a place to call home

things finally turned out, well, for the most part. we got the house. (yay!!) but paid more than it's "worth." however, to us, it's worth a lot more. it's worth the fact that we're four miles from my parent's and have the ability to go by for dinner, take ginger swimming, enjoy suns games, etc within 5-10 minutes. we have a place that chris and I can grow as a couple and start our lives together. we have the option to start a family (if I can get over the idea of giving birth). it's worth being able to raise a family, if we choose to. and if we don't, it's worth raising our soon-to-be new puppy and ginger. it's worth being able to come home from a long day of work (and a long drive) and sit in comfortable furniture, put our feet up, and watch a good game or movie. we now have a place to hold parties and get-togethers. we can take days off and relax. it's definitely worth having a place to put our cloud supreme. we can do so much now, the possibilities are endless. this is our home. being able to say that in itself is worth it.

sure we could have probably found another, comparable home. but I didn't want to. we've already fallen in love with this home. for five months this has been our home. for five months we have been designing this home. it was custom built for us. no one else. it is our home.

it sure was a headache though. after arguing with cathy, we ended up setting up a meeting for the four of us: chris, me, cathy, and the builder. I was tired of relying on chris to pass all the information to me. and I was tired of feeling like I didn't know what was going on or feeling like I wasn't in control. I was frustrated with everything. the meeting didn't start well - cathy and dan (the builder) almost immediately began arguing and pointing fingers, blaming the other, and trying to make the other look like a liar. I couldn't believe it. we're all adults. they're professionals. why did I feel like I was on a non-cursing version of the maury show? I got so fed up I started crying and left. the idea of not having the house broke my heart. cathy and chris followed me outside and we talked about our options. and chris and I decided that the house was worth paying more to us. my tears also must've made dan feel bad because he came out and took $1,000 off (sure, it's not much, but hey). we ended up caving in and agreed to $157,000. $9,000 more than the appraisal, but $6,000 less than we originally agreed upon in the contract. and if you think about it (like I am) we'll still be able to get the $8,000 tax credit so we'll only really be paying $1,000 extra out of our pockets. not too bad.

but in the end, everyone's happy. and we're moving in next week. life is good again.






thank god.