Thoughts on First-Time Home Ownership

Karl Chimes In… I am in the strangest position: For the first time in my life, I am a homeowner. And yet, despite the fact that…

I’m Quitting Smoking For Matilda

I’ve been a smoker on and off for way too many years. I quit and start, usually when stress is flares up. Of course, stress always…

Karl and I signed the paperwork with our contractor this week and did a walk-thru to confirm plans. He starts the demo work tomorrow … and…

Karl and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Saturday. I bought him a house; he bought me renovations. I think that’s what we’ll be giving…

I was flipping through old home-renovation memoirs and look what I found! Frances Mayes, the queen of buying a crazy old house, signed my book.…

So, yeah. I keep making my Karl sad. I continue to refer to the house as “mine” rather than ours. (See this post where I even…

Hello, this is Karl chiming in. About the name Matilda: The night before we closed on the house, we were trying to think of…

This is the lovely note we got from our sellers after the close. Have you ever heard of such a friendly sale? No drama, no…

We did it! We closed on the house yesterday. We are now the proud owners of Matilda! (Karl is posting on the blog in the next…