My wife just reminded me that it was one year ago today that we took a giant leap to come back to some unfinished townhomes we took a tour of the day before. We saw a couple of models we liked, but it was hard to envision how the one we’d be buying would look when it was done. All in all, we decided it was a good decision, went back to the leasing office to see what our numbers generated with their mortgage lender rather than ours, and we left $1,000 lighter and a whole lot happier to have a contract on a brand new house!

So, one year later, it’s amazing to think about what has changed through small projects, gifts, and super sales deals that we had our eyes out for:

• our screened-in lanai
• a more size-appropriate entertainment center and coffee table
• wall to wall shelving in the garage
• a guest bed in our 3rd bedroom
• a new bedroom suite from an overstock warehouse
• beautifully re-painted the downstairs
• a new grill for my 30th birthday

All of those little (and big) things made things feel more like home and less like a dream vacation that we were pinching ourselves to be sure things were actually this way. I never thought we’d have that much to do to our brand new place, but I guess the “make it your home” bug bites everyone pretty hard. Life is good, and so is our home, no longer a house.