First House

Well, it's almost in the bag. I will hopefully close on my first home on July 31st! It's a sweet little house in Arena, WI about 30 miles west of Madison so it will be a little bit of a drive. That's alright, though - it's in the country with deer and wild turkeys running about. I will have a great yard - there are several mature evergreens already and beautiful landscaping, so I don't need to do much right away.

I just about signed my life away this morning when I finished filling out the loan application papers. Boy there are a lot of them! The inspection also went pretty well - the inspector was very thorough. However, is it normal on an inspection to have a lot of "fairs" as opposed to "satisfactories"? Believe me, I looked a several houses and some of them were literally falling down, so I'm not sure what to think about the things that he scored "fair". The only thing that I will have to address sooner than later is the roof and some of the wiring in the garage. All in all, I think that it's a great home and I'm really excited!

Anyway, that's the only big event that's happening right now for me. I don't have any international trips planned for a while - I have a mortgage now! So if anyone has any first-time-homeowner advice, please send it along!