One Month to House

In one month from today, Cute Man and I will close on our new house, take possession of the keys, and start the next phase of our life together. After 6 years living in our basement abode, I really understand the concept of Home not being about the four walls and the stuff inside it. No matter where we live, home will always be where Cute Man and I are together. So moving into this new house is about so much more than materialism. It represents the culmination of an extreme amount of effort and accomplishment for us both.

When we got together, I was a complete financial mess. It was so bad that I didn’t even know how bad it was. It took 4 years to pay off my $20,000 debt and still longer to get myself on an even keel – living below my means has never come naturally! Even now, I struggle to keep focused on my goals and not overspend. Cute Man, on the other hand, has always had a firm grasp of his financial situation, never overspending, but living paycheck to paycheck nonetheless in those early days. Home ownership was something neither of us could really visualize.

But here we are. Learning to save has been the biggest change for both of us. I am a huge fan of the automatic savings plans over at ING. Each check, money for emergencies and for upcoming house expenses is automatically deducted from checking and moved to my savings accounts. I don’t need to remember, it just happens. Cute Man likes to manage it manually, but we both have found a way to make it work. Sure, I’ve had to dip into that fund many a time for unplanned expenses and even just plain old overspending. But being my own safety net is gratifying in itself. I don’t need to carry a balance and pay interest for the privilege of goofing up from time to time.

All this is not to say that we’re not psyched out of our minds that we’ll be moving into our very own brand new home! Although it’s not the most important thing, it is fantastic and fun to think about all the space and general newness of it all. I dream about our granite countertops at night! And that’s OK. As the date approaches, I get more and more excited and impatient. The time period leading up to closing is going to be jam packed for both of us so I’m hoping that will serve to distract me a little. I never would want to wish any part of my life away – I’m sure we’ll look back at our time in our basement apartment fondly someday! “Those were the days, when life was easy and uncomplicated…” Yeah, right.

So, one month from tonight Cute Man and I will be picnicking in our new living room on Chinese takeout and sleeping on an air mattress – at Home.