In November, my husband and I will celebrate 12 years of marriage. This weekend, we will celebrate moving into our 12th, and hopefully last, home. After more than a decade of renting and two-years of hard work, we have decided to take a bite out of that American Dream.
We have lived in some great and pretty crummy places, but no apartment or house has ever been ours. We have never decorated the way we wanted, and living with eggshell-colored walls this long is enough to drive anyone mad. We have never really put down roots anywhere until now.
Our first apartment on 40th and Dodge Streets had a wonderful sunroom, but cockroaches in the kitchen. Our apartment in Des Moines, Iowa, was so close to the airport, it felt like we lived on the runway. The Lansing, Mich., apartment always smelled like curry, and only had three windows. In Sioux City, Iowa, we welcomed our daughter, but quickly became tired of walking up three flights of stairs. In Bay City, Mich., we rented a 600-square-foot house, but moved to an apartment with a heated pool after the feds came looking for Jimmy Hoffa.
After all of that, we made it back to Omaha, lived a year in Waverly, Neb., and then headed back home again to the Big O. That was enough adventure; now we’re ready to settle down.
I never imagined that buying a house meant we would have to provide every document that has crossed our mailbox for the last two years. For the past month, I have been drowning in paperwork.
Now for the hard part…
Getting a house packed and moved is a job in itself, especially when you have kids. And we can’t forget all the projects waiting for us at our new house. We’ll be tearing down wallpaper and painting rooms.
My daughter is already planning her bedroom makeover. Meanwhile, I’m planning where everything will go and imagining evenings on the covered deck with friends and drinks.
While this has been a thrilling experience (as well as tortuous at times), I am not looking forward to doing it again anytime soon. It all still seems unreal. But I know when we get the keys on Friday, it will be confirmed: We are living the American Dream.
A dream I don’t want to wake up from.
Cat Koehler is married with two children. She works full time. Read her Mondays on momaha.com
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Read what local moms are saying about buying a new home by clicking here.
