It's been more than a year since the first time we looked at this house and started the buying process. In a few weeks, it will have been one year since it was officially ours. The month or so in between is a period of time when I nearly lost my mind on pretty much a daily basis.

You know how some people dread the dentist? I started to dread the bank. I'd get so nervous I started to worry they were thinking I was thinking about robbing the place or something. Seriously, sweaty palms, fidgety, feeling a bit like it's judgement day and "OH MY GOSH THEY'RE NEVER GOING TO LET ME BUY A HOUSE!"

My insides felt a little like these clouds that were over our house last summer.

At one point, I was so stressed and overwhelmed, I just broke down in tears on our way to the bank. Seeing as how M didn't just leave me on the side of the road, I consider that we past some kind of relationship test. 

But here we are, a year later, living in the house I was sure they'd never let us buy. 

I won't say that I'm all cool and calm all the time when we realize that we need to redo electrical, plumbing, and when we talk about renovations. I go back to that uneasy feeling of "THIS IS GOING TO COST SO MUCH AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT AND I HATE THOSE CABINETS" or something like that. Considering the bouts of buyer's remorse I had after buying my first car, that I currently refuse to sell even though a Corolla isn't all too practical in Montana, I can tell you that I still occasionally freak out that we own a house. 

But the renovation freak outs deserve their own post. Fair warning, the summer might be full of them. 

For now, a few thoughts on how to keep your cool when buying a house. 

+ Breathe. A lot. 

+ Do your research. The better you know what you're getting into, your stress level is more manageable. And absolutely, positively get a reputable home inspector. 

+ Have someone who will listen to your freak outs and take your concerns seriously. It doesn't have to be a significant other, just a friend who will hear you out and help you talk it through.

+ Avoid ice cream. It's easy to fight your stress with ice cream, or any carbs really, but then you'll just have to run more, which actually helps with the stress, so if you can keep up with the running, eat your heart out. (Healthy folks, pretend I didn't say any of that.)

+ Deep breaths. You're going to need them. 

+ Don't buy something you don't want. A fixer upper, fine. Something that isn't perfect, fine. But if deep, deep down, you don't want it or can't see any potential in it, don't commit yourself to it. 

+ Follow renovation blogs, websites, read magazines. Thinking about the potential will raise your spirits and that part is seriously exciting. Some of my favorites are Little House. Big Heart, Retro Ranch Reno, Attempts at Domestication and Decor and the Dog. You'll find more under my Reading List tab. 

+ Breathe again. You get really good at listening to yourself breathe.

+ Do the math. We bit off a big chunk of property with this house, but it's something we can manage. Avoid buying something you can't afford. You won't enjoy it and you'll just stay stressed all the time.

+ Breathe and have a glass of wine. You're going to need it, but you can survive the home buying process.

Are you a homeowner? What are your tips for surviving the home buying process? 

In just the first week, I'm loving Melyssa's Weekly Wishes series at the Nectar Collective.

Last week, my wishes were to +develop and organizational system and +pick and purchase the floor tile for the mudroom.

I am proud to say, done and done. Okay, well for organization, I bought a planner (for half off!), still working on the larger system. But, we did decide on the tile and find the kind we wanted in the longer 3-foot version at a local flooring store. They have to ship it in and even though the tile itself costs more than online, the shipping was slashed (from $200 to $65 or less) and we'll get it quicker from people we can actually talk to. 

This week, Melyssa's genius idea was to focus on what we accomplished in 2013. It was an epic year for me and as much as I worry about the things left undone, when I really thinking about it, 2013 rocked.

Here's a quick look at what went down:

+Moved to Montana to live with M. 
+Started a new job at a new newspaper. 
+Bought a house.
+Started home renovations.
+Went home to Virginia to celebrate a dear friend's wedding and spend time with friends and family.
+Ran a canyon relay with friends.
+Redesigned and relaunched this blog with a new name, logo and plan.
+Turned 30. 
+Started skating and coaching again. 
+Snowshoed, kayaked, hiked and explored our way around Montana. Among other adventures.
+Started a garden with plans for much more next year. 
+Learned to drive through a snowdrift. Sort of.
+Took over the state chapter of a professional journalism organization. 
+Got the ball rolling on a Montana bloggers group. 
+Made mega progress in simplifying and become the person I want to be.

