Ten Years

It was ten years ago this week that I moved into the home of my dreams. It isn't big or fancy. It's old and 10 years ago it needed A TON of work…it needs less work now but still needs work (both bathrooms and the kitchen).

The day I moved in may also still be the most romantic day of my life.

My significant other at the time actually moved us in. I bought the house, I closed on the house on March 28^th and we had been working on the house for nearly a month so we could move in, in the meantime we were living in his small apartment a quarter of a mile down the road. He would come here during the day (he worked nights bartending) and paint and do other prep work. Our neighbors to the left were/are an elderly couple and the wife would talk to my Significant Other ("SO") as he worked. Then there was THAT DAY. SO was talking to the neighbor, she asked when we'd actually be moving in, he said that when the house was "ready" we'd move in. She said that they'd lived in their house for more than 50 years and it still wasn't "READY" that somehow you just had to take that leap.

That was it.

I called on my way home to ask what our plan was for that night, what work we'd be getting done at "the house". He said that maybe it'd be a good night to order some Chinese food and take a night off. Okay, maybe that WAS a good idea. I got home that night to our little apartment ready to go to "the house" and put in a few hours of work. I walked in and the apartment was EMPTY. There was a desk chair and not much else in the place. The dogs weren't even there…at the time it was my rescued cattledog and his ancient rescued mutt. He spun around in that desk chair and said, "honey, let's go home…" we loaded the very few remaining things into our two cars (my 2001 Honda Civic and his Nissan Maxima) and we drove up the street. The dogs were there and he had moved everything else in that day. There was a bottle of champagne and some Chinese food waiting for us. We were home. That was it.

Ten years later and we're married for nearly 7 years. His ancient mutt went to The Rainbow Bridge several years ago at the ripe old age of ~18, my cattledog is now 12 and there are two more cattledogs at 9 and 3 years old. We've replaced all the electrical, the furnace the hot water heater. We ripped up the horrible floors and refinished the original hardwood downstairs. Upstairs is laminate floors, a new linen closet, a walk-in closet in our bedroom, pull-down attic stairs and some other upgrades. The yard is fenced in and there's a deck and a patio. It's our home. It's not a McMansion but it's our home and we've been here TEN YEARS! I've never lived ANYWHERE for ten years.

I have to say that the time really did fly by. I can't believe how excited I was that first year to decorate for C'mas and looking back the house was still a friggin' disaster then but for me it was dreamy. It was a C'mas miracle to be living in this house.

So now I'll go to bed in the same home that I've gone to sleep in for ten years. We started out in the back bedroom but moved to the middle bedroom. We have all new furniture. We sleep on a $3,000 mattress now instead of that old lumpy thing we started out with. We have matching dressers and a home office that is amazing, complete with an expensive desk in a buttery yellow stain. The dogs will sleep in the places they've claimed as their own (Tuggie in bed with us, Maggie in the office on the chaise, and 12 year old Ding, the only original member of the household other than us will hunker down on her dog bed in the dining room keeping careful watch over all of us…it's her job) and I'll sigh and smile that I'm still here in the house I bought 10 years ago that looked just like my grandma's house.

Sleep tight!