Feeling Grown Up

We recently spent a week in Albuquerque house hunting. For a long time we assumed we'd just rent a home during residency, but then last minute we decided we'd try to buy a house since we were preapproved for a loan through a special state-sponsored program. And thank goodness the first-time home buyer tax credit was extended because it's really the thing making this possible!

Since this was our first home buying experience, we really didn't know what we were doing. In some ways the process felt easier than I imagined, but also more complicated at the same time. We learned a lot in the process, and Josh and I both said we have a deeper appreciation for what realtors have to do!

We spent 4 days looking at houses. Owen just loved looking at all the homes. Seriously. Each new home was like a new playground to him, and he especially loved the houses with stairs. I appreciated when the homes were vacant because then I didn't have to worry about Owen breaking things or trying to steal food. :) He did really good on the trip and on both flights. Oh, and flying to Albuquerque was great! Guess Albuquerque isn't a super popular destination city, so we got an entire row to ourselves and Owen had his own seat. We've always had full flights to and from Phoenix, and even our return flight back to Chicago was full. This was probably Owen's last free flight though. Not looking forward to when we have to pay for him! The portable DVD player did wonders on this flight too. It was our first time using it, and now we are sure glad we got it for Christmas!!

Anway, back to our house story. We found a house early on that we really liked and put an offer on it, but the sellers accepted another offer. I was initially bummed, but then we found a house we liked even better and we signed on it! We'll close the first week of June, so I'm going to wait to post pictures until after then. It's on a nice quiet street in a nice neighborhood close to the freeway (for Josh's sake) and some shopping (for my sake). It's 1 story, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, backyard with covered patio, and my favorites: a garage, dishwasher, and washer and dryer! Typical house amenities but pure luxuries when you've gone without for so long. :) And now that I think about it, I've never had a garage in my whole life! (well except when we stayed at Josh's parents). I'm excited.

We'll see how long it takes us to fill up our garage and house. It seems like we'll have so many things to buy for the house at first! We're grateful that we will be able to own a home, but with a new house and a baby on the way and a meager residency salary, we're going to have to really pinch our pennies. Guess big expenses are a part of growing up! I know I'll be 30 before I know it (*gasp*), but I think this is the first time in my life that I'm finally starting to feel grown up. It's scary and fun at the same time!