Erik and I like to reassure ourselves that we will never move again - we've moved 6 times in almost 8 years of marriage, and we are pretty excited about the idea of putting down roots and getting to know our neighbors. But we've been warned: about 5 years in, we will start eyeing bigger homes and get an itch to upgrade. I sincerely hope that we restrain ourselves. Unless we can afford to hire a housekeeper, I'm not taking on any more square footage to clean!
Here we are on move-in day! Our first house!
So it looks a little iffy on the outside... The guy we bought it from gutted and remodeled the inside, but he didn't have much skill with landscaping. That works out for us, because Erik is handy outdoors but not in. The grass is already looking greener, and we are trimming as much foliage as our limited garbage space will allow us. We are a little scared to cut back our overgrown and shady backyard - there could be skunks or dead bodies and we'd never know.
When we moved in, we heard plenty of opinions on our yard from neighbors - mostly how it needed work! We already have the little house in the neighborhood, and apparently we are known as the unkempt one as well. There's not too much we can do right away (we had to buy a lawn mover, for heaven's sake - it's not like we have yard tools or money yet) but we figured we would show our commitment to change by planting some flowers in this corner bed. It's been a lot of years since I did this sort of thing, and I did not remember it being so much work! Probably because my mother did most of it. I tried joking with Erik that I was going to emulate his mom by not doing any landscaping - that was man's work in his house growing up. He responded that he would follow his dad and not do any housework. Since he does most of the vacuuming, sweeping, and dishes, I shut up and started weeding.
The kids have been loving the freedom to run around in the yard without developing heat stroke, and so have I. I don't love discovering the back door open 12 times a day, but they are already healthier and happier for spending more time outside. Their favorite parts of our new house are all the snails and the roly-poly bugs. We've dubbed ourselves "The Mighty Snail Hunters" (we have a song and everything) and we go out in the morning to look for unwary victims. I usually have to spot them, but then the kids gleefully grab them and stick them in the jar. Or we skip the jar and smash them on the road.
Since our move-in date coincided with a visit from Abby and the girls, we spent one busy day unpacking and then went boating. Twice. Naturally. Poor Erik got to use his vacation time to move out, drive to Utah, and move in. This boating was the only break he got between residency and his new job. Unpacking actually went pretty fast - we had a lot of helpers - but now we're in that awkward phase of frames leaning against walls, not sure where they should go yet; silverware moving drawers every other day while we figure out what makes sense; and lots of miscellaneous boxes arriving from Amazon with hose nozzles and drawer organizers and bar stools.
We've been trying to do a better job of exploring our new environment - this is a "secret trail" right by our house that winds around with beautiful views of the valley. We feel so fortunate every day to have such lovely scenery around us. Although if there's ever an earthquake, we are toast.
We are also loving the summer produce. We struggled to get fresh fruits and vegetables in Phoenix, the quality just wasn't there after being shipped in. It's so amazing to drop by Nana's house for raspberries (we made freezer jam our first week here, we're nuts!), or visit one of the farmer's markets.
This little one has discovered a passion for corn on the cob. Bordering on obsession. It matches her love of cheese, and she can go through a Costco block in a few weeks.
This is what happens when we take the corn away, after an hour of nibbling. Still not enough.
We are so happy to have a home and job and begin this next, suddenly grown-up, stage of our lives. Every time we feel like we don't deserve to skip the teeny starter home era we remind ourselves of how long we've been on this journey with very little to our name besides debt. Now we have even more debt! But a lovely house to show for it :) We'll keep you posted on our adventures in North Ogden.
