Buying a house at 23

Yes, I did that thing. That crazy thing where you buy a house just 6 months after graduating college. Want to know what's even crazier? I bought it for my labrador pup; a pup I got my last semester of college. Smart? Nah. But did/does she make me so so happy? Well yeah. Just take one look at her and you'll understand.

So, after graduating and starting my first full-time job, I quickly realized that having a high-energy lab in a ~800 sqft apartment wasn't a good fit. I immediately started looking for homes so that she could live free in a backyard of her own. The search was fairly painless, but the housing marketing was on fire within the price range that I was looking at. I had to act fast. Within a few weeks I had made an offer on a cute little house in an up-and-coming neighborhood on the west side of Springfield. I couldn't wait to get in there and make it my own.

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Now, at this point I'm sure you're asking "how is a girl who just graduated college able to afford the downpayment on a new home?". My amazing/wonderful/fantastic/giving parents, that's how. They had started a fund for me that was intended to be a wedding fund. Well, I had no intentions of getting married any time soon (LOL) and they said I could absolutely take a small portion out to help cover the downpayment on my new home. So, with that and some savings I had from working through high school and college, I was on my way to becoming a first time home buyer!

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Now that I've lived here for a little over four years, I've made several updates to the house. When I moved in, there were a lot of things I wanted to change. For example, there was carpet throughout the house that I just HAD to rip out. That was the first to go. Within the first year I had personally torn it out and replaced with a laminate wood flooring. I've painted every room and trim board, added a backsplash in the kitchen and landscaped the exterior. Now I love my little starter home and am so happy I made the decision to buy (and so are my pups).

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Do ya'll get the itch to make design changes like ALL THE TIME like me? I constantly find myself looking for small ways I could change/update the look of my home. More on that later ;)