Tale of a First-Time Home Buyer: My Grass Is Dying and I'm Out of Towels

I have a problem. My grass is dying! I have never taken care of a yard before. I have either lived in an apartment or somewhere where the landlord maintained the property. But we are now happy homeowners! And well, I guess I better water the lawn. But with what? I don’t have a hose or a sprinkler. And if I water it, it will start to grow and then I’ll have to cut it. And cut it with what? I don’t have a lawnmower either!!

It’s this line of thinking that makes us realize all of the things that one needs for a house that you don’t ever think about until you need them. Sure, we had a bathroom set from our apartment – a nice matching mat and toilet cover, some hand towels and a cute little shower curtain. The only problem is that now we need several! We used to buy a 24 pack of toilet paper from the greatest store in the world, Costco, and the TP would last six months. Now that we’re in the new house, we get home and stick a roll on every holder and one or two extra under every sink, and our previously everlasting stash is half gone! How about trash cans? Ever think about trash cans? Me neither--until now!

My wife also insists that we have a welcome mat at the inside and outside of every door so people can wipe their feet before they enter. That’s six welcome mats! Then there are things like coffee tables. Very convenient and useful, sure, but not exactly the top of our priority list! So, holding a drink? Finish it; there’s nowhere to put it down.

It's not like we live in a mansion, but there are just more rooms here than we ever used to have to worry about. I guess we are slowly understanding why when you are starting out, your house can tend to look a bit empty. And we have to resist the urge to want our home to look as cozy and full as, say, our parents' homes--it takes years to build up what we have in our homes. And someday, yes, we'll have a coffee table, but like everyone else, we'll also be having garage sales because we have too much stuff!

So it can be frustrating or awkward in the new house sometimes, but I feel like somehow these are the times we will look back on fondly. Some of the situations we find ourselves in as new homeowners are just plain funny. When it comes down to it, none of these things are the end of the world by any means. And the neat part is that there are tons of people who have gone through exactly the same experiences that we are having right now. We are joining a new "club"--and we are quite happy to be members, coffee table, or not.

So I find myself again looking out the window as I type. Man the grass looks bad. I just want to run over to the neighbor’s yard and re-position his shiny new sprinkler so it covers my yard too. I guess I have to go and buy a hose and sprinkler. And a whole bunch of other stuff...garage sales, Costco--here we come!