Three Year Housiversary

Yes, I just made that word up. But it totally works, right?

Three years ago, Chip and I bought our very first house right before getting married. I joke that we didn’t have enough on our plates between both of us working full time, planning a wedding, and Chip studying for the CFA, so why not add buying a house to the mix. The real story is that as we were looking for rentals, a realtor asked us to consider buying. We really didn’t have very much savings between the two of us so we had never even thought that was an option for us, but after this realtor walked us through the requirements for an FHA loan, we started looking at homes within the range we could have a mortgage loan approved at. I don’t remember the whole process very well, but it felt like we had soon found our house and after a looong bout of paperwork, we were homeowners.

I can’t believe we’ve already been in this house for three years. Apart from the house I grew up in, it’s the longest I’ve ever lived somewhere after moving into new dorms every year for college and then an apartment and town home following graduation. Sometimes it feels like we just moved in, other times it’s like we’ve been here for forever. We’ve enjoyed having friends over and making this house our home and still have lots of projects we would love to do that will keep us busy in the coming years (I’m looking at you, laundry room).

To celebrate our three year housiversary, we decided to have a nice home cooked meal this past Friday. Chip had the day off for Battle of the Flowers, so we were able to go on a nice long walk with the pup in the morning, pick up a few more plants at Millberger’s, and grab lunch at Habanero’s before coming home and doing a little bit of yardwork. Once we had finished raking, planting, and watering everything, we went grocery shopping and then came home to cook dinner together. Let me tell you, I love having date nights at home. Sure, it’s fun to go out to a favorite restaurant and not have to worry about washing the dishes, but it is so fun for us to be in the kitchen together and take our time eating outside with some wine. This time, we decided to make pasta bolognese from Giada’s Everyday Italian cookbook (will try to post that recipe soon!). Our dinner was so good and we’ve been enjoying the leftovers for lunch these past couple of days.

Love my sous-chef

One of my favorite wineries from our trip to Napa

While having dinner, we had fun remembering some of our favorite house projects (planting our garden for the first time is up at the top, followed by re-doing our bathroom) as well as some not so favorite moments (like the time our living room flooded…). Overall, we love this home and are so thankful to be living here. Here’s to many more years ahead!

Eating outside is my favorite