Today is my one-year anniversary of finding my house, so I’ve now seen it through a full year.

It was actually a year ago last night that I first saw the listing, and I dismissed it. It just didn’t look viable — a 4-bedroom house in a bit more than 1,100 square feet (plus half basement). From the pictures in the listing, I couldn’t figure out how I’d arrange my furniture in the living room, and I didn’t need four bedrooms. But then my brain had other ideas, and I got no sleep that night as my brain arranged things. One of the bedrooms had sliding doors opening onto a deck. Why not use that as the living room? It’s a bit weird to have the kitchen and dining room downstairs and the living room up with the bedrooms, but why not? (It turns out that’s how the house was set up — there’s not even a door on the “bedroom” used as a living room) Then the downstairs could be the dining room and sort of a reception area. The house was old but the kitchen was new, and I really liked the deck.

The next morning, a year ago today, my Realtor contacted me while I was in the process of contacting her, and we set up the viewing later that morning. It was one of those “throw on clothes and run” situations, but the house was only a few blocks from where I was living. I’d never even looked at this part of town, mostly because there weren’t any listings. I didn’t know this street existed. The location was good, in walking distance of downtown and the parks but not on the main street. I loved the wooded back yard. And the moment I stepped into the house, I had the weird feeling that this was mine. It was an odd layout. The rooms were tiny, but I thought I could make it work. I had a vivid mental image of sitting on a couch in that living room, drinking tea and watching it rain or snow on the back yard (I got to do a lot of that this winter).

I wrestled with the decision for the rest of the day. It wasn’t at all what I’d envisioned as my house, so I was having to readjust my ideas and sit with the change, but the next day I told my Realtor I wanted to make an offer. It was accepted the next day. Now I almost can’t imagine living anywhere else. It’s like it was meant to be.

They’d had to do some re-grading of the lot and had put down grass seed under straw, and they’d mowed what was apparently a wild yard, so I didn’t get a good sense of what it was like at this time of year. This year I’m seeing that the yard is full of bulbs of some kind. The daffodils have started blooming, but I don’t know what else is out there yet. This was a particularly cold winter, with the cold weather lingering longer (we had snow last week and a few flurries Tuesday of this week), so spring may be delayed somewhat this year. It’ll be nice to be a lot less hectic in late March and April this year, since last year was a whirlwind. I had the house inspection the week after I first saw the house, then closed on the house in early April and started moving stuff over before the furniture got moved in late April and I cleared out the apartment during the rest of that month. I actually started packing right after I got off the phone with the Realtor when she told me I got the house. I figured I was going to be moving sooner or later, so I might as well box up books.

Now I’m settled. I’m still making adjustments as I get used to being in the house and figure out what I need, but it’s getting there. Next up will be trying to get ahead of the yard as spring sets in and the plants wake up. I let the yard get pretty wild last summer, but now I can identify the weeds I want to get rid of before they get big, and I’m going to add some plants.

I’m looking forward to a whole year without moving. It was around this time two years ago that I started making firm plans to move here. I found out about the apartment in late March and was here in May, so that was a blur. It’s nice to be settled.