What were your major accomplishments of 2013? Are you looking forward to keeping the momentum going into 2014?

We may or may not have a major septic system catastrophe on our hands. We aren't sure yet. There are some parts of said catastrophe boyfriend says we can fix ourselves. Other parts not so much. Either way, it's very possible that this is going to be our first massive expense since buying the house and I can tell you that showering by dumping your head in a bucket of water is a rough way to start a Monday morning. 

So I need the motivation to knock out some other projects and fingers crossed this is something we can DIY without going broke! What kinds of unforeseen homeowner disasters have you managed to DIY your way through or when do you call in the pros?

Turns out, getting popcorn ceilings wet makes this whole process a lot easier and less dusty, but still pretty messy.

I was halfway through this room last weekend, when boyfriend said:

"You know what we forgot to do? Spray it with water."

Me: "I asked you that and you said no!"

Boyfriend: "No you didn't."

Me: "Yes I did."

Boyfriend: "That conversation never happened."

Me: "I said, 'Do I need to get it wet or can I just scrape it.' And you said I didn't have to get it wet."

Boyfriend: "That's not the same question."

So today, we pulled out the spray bottle and the boyfriend decided it would be more efficient to use our new lawn and garden 3-liter sprayer. He was right. 

This time, we tag teamed it. He sprayed, I scraped. I still ended up a mess, but no popcorn in my hair this time. 

We finished the lace room then headed into the master bedroom thinking we'd knock that out so it would be ready for us to actually move in. The spraying/scraping didn't take longer than an hour, but we had a mushy gushy mess on the floor. 

We had laid out plastic and taped it to the walls to speed up cleaning and also taped over the tops and sills of windows and doors. 

Turns out, the previous owners had painted over wallpaper in the bedroom. I'm kind of sad about that, but so it goes.

After we'd scraped, I went back with a wet rag and wiped down the edges with wallpaper scraps and popcorn mush. The edge and wall cleaning part was more exhausting for me than the popcorn removal itself.

This is how Grover felt about us rearranging the house...again. He's over moving.

We're still going to wipe down the walls and ceiling with TSP and then possibly paint the ceiling, depending on how it looks. 

Really, a minor change with major impact. I'm liking everything much better without the popcorn ceilings.

A few hours later, I was exhausted and boyfriend was cleaning up the step stool and tools I had tossed in the bathtub, covered in popcorn mush. 

Then it was on to errands, laundry and wine for me. I've talked boyfriend into watching Oz the Great and Powerful tonight as our little treat for the day's accomplishments. But first, a look at the aftermath.

After spending most of Friday working, though it was supposed to be my day off, we headed back to The Homestead for a night of fun.

While on an errands run earlier in the day, I picked up one of these for the new house. Because, obviously, I need one at both houses. Though, drinking wine while climbing on step stools and the counter may not have been the most genius idea. I kept bashing my leg on the step stool and now have a huge bruise on my shin, on top of the bruise I got last year from falling in a creek while hiking. Mark thinks I'm crazy, but I swear there's still a bruise. And I may not be that tall, but I somehow managed to knock my head on the ceiling...repeatedly.

And then I went to town in the Swan Lake bathroom. It only took another three or so hours to steam clean the rest of the wallpaper glue off the walls. Mark mowed the lawn until it was too dark to see, and came in to help clean the walls with a little bit of TSP and warm water.  The top photo is the wall after steam and TSP. Looking much better right? 

I took a break Saturday morning to meet up with some lovely ladies at the local farmers market and picked up these great earrings. 

But there's no rest in home renovation, so we got back at it. 

We still need to wipe down the other bathroom walls with TSP and probably do another run with the steam cleaner, but we moved on to other things for awhile. Boyfriend got to mowing the lawn. And by lawn, I really mean field.

