Whenever I describe my typical weekends to people, they often respond, “Welcome to home ownership.” No kidding. Yesterday, our day started off with a 9:45 a.m. appointment with someone who came to our house to do some basic health measurements, blood test, urine sample, etc. for life insurance. If I had known she was going to take a pee test, I wouldn’t have gone when I first woke up. I was barely able to fill the cup up to the minimum, but it was sufficient. The nurse said she has to keep reminding people that she doesn’t need a full cup. One time, a lady filled it up so high and then spilled the cup while walking down her staircase. Yuck.

At 11 a.m., someone came to install our alarm. What would seem to be a simple procedure for someone who installs alarms for a living ended up taking nearly SEVEN hours. This guy, who looked like Cyclops from X-men, wearing what looked like pricy jeans, walked in and cut straight to business. He walked straight into our home and asked where our phone line was. Basically, he was used to hooking up the alarm console (?) right by the customer’s phone jack, but we wanted our alarm right next to the door. This threw him off, and he immediately got on the phone with his boss to get directions on how to do so. Anyway, to make a long story short, there was a lot of confusion on his end, a lot of incompetence (drilling holes in wrong places), and Matt basically had to walk him through a lot of things. We should seriously get some money back.

While Matt was babysitting the alarm guy, I met with a representative from Costco’s countertop service, just to see how much it would cost to replace our countertops. Our current ones are fine, but somewhere down the line, it would be nice to replace them. We’re not too crazy about our current ones. There are some nicks in them, and the previous owner had tried to patch the nicks up, but just left rubbery spots. I also met with a landscaper to get some estimates on doing some work on our yard. Let’s just say my dreams of having the yard all done by the end of summer is probably not going to happen. Wishful thinking.

After being in the house ALL day, we went out at night (in the rain) to Coldstone so I could use my birthday coupon for a free ice cream! Yippee! If you haven’t done so already, sign up for Baskin Robbins and Coldstone’s birthday clubs, which will give you free ice cream!!

Today was an absolutely beautiful Seattle day which means…yard work. :P I found a new form of exercise that totally gets me working up a sweat–lawn mowing! But finally, our weeds that were like a foot high have finally been trimmed! We did get some down time after church when we went over to Madison Valley to meet Will for lunch. Matt and I ended up walking around our old ‘hood while waiting for him. We both really miss that area, and it was a big debate at the time we were looking for homes. Do we stretch our budget by buying a smaller place but living in a neighborhood that we REALLY liked, or do we get more for our money and live outside of the city? The practical sides of our personality won, but I’m now slightly envious that Keba gets to live in the Central District. Of course, that just means I’ll have an excuse to hang out there more often! We went by our old apartment, which is getting new windows and some work on the siding.

There are a whole bunch of new townhouses that have popped up just in the past few months. One old, amazing house that used to be on our corner was torn down and is now being replaced by four townhouses squeezed into tiny plots of land. We checked out an open house and walked through a small 3-bedroom townhouse that cost $459,000. It actually wasn’t *that* small, but some of the rooms were pretty tiny–and all the townhouses were SO close to one another! You’re basically looking into one another’s houses if you look out the window.

As we walked around, I saw a girl coming out of an apartment complex, and for a moment, I felt a pang of sadness and nostalgia when I used to be able to do that. I think the idea of going into your residence through the front door off the street feels different than when you go through your garage. I can’t explain it exactly, but it reminds me a lot of living in SF when I was always coming and going, out and about. There’s a certain feeling of coming out of your complex and already being right in a community, ready to catch a bus or walk to the grocery store. I miss that.

We really like our house, and we’re excited about all that we’re doing here. There are plenty of pros to being in this place, but maybe one day, we’ll be back in our original neighborhood…maybe. :)