nonfiction – Mary E. Nolte

Tyler, Vincent, and I have been living in our new home for seven months now. The nature of my brain is that I remember that we moved in on January 8th.

The last year or so of life has been a bit of a whirlwind. Looking for and then owning a home has taken up a lot more time than I expected it to. I started to seriously look at houses last summer, and closed on this one on September 9th, 2019. Originally I had a dream of owning a duplex so that our living expenses were low, but we ended up in a small, 1930s single family home in Brighton Heights.

I have been dreaming of a home as a creative outlet since I was a little girl. One of my favorite shows growing up was This Old House, and one of my favorite shows when I moved into my parents’ house post college graduation was Rehab Addict. I saved money by living with my parents for many years because I simply could not imagine living somewhere without complete creative license.

When I walked into this house with my realtor, I simply could not come up with a reason not to buy it. It had the carpeting to rip out, the walls to paint, the kitchen that can be redone to our preference later down the line. A big bathroom, big closets, a tiny writing room, and an attic to expand into. A two-car garage and air conditioning that I never dreamed of.

Before we moved in, I managed to rip up the green shag carpeting and restore our wood floors. I painted some trim outside and deep cleaned everything that I could. Tyler decided to move up from Maryland in January of this year, and so that was what would be finished before we moved in full time.

Mostly, I have learned on this journey that things tend to take much longer than I anticipated. I’m trying to learn to embrace getting things done slowly. This has been one of the harder lessons I’ve had to learn, but it seems that it will be one of the more important ones.

We are very happy here. Vinny enjoys being the only animal (and is spoiled endlessly). We love our neighborhood and hope to be able to get to know our neighbors better when it’s safe to do so. I’ve kept myself busy with small projects, like stripping a bit of paint and organizing. We’ve painted downstairs and picked out the colors for upstairs.

The family that owned this house before us lived here for over sixty years. Our home feels cozy and loved. Sometimes I feel like it chose me to be its next owner, and I feel lucky for it.

Here’s a virtual “before” tour: