Rites of Passage

They say that it can take awhile for a new house to feel like home, but we've had a number of firsts over the first month of living here that have helped to accelerate the process. Let's just say that we've been here for five weeks and buyer's remorse hasn't set in yet.

First Houseguests: Back in the middle of August, Meaghan's cousins from California Leo and Rebekah came to visit. Rebekah, 20, is a junior in college. Leo, 14, is going into 9th/10th grade on a 3-year high school program. Their arrival forced us to have quite a bit of the house clean and in working condition. If you're ever lacking in motivation to unpack and clean after moving, just invite some people to stay with you 3 weeks after your move-in day. Many games (mostly of Bohnanza, Killer Bunnies, & Seafarers of Catan) were played into the wee hours of the night, a day was spent at ValleyFair, and much fun was had by all.

First Repair Bill: Coinciding with the arrival of our first houseguests was the appearance of our first needed repair. When we ran the washing machine for the first time, we discovered that tree roots and other junk had completely clogged our house's sewer line to the street. Mopping up after a backed-up basement floor drain is not on my short list of final preparations for houseguests. Thankfully, our realtor hooked us up with a reliable sewer guy who rooted a large sack's worth of detritus from our line.

First Party: This Saturday we hosted our official housewarming party which meant we had to make a second pass of cleaning and arranging. Much of the work this time focused on cleaning up the yard since we were planning on having folks hang out on the back patio at the party. We spent six hours a couple of weekends ago pulling enough weeds and assorted plant life to fill five large yard waste bags. That's one major advantage of renting: you don't have to care about or take care of any of the green thumb work. And I am not a green thumb.

First House Payment: Yay for automatic payments. Our first mortgage payment went out the door right on time Sept. 1. I guess that means it's for real.