“Congratulations, hashtag homeowner!” is what my realtor said when she called to tell me that my offer had been accepted. At 50, my first home! It was one of the best calls and certainly one of the best moments of 2020 for me.

The year had evolved from a very promising year to one threatened to become an utterly lost year for me personally: no African safari to celebrate the big 5-0; no trips to Maine, my favorite vacation destination in the states, due to the strict guidelines implemented for visiting the state (although I did sneak in a single-day visit to catch up with a dear friend from kindergarten, yes, kindergarten, and see the state I love even for a few hours); little inspiration for photography because of very little anything ‘new’; dealing with a suddenly-diabetic Freckle since March; the risk (not taken) of visiting family and friends back home in Philly or farther south in North Carolina, new grand-nephews unmet… Many of you are in the same situation. Nationally speaking, significant and real concerns about the upcoming (for most of the year) national election; and most horrifying of all, the utterly inept handling of the pandemic in our country.

And despite those things, I realize I am one of the lucky ones, my privilege keeping me removed from the existential, real-world problems of far too many (lost jobs, not enough money for rent or groceries, coming down with COVID). Those less fortunate are never far from my mind and I am doing what I can to help.

You could say that buying this house saved my year. Within my two to three-month process of looking for, finding, buying, and moving into my house, my year and my life have purpose again. I am eternally grateful that I was able to buy this house. And yes, I do work very hard, an important factor in the purchase, but one that also comes with lots of privilege, luck and ‘being in the right place at the right time’. I will never forget that.

And though I am really more of a mortgage holder than an actual homeowner, I thought ‘hashtag homeowner’ was a cute way to title my first blog about the house.

New things to blog about, hurray!

I hope you will enjoy reading the posts as much as I anticipate writing them.

Here are three pics of the exterior; the first two were part of the real estate listing, and the third is one I took a few days after moving in.