Happy Birthday House!

When we first saw our house we weren't serious buyers. Just casual, always keeping our eyes open, kind of lookers. We casually looked through this house. Surprisingly, instead of finding all sorts of things that we didn't like or wouldn't work for us we found many, many things that we did and would. But the price. That gave us pause. Especially for so casual of lookers. So we decided no, we wouldn't be jumping ship on our old house quite yet. But then... Then the thought of that house kept invading our thoughts. We started talking more seriously, rather than casually, about what if's and should we's. And I realized that I better drive back over and take a look at that house again. What about the town? What about the neighborhood? I hadn't paid much attention when we had originally made the drive out there. I went for a drive the next day looking carefully and critically at it all here, there and everywhere. Where would we get groceries and gas? Where were the schools and parks? Were there kids out playing in the neighborhood? And then I stopped the car in front of the house and rolled down the window to get a clear view. And I sat. And sat. Looked and looked. Finally I took a picture and headed back home. I downloaded that picture to the computer and left it open on my desktop for days. Looking at it every time I passed by. Pretty soon I could imagine our family there in that house. I could see where the kids would practice piano, who would be in which bedroom, which pictures would hang on what walls. I could see us sitting together for dinner in the kitchen, watching TV in the basement, hanging out on the back deck. And all of the sudden, that was OUR house. Not just some random spec home being built in a random neighborhood 15 miles up the road. So we made an offer on that house. Two years ago today we moved in.