Getting Closer Every Day

So Brandi and I bought a house.

Well, check that. We're in the process of buying a house. Our closing is one week from today, and at that point I'll be able to say we bought a house. I've been loath to write about it because I keep expecting the whole deal to fall through and come crashing down around us with each successive step in the process. Now, though, with just a week to go, I'm almost certain that closing is the last hurdle, and it seems like everything is still in order.

We close next Wednesday. From closing, the couple selling us the house has fifteen days to clear out and hand over the keys. During that time we'll have to set up the utilities to switch over into our names on whatever day we're to take over occupancy. If they take the full fifteen days, we'll gain access to our very own house on June 11. Conveniently, that'll be my first of two days in Toledo for the month. When I get back, that weekend will likely be given over to whatever painting we decide we want to do. The following week we'll need to have the carpets cleaned and complete any other minor projects we come across. Then comes the actual moving, which Brandi and I should be pros at by now. Our current lease expires at the end of June, so we don't have to do everything at once if we don't want to. Fortunately, we only have a handful of items that can't fit into one of our cars or the other - our couch and bed and my desk are the only things coming to mind offhand.

And with that, our path to home ownership and occupation seems clear. It seems strange, and I still have the same mixed feelings I have about the whole situation that I've had about buying a house for years. But, by the same token, I also have mixed feelings about continuing to rent. There are pros and cons to everything, and I think I've convinced myself that the rewards outweigh the risks in this case. If nothing else, I've lived in dorms and apartments for fourteen years now, since my first sojourn to Wright State University's Hamilton Hall as a newly minted 18-year-old college freshman in the late summer of 1995, and I'm ready to finally have some distance between myself and my neighbors rather than sharing walls and yards. More than anything else, I'm looking forward to dealing with no one's noise but mine and my wife's.