I can’t believe it — when I was listing all my resolutions yesterday, I forgot to mention the “big one” that I’ve been pondering for a while now but haven’t made public:
This year, I hope to buy a house. !!!
The thought of buying a house is scary, but with the changes in my life that happened in 2006 — notably the new job — the thought of buying a house is starting to sound a lot more appealing. This summer will mark 5 years of full-time employment in Houston for me. That’s 5 years of full-time residency. (I always feel the need to distinguish between the time I was co-oping and the point at which I moved here “for real.”)
When I moved to Houston “for real” in July 2002, I didn’t know how long I would be here. I had illusions of going back to grad school to get a Ph.D., but I realized quickly that more education in engineering is not what I want. After a couple years, I began to realize that my current job wasn’t quite what I wanted long-term, and I started looking around and even did one job interview, and thought I might leave Houston again. For four years, I never seriously considered buying a house because, in the back of my mind, I thought living in Houston might be temporary.
But now I have a new job, one that I am excited about, and one that I plan on sticking with at least until the space shuttle stops flying in order to accomplish the goals of training for and working flights at my new positions. That shouldn’t be any earlier than 2010. And so I am finally faced with the reality of staying in Houston for at least four more years.
I say “faced with the reality” as if it is a bad thing, but it’s not. I have grown to like Houston in my own weird way. I still think it’s a rather ugly city, and of course the climate could be better, and it could be closer to mountains and hiking….and on and on. But I’ve lived here long enough now that it feels like home, and it feels like my city. I’m finally comfortable with the idea of owning property and making my presence here more permanent.
So: this year I hope to buy a house. My lease is up at the end of August, so I plan to start looking late in the spring.
At this rate, 2007 might be even bigger than 2006.
No worries, Sarah. Your 14-miler was a key run. Missing a couple of light(er) workouts isn’t going to hurt you. Just get back on the wagon. You’ll be fine.
I hope you can find a window with no rain to get that run in today!
Yea, buying a house is a MAJOR deal, im still pondering the thought as well.
And Wow 10 more days till the Houston run, cant wait, even tho Ive been sick!!
We’ll be just fine!!
have fun and dont beat yourself up over the runs, your ready
I’ve actually… gasp… been contemplating starting to run again. contemplating only. need motivation.
We met all of our neighbors before having our house built (ours was the last…by years…to be built in our neighborhood). 10-12 years later and all but one have moved due to jobs in another state/country, but our “new” neighbors are all great too.
It’s a good time to buy though, so I hope you find something you like!
So cool about the house! You’ll be tapping into another really great Houston feature – reasonable housing prices.
Don’t give the missed workouts a second thought, Vic speaks the truth.