So I’ve been trying to figure out how to write this post for blithering ages, because it needs to be said. No, before you worry, this isn’t me shutting this silly thing down. Rather, it’s an explanation for why I’ve been a bit wandery these past few months. Unfocused. Here and there.

Don’t make that face, it’s good news. And in that fashion, I’ll start with the easy stuff.

You know how I’ve been complaining for ages about the apartment Husband and I live in? That the ceiling leaks and the carpets are hideous and how we can’t keep this place under 85F in the summer for love nor money? We have resolved this problem by buying a house!

Ta-dah!

If you’ve been following my Twitter feed, you may have already garnered this news, because boy have I been complaining about the place we bought. Honestly, it was a bit of a dump. But that is what happens when you are a young couple living in a town that has a housing bubble. That’s right; in 2008, everyone else’s collapsed, while my town’s just got more specific. Due to the high numbers of locals buying houses and turning them into rentals for students, there is a severe deficit of homes in our price range, despite what that range being being the average in the state of Ohio.

This means that for the past two years, nearly everything we’ve looked at that we could afford has had foundation issues. For those of you who don’t know houses well, that means they’re falling down in one way or another. Some were sliding down a hill. Others were collapsing inward. One very special case had a basement wall secured to a retaining wall that was buckling. In other words, severe problems that made those houses a really terrible buy in the way that a house on the slopes of Krakatoa is a terrible buy.

So when a little place in a good neighborhood came up for sale, and its only flaws were drop ceilings, cat-pee stained carpets, improperly shored beams in the basement, a leaking chimney, a rotting kitchen, and a rust-stained bathroom, we leaped on that little darling and clamped down like mating frogs. Dream come true!

Does this crazy desperation make more sense when I mention that we toured the house less than twenty-four hours after it hit the market, and it already had six other tours lined up as well as a bid sight-unseen? Yes, the place was ugly as death inside, but there’s nothing a crowbar can’t solve. And has been solving. No, this isn’t our first DIY home renovation and likely won’t be the last. It’s sort of a relief to be filling a dumpster with filthy ceiling tiles instead of chapters I don’t like, and is also a good explanation for why I’ve not been writing much these past few weeks.

But wait, I hear you say, that’s weeks. You’ve been all wandery for months. How do you excuse those, huh?

Perfectly normal pregnancy symptom, of course.

Bwa ha ha, I love telling people this. I love that their eyes go wide and they go “Oh my Goddddd!” and ask a billion questions. So, before you ask: late August, was pretty sick for a month but mostly better now, haven’t checked and probably won’t, and rainbow floral Montessori.*

So, yep. I’ll probably do a post soonish about pregnancy, because I have Many Thoughts about this whole thing, but I’ll sum it up as: people have been awesome, wow am I glad to not have to sleep twelve hours a night anymore, this whole eating thing is complicated, and corporate America, despite claiming to want to part me from my money, apparently doesn’t, more fools them.

House and a baby! Baby and a house! As my brother put it, Husband and I are getting all our major life decisions out of the way at the same time. But that’s always sort of been our thing. First we had simultaneous job changes, beginning cohabitation, and a domestic move, then an international move and a wedding. Now it’s Small Thing and a cottage with no right angles. And I do mean cottage. You really don’t get much for your money around here.

So that’s what’s been going on. Exciting? I suppose. Probably more exciting for those who haven’t been gulping water by the gallon and discovering that their entire wardrobe no longer fits. Have I mentioned that I don’t handle stress well? Now it literally makes me sick! This is not helpful! But then Small Thing flops around a bit and all is well.

It’s all good news, more or less. Just perhaps not great news for my writing schedule. But unless one is making one’s living from said writing, it can’t be priority. Right now my energy is focused on not only having a roof over my head when the apartment lease runs out in a month, but having a ceiling as well. And a floor. And at least one working sink. And not lead paint everywhere. Ah, the heady taste of home ownership!**

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*For those of you who haven’t had pregnant friends and therefore don’t know what questions you are most likely to ask, they are When are you due, how are you feeling, what sex is the baby, and how are you doing the nursery***?

**Gas station coffee, carpet underlay dust, and lead paint.

***Actually, the last one isn’t that common but I wanted to answer it, so there.