One Year

Last year on this day, August 13th, after months of negotiations and frustrations, tears and fervent prayers, I drove to Bryan, Ohio to sign the papers that meant the closing of the sale of our house.

Even the afternoon before the closing, I worried that the sale might not go through. My realtor really was useless.

One year ago, when I walked into the realtor's office, ready to sign away the next thirty years of my life to a mortage, the gentleman from the titling company, asked me where my husband was.

D'oh!! Another flipping hurdle. Tom drove an hour to get there. Thankfully, in that hour, I was able to get all of my own signing done and at last, we were the official owners of this house.

And the anti-climax cam when I asked my realtor for the keys.

He shrugged and said, "In the lockbox on the front door. You know how to get in."

But that's in the past. A whole year in the past!! We've made this place our home.

After hours of whining, bitching and moaning about it, eight rooms and three closets have been painted, which leaves only two rooms (if you don't count any of the rooms in the basement, which I'm not because, yay, the basement is Tom's domain) and four closets that still need to be painted.

It will happen. One project at a time.

Today we cleaned like maniacs in anticipation of a visit from Tom's sister and brother-in-law, who haven't been to visit in the year we've lived here. They live about four hours away but are passing through and we were happy to show off our home.

There was clutter, which is a given with two small children in the house, but it wasn't bad. Definitely not anywhere near the houses shown in episodes of "Hoarders: Buried Alive." Every carpeted room needed vacuumed and the bathrooms needed cleaned but again, it wasn't all that bad. We're more about clutter than filth, thank heaven.

Our house isn't always guest ready. But it doesn't take much to make it so.

And in the end, Tom and I are both so much happier in a tidy house. We really should have company more often.

Yay for a year in our home. How very blessed we are.