Funny thing: Buying a house. It’s not like buying a new shirt or a new car. It’s more like going to the dentist, having a tooth pulled, and being told all you need is “the gas” and you’ll remember nothing.

(Incidentally, I did that last week, too.)
Or maybe it’s more like courting a lady; A lady who plays hard to get and toys with your emotion. She gets you all hot and bothered and then backs away and it requires three cold showers to get back to thinking of anything except her, only to have her email you with some great news and get the process started all over again.
Or maybe it’s like buying a house.
I don’t know.
At any rate, our house is officially ours. We’ve stepped inside only three times total since October 11, the day we made the offer, but stepping inside last night felt wildly familiar. The smell is familiar. The house has memories of ours in it already, memories we have not even made.
Last night we started making our fresh new memories with some of our favorite people.







The house is already home to our first pizza picnic. It’s home to our first hosted dinner. It’s home to the first playdate with our children and their best friends.It’s home to hide and seek and laughter. It’s home to friends helping with house-repairs and it’s home to that time we had no heat and tried to build a fire only to find out we suck at building fires.
It’s home. Already? It is home.
13 guests here now.
Comments
Oh Leslie!!! I am so happy for you guys!! Everything worked out and you have YOUR house. So. Happy. xoxoxo
This made me cry. I am SO HAPPY FOR YOU.
XOXOXO
(Please to be preparing my room immediately. I like green and blue.)
Congratulations!! We’re moving in a few weeks—it’s all so different when you picture the house through your kids eyes, isn’t it? Yay for you!
CONGRATULATIONS! I hope you have many, many more years of love and light and laughter in your new home!
YAAAAYYYAYAYAYAYAYAAAAAAAYYY!
Congratulations!
I am looking forward to sharing so many more memories in your beautiful new home! Thanks for letting us be part of the first pizza picnic!
Congrats!!! Your new house reminds me of the house I grew up in.
I’m so excited for you! I even love the stairs.
:-D Thank you everyone. I feel the EXACT same way.
Just.
YEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYE!!!
*Whew* Cheers to a list of home first. ::clinking glasses together::
so happy for you guys!
congratulations!!!!!
Leslie, that is just awesome! And the shot of the little man enjoying stairs in his house is pretty cool…
I am loving your kitchen, too, but is it wrong that my first thought about it was “Built-in wine rack - Score!” ??
Enjoy every beautiful moment and tell every stray unpleasant moment that wanders through the door to “Get out of my house!” Then chase them with a broom and slam the door with the confidence that comes with knowing that you won’t be getting a snarky letter from the condo association about the noise!
I’m SO thrilled for you!!!
congratulations! much love and happiness in your new home.
Woo Woo Woo! Yay! I’m so excited for you guys!:)
Oh hallelujah it all worked out!! Sqqueeeee
So excited and happy for you!!
YAAAYYY!!! I’m so excited for you guys! And it looks lurvely.
CONGRATS!!!!!! YaHoo for you! Whoot!
YAYYAYAYAYAYAYAY! I see a fun summer in our future *grin*
So very, very happy for your family. Glad we could be a part of your first hosted dinner! Many, many more memories and laughter to come!
Amazing! So glad to hear this after reading your post a few weeks ago.
Isn’t it strange how quickly a house can feel like a home?
Vrooooom! Love and am so happy for you!
Congratulations! I bought my first house by myself a few years ago, and boy what a roller coaster. At the end of the month boyfriend and I close on our first together house, and I become a landlord too. Man, that just makes me want a drink!
Congratulations!!!!! I’m so excited for you.
Yay for the Casa Flinger!!! Have a great time making it your own, dawg!
CONGRATULATIONS! It looks fantastic. The staircase, the kitchen!! I’m so jealous, but not enough to stop being your friend or anything.
Have fun creating those memories!!
I am SO happy that it came to pass! How exciting for you!
I know you’ll make many wonderful memories there - worthy of the history that the house has. You must have known it would be a “home” from the first moment you saw it.
This is just the best news ever!
Congrats!
Hoorah!
YES
Yay for you Flinger!
BBQ at our house this summer!! You- coming!
HOORAY!!!!!!!!! Congratulations!
So glad for you! Congratulations
Fun times ahead for you and your family.
Mike
http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com
Twitter: mikeleonen
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Yay, congratulations!!!
I am *totally* jealous of the beautiful stairs and wood floors though. I didn’t manage to luck out on that when we bought our house back in the day.
(And psst, as an experienced fire bug who heats her home with wood stoves even at 40 weeks pregnant? That straight up fireplace or fireplace insert will not be easy to start without a warm chimney, and it’ll actually suck heat out of the house. Wood stove inserts are awesomeness, depending on where in town you live it might be an option at some point.)
Super Congratulations to you and your family for all the hard work Leslie!!!
Yay! Congratulations to you, I am SO glada it worked out!
So many congrats!