Hey guys sorry I’ve taken a while between updates again. Here you go! And thanks for all the reviews so far.

I could hardly wipe the smile of victory off my face when Justin saw the house and fell in love with it. We made a fantastic deal with Gary. In exchange for Justin doing a lot of the work on the house, he would pay the electricity bill and knock two hundred dollars off the rent until the house was in better shape.

I was ecstatic to have the house instead of an apartment and Justin seemed pleased as well. We signed on the dotted line and handed over the first and last months’ rent a few days after Justin’s last exam.

“I just need a few days to clear out my mother’s things from the house. And I want to get those new appliances in that we talked about. But I don’t have a problem giving you two the keys a few days early.”

Having been so concerned with actually finding a place to live, there were other issues we had forgotten about. The most pressing issue being furniture. We didn’t have very much.

As Kyle, Jason and I pitched in to help move Justin’s things out of his student house I took a close look at the ugly old furniture we were carrying out and shuddered when I tried to picture it in our new place. The seventies plaid sofa had been plenty comfortable in a house full of semi-grown men but I was not about to let it ruin the décor of my first place.

I picked a hideous blue lamp off the coffee table in the living room, wondering if I dropped it and broke it, would anyone be upset. Maybe Justin had been stubborn about finding a new place, but I was determined to keep our nice place just that. Nice!

Once we had finished filling a rental truck with Justin’s college belongings, everyone slumped on to the porch for pizza and beer. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“Ya, I hope you guys don’t mind doing it again in a few weeks. We’ll have more help at the house.”

“Oh god,” Kyle wiped some sweat from his forehead. “Seriously?”

“I’m sick that day,” Jason joked.

“No way, you’re family. You have to help! I’m enlisting everybody,” I cried. “If we get enough people done we can have it done super quick.”

“And we’ll have beer,” Justin added, since that always seemed to help.

We could move in as soon as July but Gary handed over a set of keys much earlier so we could paint and do a few repairs before moving in.

We started taking down the outdated wallpaper that seemed to be all over the place. If Justin was annoyed with doing home repairs all day at work and then more in the evenings he didn’t say so. We would work though the evenings removing paper and tearing out carpets. I spent most of my days off in Home Depot looking at paint chips and light fixtures or plowing through the summer sale at Ikea. Come hell or high water, I was not furnishing our house with Justin’s school cast offs.

To start with we would use Justin’s bedroom furniture from his parents’ house until we could afford a set that was more my taste as well. We splurged and bought a nice dining set from Ikea and some new dishes and things for the kitchen. Claire and Matt decided to do some redecorating and gave us their family room furniture which saved a ton of money.

Once the pink carpet and hideous appliances were gone, I could hardly wait until we moved in.

Moving day went easily because we recruited every friend and family member with in driving distance. We had two U-Hauls to carry everything from both of our houses and once we reached the new house everyone jumped in to action carrying our belongings inside. Claire, my grandmother and Justin’s mom appointed themselves in charge of the kitchen, unpacking all of our dishes and things. I noticed later they had snuck in some new treats for us, including a brand new toaster and other various items.

The men grunted and sweated through the day with the furniture, while my cousins and girlfriends struggled with boxes and smaller items.

Much later in the afternoon Justin’s parents slipped out to pick up dinner for everyone. We ate off of paper plates on the deck, which was now home to a hand-me-down patio set courtesy of Justin’s aunt.

The older adults cleared out and everyone had their fair share of beer.

“Maybe I should put sheets on the futon in case anyone needs to stay over,” I suggested to Justin, I was perched between his legs on the deck.

“No way, we’re spending our first night in here by ourselves! I’ll pay for their cabs myself if I need to.”

Later as we were finally drifting off to sleep on fresh sheets in our unfamiliar room, I leaned my head on Justin’s shoulder.

“Can you believe it?” I whispered.

“Barely,” he answered and kissed me on the forehead.