Oh the joy of being a homeowner..

Before Derrick and I got married, he decided to buy a house. He was ready to move out and start our life together. We found a townhouse on 800 north in Provo. Our house is around 1,200 Sq Ft. with 2 bathrooms and a second floor. Although this house needs some work (new cabinets, carpet, doors, base boards & bathtub) but we've enjoyed it so far. We have super nice neighbors who are super quite and pretty much keep to themselves. We were a little worried about noise since both sides of our house are shared with other people, but to much surprise our house is made of cinder block. Which blocks out EVERYTHING. I have NEVER heard our neighbors and hopefully they've never heard me (ha). It's a very great, secluded area that is surrounded by trees. Although, the train tracks are only about a half mile away but we've lived here so long the train doesn't even faze us.

Along with the joys and benefits of homeownership, comes EXTREME stress. Since our home is older we have some updates to complete and some things to fix thanks to our bulldog who decided to make door frames and base boards his chew toys. Recently with all the rain, we discovered a leak in our upstairs bathroom vent. One day it rained so much and it leaked so bad that we had to put a gallon bucket upstairs to catch all the rain. By the time I got home from work the next day it was COMPLETEY full. Once the rained stopped, our HOA came and fixed the roof but we noticed that the ceiling in our bathroom was starting to bow. We told our HOA what was happening and the DENIED that it was their responsibility to fix even though it was caused by an exterior issue. It has taken almost 2 MONTHS for the HOA to finally admit that it's their responsibility. We have had the same issue with a pipe connected to our cooling. Once again, since our house is old the heating and cooling system is as old as the dinaours themselves. At the beginning of summer, we had ZERO heat, why? Because the previous owners jacked up the wiring so we had to have someone come in and re-wire the thermostat. After that, we had the cooling on FULL blast (even then our house was still an average of 72-76 degrees) and after about 2-3 months we noticed water was on our downstairs bathroom door. Derrick did some investigating and found that a pipe up in our cooling was leaking and had totally warped our door to the point that it barely even closes. Once again the HOA denied it was their issue and ignored us. Finally after what seemed like forever they said they'd have it fixed. Well, it's been about 2 months and we have heard nothing from the guy who's supposed to fix it! I am an extremely anxious person, so having all these issues has been super difficult for me. BUT! that's the joy of being a homeowner, right?

Among other things, Derrick and I are still working full time, we got our $8,000 tax credit last month and decided to buy me a car! I've been searching and researching tons of different cars for months now and finally had narrowed it down to 3 cars I could 1: afford 2: commute in & 3: look cute in. Yes, cute in. I know that's a totally ridiculous factor to add to buying a car, but HEY I'm a girl, a very girly girl. We decided on a Kia Soul aka The Hamster Car. I LOVE this car. It is SO great. AND I got rid of my Olds, HALELUJAH. We traded it in for $750 and got a $500 credit because Derrick owns a Civic. SAWEET!

Wilson is a year old. He still acts like a puppy which is cute and annoying at the same time. He enjoys watching T.V, chewing on EVERYTHING and loves to run in circles in our living room. I'm sad that he spends all of his time in the kennel all day long and doesn't have someone to play with but I guess that's life. His recent naughtiness is to sneak the kitchen run and chew on it. This makes me SO ANGRY. Derrick and I have gone over this hundreds of times but he still can't quite grasp it. Derrick keeps telling me that it's "all in preparation for babies". I guess my patience-o-meter is really on the low side recently.