A Little Bit of This. A Little Bit of That: My (soon to be) New Home

     School will be out in 7 days, and I cannot wait to enjoy a couple months of ~~relaxation with some wedding celebrations in between~~ wedding celebrations with some relaxation in between :). Summer approaching also means the end of my lease is coming very soon. I have been bouncing various ideas around in my head for the last couple of months of what I was going to do when my lease ended.

     Almost all of my close friends (roommate candidates) are getting married or they have moved away, so I figured I would be moving somewhere and living alone. Living alone is fine with me, I don't have to worry about anyone else and their mess irking me or my mess irking anyone else. However, I have serious anxiety and tend to freak myself out A LOT thinking that I am going to get robbed, killed, kidnapped, etc and so with my craziness in mind I was going to have to find somewhere I knew I would feel safe by myself. Sadly, I was finding that the only places I found that provided me with what I was looking for were going to cause me to be broke and be forever stuck in my apartment with no funds to do much else. It was at that point that I decided I would start investigating buying a house. I was/am tired of throwing so much money away into something that leaves me with nothing to show for. All of the deposits, regulations, and other trivial things that come along with renting and apartment have worn me thin these last 4 years and I wanted to look into other options.

     The house hunting began. I made some calls, found out an estimate of what I would be able to afford, looked in areas I knew I would like to live, and talked with my parents several times about this whole idea. While I was exploring my "buying a house" options, my grandfather, who was 96 years old, passed away. This was a very difficult time for my whole family, he was such an inspiring man who is greatly missed every day by many people. Through this unfortunate loss, I somehow managed to gain a new opportunity - to live in his home. The house he lived in is a house I have known my entire life. It has been in our family for quite some time, in fact, my parents even lived there the first year they were married. My grandpa left the house to my dad and his 3 sisters. I mentioned to my dad that I might be interested in living there if everything worked out ok. It was in the area I was looking to buy a house and it was a place that already felt like a second home. After a multitude of discussions between my dad and me and his sisters and him, we decided that I could move in the house in July and rent it from them.

     So here I am, back to renting, but I don't feel like I am just throwing my money away this time. Due to the fact that it is my families home, I won't be tied down to a lease (in case something were to happen), required to pay stupid deposits and pet fees, and it allows me to live somewhere more or less stress free to buy me more time to figure out if I will be in Memphis long enough to make buying a house worth my while. Another positive to this situation - I have found a roommate (more than likely) which makes this whole thing even better! I will be spending a lot less money than I would have been anywhere else, I am not tying myself to down to staying in Memphis by buying a house, and what I think is the best part - I get to watch this house transform over the next couple of months. This house is old and it out just plain out-dated. We are going to re-paint the whole house, re-do one floor, and refinish all of the hardwood floors. I am going to try and blog with updates as they come and I really can't wait to see the "before" and "afters" and share them with my little blog family. For now I am only going to put up before pictures of the... interesting... bathrooms I have to work with. I am looking to figure out what color to paint them. We will paint them as well as re-do the wall decor. I wish we could just gut them and get rid of that hideous tile, but that just isn't in the cards right now, so I will have to find other ways to make due. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts!!