Pride in Ownership

The more I think about it, the more awesome it seems that we're going to have our own house. I've wanted to own my own house for as long as I can remember understanding the concept of real property. Somehow in my bones I've always known that was what it meant to be a real person, to have real roots and a real stake in society -- and for society to have a real stake in you. This is why The Wife and I left a very enjoyable lifestyle in California to come out here. This is why we both work so hard at what we do. This is why we've put ourselves through everything we've been through, so that this could happen.

I know it'll be a lot of work. We already have some disagreements about how to improve the place, although those will work out without much trouble. I'm working my ass off at the office, and at home teaching, to make sure we have the money to keep this thing working. We'll have a lot of choices to make before we move in, which probably won't happen until January. And yes, I know that nothing is done until it's done and there's all sorts of things that can go wrong between now and the closing date. But the biggest hurdles have already been overcome with being approved for a loan, and having our offer accepted by the seller.

Now that I have a moment after teaching and grading classes to think about it, I realize that I'm going to have to come up with a clever name for our new house. It won't be as posh as The Estate At Louisville, but our new house in North Knox will be ours. That means something. It's something we most likely could never have done in California, no matter how hard I worked there, pretty much no matter how much money I made there.