Hello!

Hello everyone out there...I am starting this blog to document being a first time homebuyer! I decided to write this because so many people I know have bought houses this year or will be in the near future because the the First Time Home Buyer program. There will be a large group of us in America, and we are different than other homebuyers in some ways. We are young and many of us probably wouldn't be buying houses yet if it weren't for the program. We aren't necessarily buying houses to prepare for the imminent arrival of children. The opportunity is here, so we are taking advantage! It will be an adventure and I look forward to the future.

In the recent past, my sister Andrea and her husband Kirk, my cousin Kara, my cousin Greg and his fiance Lindsey, my sister and brother in law Jenny and Cory and my sister and brother in law Josh and Kelsey have made the big purchase (or in Josh and Kelsey's situation, the big build!). In addition to the relatives, many of our friends have also found thier first home (I guess I should say HOUSE! A home doesn't have to be a house. I've lived in enough apartments and dormitories to know that.)

Justin and I started tentatively shopping in July. I wish I had pictures of some of the sad places we saw! ( I don't mean that in a negative way. Every house has potential with the right owner! I mean that we didn't want to have to do extensive remodeling). We saw a former duplex that had two kitchens. I thought I could live with that, until I saw the place and discovered that the bigger, nicer kitchen was in the basement! Even the realtor has the opinion that the duplex was overpriced! We viewed several houses with the unmistakeable smell of dampness. We really aren't interested in dealing with a flooding basement every time it rains! One had a rotting deck, one had bedrooms that were smaller than the rooms in our apartment, and one was built on a concrete slab to compensate for the slope of the land. The slab had a concrete staircase leading down to the neigbor's yard...who owns the staircase? Fortunately, I will never know! When we found a perfect brick house about one month ago, we decided to make an offer the same day we saw it. The next day, it was ours! A week from today we close and will be tearing into it and getting it ready to accomodate all of the crap that is bursting out of this apartment. I can't even believe it because I feel like I am 20 (or maybe 21!) years old still instead of 26. Is it possible that I am doing something so "adult"?!

p.s. I'm not sure about the title or layout of this thing yet...I'm not sure John Mellencamp would appreciate me stealing his "Pink Houses" line...if I were him I would be flattered...