Our home

When the husband and I began our house hunting we faced a bit of a challenge. We moved to Houston because the husband was relocated for work and as such his employer paid for two house-hunting trips to Houston. Commence marathon house-viewing weekends in July and August in Houston. If we weren't already aware of what we were getting ourselves into, those two weekends sure did give us a glimpse into the heat in this part of the country. Aside from the heat, house hunting in two weekends is overwhelming, much less for a couple looking for their first home.

It's interesting to think back on those weekends and what led us to the house we live in now. Over the course of two 3-day weekends, we looked at more than 60 homes. What we were drawn to were neighborhoods that had some familiarity - older, established neighborhoods with trees and larger yards. In some ways I wonder if we sought something familiar because we were about to move so far away from what we knew and loved.

I wish we had pictures from our house-hunting adventure. You might begin to understand why we chose a house with such unique wall colors. After so many houses with so many interesting features, a few odd paint colors didn't worry us. However, painting an entire home is not so much fun! :) Oh well!

Thinking back, I'm not sure I realized how much I would love our home. There are things about it that irritate me - the 40-60 minute commute to work, the air conditioning that doesn't pump air into the master bedroom as well as in other areas, that the landscaping was not well maintained and needs tons of work, etc.

But those are all things that come with a home, and an older home at that. What I love about our home isn't so much an architectural element or the design, but rather that it is our home. That we have worked to create a home for ourselves and we continue to work to maintain it (sometimes not as hard as we should).

There are days when I think things would be easier in an apartment or condo in town. But there are many days when we are working on the garden (or whatever other project) or watching the dogs run around outside or sitting on the back porch or enjoying a meal with friends that I am grateful for the home that we have found and made our own.