Buying A House - 1 Year On

Sunday marked a whole year since we picked up the keys to our very own home. It seems strange - I can remember that day as vividly as if it was yesterday - the excitement of opening the front door for the first time, the pride we had running from room to room, the joy of sitting on our living room floor, eating fish and chips from the paper and drinking champagne to celebrate. But at the same time, it already feels like we've lived here forever. I suppose that's a sign of somewhere feeling like home. Sam and I had lived together for 4 years before we bought our own place, in 3 different flats/houses. All of them felt homely, but none of them felt like our home. When there's the possibility that your landlord could ask you to pack up at any time, it's hard to feel truly settled, and I found that the limitations of renting meant that we could never really make anywhere look exactly like we wanted it to.

That said, our current house is definitely the least pretty out of all the places we've lived together (our kitchen is blue for god's sake!), but despite that, there's a really sense of contentment that comes with knowing that we'll be here for a good old while. It makes me more patient with doing it up as I know that there's no rush, and slowly being able to put our own stamp on it has made me so happy (if also slightly stressed and very poor). Looking back at what we've managed to achieve already in the past year makes me so proud - it's amazing what you can do with a bit of elbow grease and a wallpaper steamer!

We've managed to get all of our bedrooms looking how we want them, and other than a few finishing touches, our living room is also done too. I'm so excited to get stuck into renovating the kitchen and the bathroom once the wedding is done - I've got a lot of Pinterest inspo saved up for those. I also can't wait until the weather is a little bit better and we can get our little garden tidied up again - I thoroughly enjoyed having a little outdoor space to hang out in last summer, and this year I'm determined to try my hand at growing some veggies.

As you all know, I love to travel and explore new places, and I never really thought that having a permanent base was a priority for me. However, I'm learning that I'm a real homebird at heart, and knowing that we'll be coming home to the same place for the next few years fills me with more happiness than I could have imagined.

Being a homeowner has been hard work - the DIY really is as stressful as everyone says it is and there isn't a landlord to ring whenever something goes wrong. But I can honestly say that it's been worth all of the stress and money and ruined fingernails (why did nobody warn me about those!?). Having our own place has made me happier, calmer and more content than I could have imagined. I know that one day in the future we'll want to move, but for now, there's no place I'd rather life. It's home.