My grandfather passed away in 2004 and I bought his house in 2006. My then-boyfriend (now husband) at and I dove in head first. The house was brown and ugly and falling apart in a lot of ways. The 50s and sometimes 70s had thrown up and no one had cleaned up the mess. Enter two kids fresh out of college. We handled it...and sometimes we didn't.
When the ceiling, PBR caps and ads for antihistamine fell in the foyer, we bought sheetrock and fixed it right up. We also spent tireless hours peeling wallpaper and painting, gutting rooms and rebuilding them. Replacing newspaper insulation with the real stuff. Removing a heater older than the two of us, and replacing it with one from this century.
We also had our worst fights. We fought over things that we laugh about now. During one, I slammed the front door so hard it broke. And we had to fix that too.
Not once did we think we had a clue about what we were doing. When we got our mortgage we signed all the papers and we didn't question the nice man on the other side of the table about anything. We were sublimely ignorant. We had many bumps along the way to say the least. And there are times when I feel as though we have made my grandparents proud...bumps and all.
The house turned out great if I do say so myself. You can see it here if you like http://bit.ly/cei2xZ, because in this crazy market, we are in fact selling this house, our first. And we still have no clue what we are doing.
So here we are, friends for 11 years, married for almost 2 years, homeowners for almost 4 years and under 30...we are completely clueless. Sublimely ignorant.