Hello, Blog World

So, things have been both exactly the same as always AND completely wacky.  We're neck-deep in home projects and other equally large purchases, and it's insane.  Rob and I keep looking at each other and saying, "And then we'll be done, right?"  Because, honestly, this last 6 months has been a little much.

What happened is that for 10 years we had no money.  Like, none.  We sacrificed because we had to, and because we preferred it over an indulgent lifestyle funded by credit.  During that time we made do with a dying duo of cars, a home that needed attention, and multiple appliances that were nearly dead.  So when we finally had money, all those things needed taken care of.  Fast.  We didn't anticipate the fast part.

Both cars have now been replaced.  (Never mind that Rob forced our hand on the one car that we could have kept alive.  Poor Rob.  He feels pretty terrible about that.)  The van left this world with 396,615 miles.  Good job, old man.  It's weird, though, to drive around in a new-ish Outback and Cruze, when we were so used to rocking out the old car thing.

Our home has now had a new roof installed, new flooring upstairs, and all the upstairs rooms touched up.  The basement has been professionally water-proofed and is currently under renovation by another group of professionals (who are AWESOME!  Seriously, if anyone needs a project done, these contractors are amazing).  In just a few weeks we'll have 2 new bedrooms, a bathroom, and an entertainment room down there.  We're almost doubling our livable space.

We finally purchased a new washer and dryer.  If you remember, years back the dryer tried to die on us a few times.  Fortunately, we were able to eek out a few good years with it.  Now, though, the dryer is only drying our clothes about every 3rd or 4th load.  So in a few weeks a new set will show up, and we're excited that it will actually, you know, clean and dry our clothes.

We've had people make comments about all our recent purchases ("Ooh.  Rolling in money now, huh?"), and Rob and I just sigh.  This wasn't the plan, but when you spend 10 years spending no money on things that needed money spent on them,  ...  this is what happens.

I do have to giggle, though.  I turned to Rob and joked, "But, Rob, how will we prove our self-worth next year?  We'll have to buy a newer car, I think."

This whole thing has stopped being completely devastating to me.  You'd think these purchases would somehow make me happy.  But it turns out that I really don't like spending money.  Now, though, it just is what it is.  I'm excited about our new basement, for sure, and I'm happy we have the money to fund these things that really should have been taken care of years ago (with the exception of the basement renovation - that one really is just for fun, as well as to make it so we don't have to move).  So it's not all doom and gloom.

Hope you're all doing well!  I do read everyone's blog, even if I'm not writing on my own.  :)