We also measured the area for fencing since we don't want the dogs disappearing into the wild, or stinkin' robbers coming back. I was getting very jumpy in the field since I'm paranoid as anything that I'll step on a rattlesnake. eventually, I might get over that. Maybe. 

I also added another sunburn to my collection. Then I got started on those ridiculously sparkly popcorn ceilings.

Here's the dining room in progress. So much better without the popcorn, right?! Here it is after all the popcorn is gone, though some glitter remains. We'll probably sand it or level it out somehow, then paint it.

See the living room through the door? Yeah, that entire room is popcorn ceiling. Lots more work to do. That wall is coming down soon anyway. ince we had stuff in that room and I was attempting not to get popcorn all over the carpet, I opted to move to the lace room.  But first, a quick look at how much of a mess I was. Remember when I said I didn't get any wallpaper glue in my hair? Well, that wasn't the case with the popcorn.

There's some sunburn in there too. In case you haven't seen the crazy room that I call the lace room, here's a before photo. You can't see the awful carpet that we're definitely ripping out. Since we're ditching the carpet, I didn't mind getting popcorn all over, though I did lay a sheet of plastic. I also took down the lace curtains for the popcorn removal. Mark took down the light fixture last week, so the room doesn't look quite as intense as it did at first.

I got about halfway through before we needed to go back to town to check on the dogs, do laundry and take care of some errands.

Without the popcorn, lace curtains, crazy light fixture and carpet, the wallpaper looks much better. It might stay. I haven't decided. It's pretty old wallpaper and fraying at the edges, but no decisions yet.

Tonight we went to Home Depot to look at door handles to replace the one on our front door that sticks so much now I struggle to get into the house. 

I wasn't kidding when I said the bathroom needed it's own post. It's a diva like that. 
So, the tile. It's in incredibly good shape and I don't hate the color, though it's a bit overwhelming. It might be workable. 
But there's this accent tile all the way around. With swans, or ducks, or something painted on it. I like wildlife and all, but less so on my walls. 
Add to this tile, the wallpaper. 
Oh, the wallpaper. I cannot handle crazy, floral wallpaper. It sort of give me flashbacks to when my parents bought a house in Virginia. We're pretty sure a crazy cat lady lived there before. There were actual fur balls in the spider webs in the corners of the one plain room. That ended up being my room. Carpets were all different colors, including pink; wacky, floral wallpaper was everywhere and it was just nuts. We spent long nights taking down that wallpaper and I'm about to do it again. At least I'm old enough to drink wine now. 
I will, however, give the previous homeowners credit for matching their colors. The blue/greens in the wallpaper match the tile and the rose/pink matches the tub and the toilet. 
That's right, they are pink. Or rose, or whatever you want to call it. They're pink. If I haven't mentioned it, I hate pink. Hate it. You'll only see me wear it if I've run out of clean clothes and I only have one pink t-shirt and one pink sweater. Though I do love a burgandy or mauve or wine color, I hate pink. So, that's got to go. We think we can paint or stain or something to the tub to change the color. Not so sure about the toilet. Everything is great shape, it just it a color combo that will make me crazy. 
I'm thinking the wallpaper will go first. It's possible, painting the top half of the walls something that works with the tile is the best option. I really don't mind the tile, swans and all. 

