Neighbors!

When we bought our house, there were two others for sale on the block. Part of a development deal gone sour, they had been vacant for a while. The copper had been ripped out of the walls, stained glass windows stolen.

Because we had a cheerfully apathetic approach to the whole house hunting process, it did not occur to us that buying a property on the border of two of the most economically depressed neighborhoods in Pittsburgh and adjacent to 2 abandoned houses that were owned by a bankrupt development company might be a bit of a PITA. And that we might spend a lot of time over the next two years on the phone with various city government officials. And even more time chasing vagrants, drug dealers and junkies away.

Today, our neighbors are moving in. We went on the tour of the house yesterday and it is Unbelievable.

M and I are feeling inspired. To us, a house you own is nice because you don't have to move, you don't share walls with crackheads who shout out strange phrases in the middle of the night, and there's lots and lots of room for jars of fermented things (that's all M).

We are less fond of the responsibilities that come with it. Like worrying about whether the chimney is going to blow over and crush our brand new car in the 40 mph winds that blew through the other day. Who was supposed to call the mason?! Not me, I thought you were going to take care of it. And our current home security system consists of a refrigerator parked in front of the back door. (Ain't nobody getting in that door now!)

I have friends who bought houses they fell in love with. They have Pinterest boards to organize their design ideas, and spend their weekends changing tile and repainting the walls. I want to live in their houses. I want a magic fairy to come and fix up my house.

I know that in reality, nobody is going to come and do that and I'm going to spend a lot of time on the weekends painting and hemming curtains.

However, now that we have neighbors, it seems like a better investment.