Home Sweat Home

Growing up, I would watch in astonishment as my parents tirelessly attempted to keep up with our house. If my mom wasn't organizing the rec room, she was cleaning the garage. If my dad didn't spend a Saturday fixing a sink, it was because he was too busy tarring the driveway. As a kid, I always thought, "Why all the work?" or "Wouldn't you rather be at the pool?" I just didn't get it. Now that I'm older, I can clearly see that our old house was indeed a money pit and required all the work that my parents put into it. It was laid out terribly wrong and it sat at the bottom of a sloped hill so that gallons of water made its way into our basement from time to time. The roof leaked, there was no central heat or A/C, and the kitchen sink backed up at least six times a year. And then there was the exterior. If I had a dollar for every hour that my dad spent high up on a ladder staining our wood-sided house, I'd be living in that dream home in Maui by now. Anyway, you get the point. It was A LOT of work for my parents, and for my siblings and me, who were forced to help out regularly. But aside from all the tiring labor and time spent working when I could have been swimming, it was our home and we all loved it. It was where my brother and I would watch TV together in the basement, where my dad would cheer on Penn State during their away games, where my sister would french braid my hair in the morning before school, where my mom would cook a huge dinner every Sunday night, and where I would sit in front of the fireplace with our dog. Nothing can overshadow those memories.

So when my husband and I debated whether or not to leap into home ownership a little over a year ago, I considered all the hours my parents spent dealing with repairs, renovations, etc. Did I want to step into that world? Renting a home doesn't require you to waste your precious weekend time on yard work. Alas, Brett and I came to the conclusion that owning a small piece of the world would outweigh the bad. So far, so good. Yes, it has been a stressful endeavor at times, what with all the paperwork, the 257 trips to Lowe's, and a chain smoking realtor who resembled the crotchety lady from "Monsters, Inc.". We've made renovations in every room and have spent countless hours griping, sweating, and shrugging our shoulders. And I finally get why my parents had to work so hard all those years. It is a never-ending process of jumping from one task to the next. But in the end, we have a home in which we are building a life together. Just me, Brett, and our four-legged guy. Whether we are watching a movie in our living room or entertaining friends and family around the dining room table, all of it happens in our very own slice of the world. Lucky for us, it's a slice that sits up on a hill.