Welp, we are definitely home-owners. How do I know you ask? Mostly because I got giddy. Absolutely mini-clapping GIDDY when I woke up this morning and remembered I’d be able to use the new faucet to get my lunch ready.

Plus, my birthday list has things like a new front door. I even know which one I want. I have even tried to rationalize the purchase, knowing full well if Alex buys me this for my birthday I’ll get upset with him for buying something practical. (I hope you are listening / reading dear.) I’m terribly contradictory that way.

Also, I can’t quite get past dreaming of new floors. However those have to wait because we also need a number of other things done to the house and we have limited funds. Nonetheless I am dreaming.

Finally, I can’t quit having financial stress. Stress in the form of “Are We Normal?” Yup, I’m worried as to whether or not our debt load and current budget is on par with the average mid – late twenties childless married couple who owns their own home. What is normal in terms of what is in your savings account? I know what the experts say we SHOULD have, which straight up honesty y’all….we have the $500 or so dollars. Not 3 months of joint income because if I had that much extra cash I’d be on vacation. Also, we have credit card debt, but it’s sitting at roughly $2k right now. However, we pay off almost $200 a month. (I seriously cannot handle paying the minimum. It gives me the heebie jeebies.) So we won’t have that much for very long if you do the math.  Nonetheless I can’t quit panicking.

Granted all of the above funds do not take into account the regular payments we make like the car, student loans, or our mortgage. So I guess what I panic most about is savings and revolving debt (credit cards). What on earth is NORMAL?

(In all reality the majority of this panic boils down to the fact that its highly likely by this time next month I will be on fertility drugs making having a child much more likely. And we’re not ignorant, with child comes major bills. Hence, panic.)

Now to tie this all up together, despite the near-constant money PANIC that I have we did end up buying a new faucet. We tried to go the super cheap route and buy just a little sprayer nozzle so that I can actually wash pots in our sink without needing a cup to pour water over the tops, but our old sink had zero ability to link up to a sprayer. So we ended up using Alex’s birthday gift card, the credit from buying the OLD sprayer, and some actual cash to buy a new faucet. We spent a tad more than I wanted, but since its 1. Contractor grade (Dear Mr. Home Depot worker, if you note we are holding all contractor grade faucets please don’t suggest to us the top-level Delta Pro faucet that is 4 TIMES the cost of the ones we are considering. Just sayin’ you aren’t too observant on your customers needs.) and 2. A nice compromise between what we ideally wanted and what we could afford. Plus, I got my sprayer nozzle!

So there you have it, all of that boils down to me going “Yup We’re home owners. And grown up.”

A couple of weekends ago Alex got the great plan to rip down our fence after having a discussion with our one neighbor.He didn’t inform me of this decision until I pulled into the driveway with my mouth agape.So on Easter Sunday after he found his Easter Basket we made a quick trip over to my parents’ house to grab their trailer and came home to finish ripping the stinker of a fence out. (Well Alex pushed and pulled the fence until it came down while I made sweet tea. Inside.)After a while the entire thing was down and I went outside to help load the mess of remains onto the trailer. When something fun happened.We moved into our house over a year ago, and in all that time our neighbors on the one side have only hesitantly waved at Alex and I. The man of the house has spoken to my father, but that is it. Easter Sunday as the fence came down so did the walls of unfamiliarity.First the dog ran our way, then the Mom came strolling over. Then her daughter and son-in-law joined in the conversation from their back porch. Then her other daughter and finally her husband all made their way over to our house. Where we all stood and chatted. We talked gardens and shrubs, we spoke over cooking and plans for that evening. Before right before we (Alex primarily) got back to work and they left, the Mom looked at us and said “Don’t move for a long time. You are very nice.”Well, thank You for that Easter miracle. If this is what ripping out a ratty ol’ fence gets us I can’t wait to see what the front porch will garner us!