care of us.  We survived those furious summer storms!  It's dog and kid proof!  We know that we're quite lucky to be able to call it our home.