Entering the World of Grown-ups

I know I've been to college. I know I have a full time job, and have had it for a few years now. I know I've been engaged, gotten married, and had a baby. I know all of those things are adult things to do, but today I think I crossed the final threshold. I bought a house. This is what the house looks like. The person walking away is Husband. He's carrying the carseat where Baby's hanging out.
Buying a house was a pretty involved process, but I think Husband and I managed to do it in the least grown-up way possible. Awhile back, I broached the idea of living with my mother for the next few years until she can live at her weekend home full-time. Both Husband and my mother were surprisingly receptive of this idea, and when Baby was about six weeks old, I got my ass in gear and started house hunting. My mother found our realtor and mortgage broker. All I had to do was fill out a few forms and go look at some houses. My mother wrote check after check after check. Husband and I went to the closing. Seriously. That's pretty much it. She sponsored the whole thing, but our names are on the deed, and if something happens, we're the ones up shit creek. It's frightening.
House buying is something I didn't expect to do, but I guess it's part of my life rapidly changing for these past few years. I hope things settle down soon. I wish buying a house was something Husband and I could have done on our own, but with him going to graduate school, me teaching Catholic school, and us having recently reproduced, it wasn't feasible. I'm thankful that my mother was willing to help out, and I'm interested in seeing how the living situation unfolds.
The house is small, about 1600 square feet. It seems like a lot of square footage, but the ceilings upstairs are very low due to the way the roof is built. The rooms are also small, as is the kitchen. It's also black and white tile, which I'm not super fond of, and the floor is this horrible yellow vinyl pattern that was in the bathrooms of our old apartment. It's strange how the house that seemed so perfect when we walked through and discussed it's potential as a home seems so different now that we own it. Today I noticed so many aspects of the house that I want to change. Some are little things, like the light switch covers the previous owner left.
Others are bigger, like refinishing the hardwood floors or replacing the hideous frosted glass in the downstairs bathroom. Those are changes that can wait until we have the time, money, or absolute need to change.
One reason this house is great though, is the yard. I will have to learn to garden, at least some.

The previous owner also left a doghouse, which will be awesome for when we never get a dog again. I built today up a lot. For the last month I've been nervous that something would fall through and it wouldn't actually happen. For the past two days my anxiety has skyrocketed. I couldn't sleep last night and have been up since 4:30 a.m. I equated today with getting engaged or getting married or having a baby. I thought it would be some great day where Husband and I would feel really close and there'd even be a hint of romance or excitement or anticipation or something. We'd optimistically speculate on how wonderful our lives would be in this new house in this new town. Instead we bickered all day, a hazard of being up since the wee hours of the morning. I got disparaging looks every time I wanted to take a picture.Every time he said how tired he was, I secretly thought I was more tired. I asked all sorts of annoying questions about what was bothering him, even though the constant answer was "I don't know."
But now we're back at the River, and we've had some rest and time to regroup. I'm terribly excited about living here, but overwhelmed at how to organize and fit all of our stuff. We're planning on painting our room and Baby's, and eventually I want to do the dining room and kitchen. I'm about to peruse various websites looking for fun rugs, if Baby stays asleep. I really can't wait to start living here, even if it means that I am now, undoubtedly, a grown-up.