Tales of a First-Time Home Buyer: Our First House Guests

So we have been in our house about one month now and we already have our first house guests. My parents, who ran off retired to Florida three days after we got married last October, are visiting along with my 19-year-old little brother. My brother is a soon-to-be Junior at the University of Miami. They are our first overnight house guests.

They arrived on June 30th. This is the plan: They visit for a few weeks, then travel up to Connecticut and New York for a week and a half, then they return for another week, and then we all travel down to Duck, NC for our annual Picard beach vacation the first week of August. Yeah, that’s right. My parents are visiting for a month.

Everyone’s eyes get big when I say that. “A month? Oh my gosh, I’m sorry,” is what they say. But it’s really not bad at all. It gave my wife and I an excuse to spruce our guest room and other areas of the house we may not have fully moved into just yet. As far as having to entertain guests for a month, well, we aren’t used to feeding five people every night, but they have been helping with groceries and my folks have actually taken everyone out to eat a few times.

The weird thing is that we have been in the house only one month so far and we haven’t really developed any sort of routine yet. Anything slightly resembling a routine has been smashed to pieces at this point but it’s been great having them around. And they have helped us out with so many things already, such as hanging some shelves in the garage and helping put pictures on the walls. Also, just talking about things with them helps me think of things I never thought of before. It’s a different dynamic than it used to be – it’s still my mom and dad, but we are also friends. They advise me instead of telling me what to do and I can take it or leave it (though I usually take it quite happily). And they’re fun. We have a bottle of wine (or three) several nights a week and we all hang out and laugh uncontrollably as we watch terrible shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos and Wipeout.

My folks have been sleeping in the guest room upstairs. They say they have been comfortable and sleeping well, so that’s good enough for me. My little bro sleeps on the air mattress in the basement. I offered to put it in the other guest room (previously referred to as the red-headed step child room) but he preferred to set up his home base in the basement where he could have his own bathroom and easy access to the big TV down there – a decision wise beyond his years if you ask me.

Half of their visit is over already. My parents left for Connecticut yesterday and won’t return until Saturday July 24th. My brother stayed to split time between my house and my sister’s apartment over in Alexandria.

It has all gone very well. I’m glad our new house can be a hub for the family; in the past when my parents visited they always stayed with my sister because her apartment was bigger than ours. I’m so proud that we have enough room to put up three people in our place for over a month. I love having them and I keep telling them I wouldn’t mind if they stayed forever. And I really mean it...OK, well sort of…