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The radio silence is over. Michael and I are finally, finally in our new house, and I can breathe again. The process went smoothly and quickly - but it still took over a month!

I thought I knew what to expect, since I spent my entire childhood in a house, but, after four years in dorms and apartments, owning my own place is even more magical than I imagined.

During the pre-buying process, both sets of parents suggested maybe buying a condo as a starter place, but I (and Michael) were completely against this. Our rule was our walls couldn't touch anyone else's walls. (We later had to modify this to also disallowing homes where we could touch someone else's house while still standing on our own land - some cities here really jam their houses together!)

I'm still adjusting sleep-wise to a new place with new ambient noise, but I can't get over how amazing it is that it is quiet enough to sleep virtually whenever I want. (Irony - our neighbors had a huge birthday party for their son the day after we moved, but it wrapped at 7 PM!) I knew being in an environment with the possibility of loud noise was really stressing me out, but I didn't realize how much until Sunday night when I started noticing lots of palpable tension in my shoulders and back around 9:30.

I'm also adjusting to a new running environment. While we're still in a suburb of Cleveland, we're straddled right on the edge of a county of nothing but farmland. This means that while our subdivision has nice sidewalks (and some running paths!), the surrounding area has none. It took me a minute to realize I can just run along the road safely because we're out in the country, but it will take some getting used to. For what it's worth, everyone on my run this morning was super courteous!

But to get to the important part - the house! We were really lucky to find a city that had homes with all our "needs" (an attached two car garage is a must in Northeast Ohio but surprisingly hard to come by) within our price range. I can't decide what my favorite part is yet (if you don't count the peace and quiet). However, a little work needs to be done. My parents came to help, and they get a huge shout-out for whipping our exterior back into shape.

Yard mowed, landscaping weed-whacked, trees pruned, mulch added.

We do need to call in a few tradespeople to fix a few minor things (ie, our dishwasher isn't attached to anything and tries to run away while being loaded), and our radon mitigation is scheduled for next week. There are a few minor aesthetic items to tackle as well. We started with spackling some giant holes left in the spare bedrooms, under the tutelage of my dad, - but next up will be painting over the giant baseball motif in the guest bedroom.

This is how I react whenever I look at it.

When we're supposed to tackle all these tasks, I have no idea! We're out of town the next two weekends (ok, we will be here Sunday, but I'm not sure finishing up the mulching would be fun the day after a marathon), and gone every weekend in July. Luckily, Michael has the option to work from home, so we can at least get the trades out ASAP and just deal with everything else...some time. (Our first guest will almost certainly be my best friend, and she assured me as long as the baseball room is climate controlled, she will be happy!)

I don't want to sound like I'm whining though - I will happily figure this whole thing out in turn for living in place that is actually mine. Which is a weird concept in and of itself. I was thinking this morning it'd be nice to have a little shelf or basket by the door for my Garmin and iPod - then I realized I could put in whatever I wanted! I think I'm focusing on the more straight-forward tasks first, because the thought that Michael and I could theoretically change everything is a little overwhelming.

But back to this weekend, we'll be running the Hatfield-McCoy Marathon! I'm super excited, especially since I'll have a sign to look for, since I'm a repeat runner. Plus the atmosphere is so much fun - everyone is so much more relaxed and outgoing without a time limit.

But - the predicted high is almost 90 degrees, and the written description for the day is "humid." I ended up being sore from moving (!!), but my legs felt fresh and normal today after a super slow, dead-legged run Monday morning. I'm hoping with a little more rest this week, they will be ready to go come Saturday. Either way, Michael and I are just running this one for fun together.

And no matter what happens, I know we have a home to come back to.