One major checked box in our quest for this house was the home inspection. 
Boyfriend said I didn't really have to go, but I figured it was more practical to learn everything about the house I could. Plus, in case Mark was ever not around, I'd know where things were and how to work everything. Obviously, I'll pick these things up as we're living in the house, but before making such a massive investment, I wanted to know everything. 
When we got to the house, the home inspector had already started poking around the exterior. 
"This house is in really good shape," he said. "Sorry if I seem so surprised, but this house is in really good shape." 
That was reassuring to me.
Heat hadn't been on in the house in awhile and it was still snowing that day, so I spent most of the day freezing. As we were poking around the basement, we found a giant puddle and I came close to freaking out. Turns out, the current homeowner was working on something and took the water pump out. That was problematic on several fronts. We needed to test all the pipes and the water, but without water pressure, we were limited.
The sellers had still not checked a box on a disclosure form, but when he showed up at the house unexpected, he answered all of our questions about the house. 
Mark had mostly technical questions, I wanted to know about the outhouse behind the shop. It hasn't been used in years, but there are gaps in the boards covering the hole in the front and I just know Grover will find himself in that hole. I was curious if they'd dug it out, or treated it with chemicals or anything since Grover will dig and maybe eat the dirt. The seller said nothing had been done to it, but we did get a funny story. Turns out, it's not the original outhouse. The original was hit by a microburst (a mini tornado) and parts of it were never found. 
Who doesn't love a house with character?

I remember when I bought my first car. I was getting ready to move to Alabama from Fredericksburg, Va. My car, a used Toyota Camry with something like 200,000 miles on it, had bad tires and not a single car place in town could get them unthreaded. So, while visiting my little sister at the University of Virginia one weekend, I decided I'd go look at cars just to get an idea. We had movie tickets and everything for later in the day. 
We missed the movie and I bought a car. I had thought about it, knew what I wanted and got what I wanted, so I was happy. But I can't even tell you how many bouts of buyers remorse I had over the next few days. I've grown to love that car and it's my trusty little Corolla, but I still remember some restless sleep and "What the heck did I just do?" moments. 
So imagine that same girl buying a house. Guys, I couldn't sleep nights before bank appointments, my stomach actually hurts thinking about the finances and magnitude of buying a house. Now that the limbo phase is over, I can move into an action-oriented mental frame of mine, which tends to work well for me. Every so often, I can that weird feeling in my stomach like I get on rollercoasters (I hate rollercoasters, but more on that another day), when it all feels so overwhelming.
But, on the flip side, I'm super excited about not paying rent (that's not that much less than what our mortgage is) and making improvements on a rental house I really don't care for anyway and we get no benefit from as renters. At least when boyfriend feels like being handy in a house we own, it's an investment in our own house, our own life, our own well-being. 

Buying a house is stressful, y'all. 
When we walked into the bank together for our first appointment with the loan officer, I had already been near tears that morning and felt like my less than awesome finances were going to bring this whole thing crashing down. 
Mark told me not to worry. I looked at him and said "You know how most people are afraid of going to the dentist? I feel that way about going to the bank."
He laughed and said he was going to tell our loan officer that. 
I'm turning 30 this year and  one of my top goals was to get my finances under control. I had just paid off a loan and was over the moon about it and had made an aggressive plan to pay off credit cards within the year. Lesson learned, do not pay for grad school with credit cards. Just don't do it. Though it's a manageable situation, I really just want those balances gone. Gone! Just thinking about it makes me actually sick to my stomach. 
But, we had decided that this was the right house for us and if you know me, when the right opportunity knocks, I never turn it away. Buying a car was a big deal for me and though I love my car, I remember the epic buyers remorse I had right after I bought it. Then I paid it off early. Signing yearlong leases used to send me into a panic, but now I'm feeling pretty good about putting down some roots. Maybe it's because I'm turning 30 this year that I've become less terrified of roots. 
Between the two of us, we now have this under control and because I continue to have mini panic attacks about it, Mark now agrees with me that we'll have to tighten up on spending and actually develop a budget.
It will be challenging, but in a way, I feel really good about developing a reasonable budget and just be more thrifty. Part of that plan includes doing our own home improvement projects, I'll channel the love of sewing I used to have and make my own curtains, growing our own vegetables and more. 
I still remember my dad and I driving to my summer apartment in Fredericksburg, Va. and passing a very cool looking old house. I told my dad that I wanted to someday buy an old house and fix it up. Our new house is going to need some love, but our realtor said one of the best parts of buying a house is seeing past what it is to what it can be. Sure, it will take us years to fix all the things we already know we want to change, but it'll be a new kind of adventure and we're excited. Come along for the ride!