"It starts..." -Timon

On October 12th, 2012, my fiancé and I took one last look at our finances, spent about five minutes reassuring ourselves by talking up all the positive aspects of home ownership, cheerfully ignored an intimidating list of negatives, and closed on our first home.

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Compared to most first-time homebuyers, our house-hunting experience was relatively short-lived; we looked at one house, had it inspected, made an offer, and closed. To be fair, the previous owner happened to be my fiancé's grandfather. He had passed away earlier in the year, and we purchased it from her family. Thus, we avoided a good deal of torture (or so people tell me) in bypassing the whole "find a house, make an offer, get rejected, repeat" cycle. On the other hand, as we chose to give ourselves only one option, we'd better love this place, and it better hold up.

Turns out that we do, and it has. Built in 1923, its two main levels comprise about 1600 square feet. It also includes a full basement with relatively high ceilings (7.5 feet from floor to joist, I believe), a great walk-up attic, and a detached garage. If you're an optimist, you could also say that it's been updated. Unfortunately, the last "update" was completed sometime around 1970.

Coming from a strong IT/computer background, I knew absolutely nothing about fixing, maintaining, or repairing houses. In this blog, I will record my (mis)adventures in home ownership; mostly to keep family and friends updated, but also for my fiancé and myself to look back on and remember, hopefully fondly. We're about 10 months in, and it's been quite an experience.

Enjoy!