Me: Homeowner

It's just starting to hit me: I'm going to be a homeowner. I'm excited and scared at the same time. I have a million remodeling projects that I want to get started on right away, but with all my dough going toward down payment & closing costs, I'll probably have to wait. Heck, I may not even be able to furnish the living room *and* the bedrooms right away! It's kinda ironic: I'm doing this big "grown up" thing, and it's going to have me living like a college student again—scrounging furniture, dishes, pots & pans, etc. from friends and family.

The other interesting thing is that I've always kinda thought of myself as a nomad, someone who didn't want to be tied down to one place for too long... and yet I can picture myself keeping this house for 5 years, easy. Actually, buying this house isn't as much of a "settle down" move as one might think. I've often thought it would be cool to have homes in many different places, and to split my time between them. That way I could be a homeowner and a nomad at the same time. It might even make a nomadic existence more enjoyable, as I'd always be "going home," even when dashing off to London or New York (my top choices). This is one of the reasons I'm going to make an effort to keep my (rented) apartment in San Francisco. The house is 3 hours east of SF, in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Not exactly NYC, but a different atmosphere than SF, certainly—and the first step in my plan to live everywhere at once.