Y’all. Just about a year ago Hunter and I had signed hundreds of pages of paperwork, paid a down payment, picked up keys, and officially became homeowners.  Whodathunkit.

We didn’t move into 2433 until late April, but we’ve been homeowners for a year and haven’t burned the place down, so needless to say we’ve learned a few things.  Here’s a list of the top 5 lessons learned as first time homeowners.

5. Things break and you get to fix them

The only thing I miss about the apartment is the maintenance department, and they weren’t even that good.  Now we’re the maintenance department.  Things break at the worst times and it’s just plain ole annoying to figure out how to fix it or call someone to fix it.  I will say I’ve learned things I never thought I’d learn this year, but most importantly I’m extremely grateful for Hunter’s knowledge (and his dad).

My piece of advice: Get a home warranty plan.  Totally worth every penny.  Any day now our HVAC should be dying, but we won’t have to pay for the replacement.

4. Pinterest isn’t realistic

I love Pinterest, and get a lot of ideas, projects, and recipes from there, but it portrays this unrealistic utopia, not reality.  As much as I love pinning white, clean kitchens with pops of color, my kitchen looks nothing like that… and I get to wipe the cat hair off my stovetop each day (Cleo, you are not sneaky).  A girl can dream of her kitchen renovation and huge, clean house, but until then Pinterest is for inspiration, not comparison.

3. House to home transition takes awhile

Every time I move, I have these grand plans of finishing my dorm / apartment / home within a week or two of moving in, and then reaping the benefits of a house that magically looks the pages of Coastal Living.   In reality it was 6 months in our house before I wasn’t embarrassed to have friends over, and even now I still look around and immediately see so many projects to complete.  Case in point: we just got the ceiling fixed from the AC unit fiasco that happened 7 months ago.

I’m not a miracle worker, I don’t have an unlimited budget, and that’s okay.  Things will get done when we have the time and resources to get them done.  Hey, at least we don’t have tailgate chairs in the living room anymore..

2. Your to-do list never ends

This was Hunter’s addition to the list.  I am totally guilty of making to-do lists for everything in my life, but the home to-do list is the longest.  And it’s always growing.  We literally have a sheet of paper on the fridge and I have a e-post it note on my computer with house projects.  It seems like we add more than we cross off, but damn it feels good to cross things off!

While the to-do list is never ending, I love working with Hunter to come up with a vision for our house and slowly make that a reality.

1. Home is where the heart is

I had to have something cheesy on here…  Whether it was the one bedroom apartment or our little home, it just matters that Hunter, and Cleo are with me.  And that my family and friends want to come over and stay with us.  What’s the point of a house if you can’t make memories in it?

This year has been quite the adventure, and I’m sure I’m going to learn even more in the upcoming years.    After officially kicking it off with a house warming party, football games, supper club, New Years Eve party, and numerous guests — it’s been quite a year of memories already!

Thanks to all of you for making it so fun — Cheers!