random thoughts about home ownership

I am sitting in my apartment. It is quiet except for the background hum of the air conditioner and the sounds of footsteps in the apartment below. I am waiting for my girlfriend to get home from her waitressing job so that we can look over the home listings our realtor forwarded us. Last July I separated from the Navy and I've been working as a civilian for two weeks now. I am an active reservist but besides being a weekend warrior, I am totally average. I live in a small apartment but I am currently in the market for a house as I just received my pre-approval letter from the local money lender. I am hoping, like many people my age, that by owning a house I will somehow cease to be a child and take the first steps into manhood. Finally, like my father and grandfathers who went before me, I can be the man of the house. I picture myself walking around on a Sunday morning with a tool belt fixing cracks in the drywall, killing large insects so as to save my girlfriend, or even mowing the yard. I will do all these things so that at the end of the day I will be a sweaty mess and my girlfriend will realize that I am the man of her dreams. I will take a decrepit old house and turn it into a quaint almost cottage-like structure and there will be little animals running around the yard and the laughter of children over the neighbor's fence. There will have to be a hammock, of course, so that I can lay in it and fulfill another manly desire. That is the desire to be at peace in the heart of your castle with no cares except swatting the insects away. This is wholly unreasonable, of course, because it is almost winter and there will be no laying outside for me. But dreams exist and I will sit on that one until Spring. I am thinking now about the consequences of being a home owner. I'm worried I wont be able to keep track of all the bills and now tax season will actually be difficult. I might get bored with home ownership and dream of the bygone days of the simple life of the apartment dweller. I guess it is inevitable. I'd like to hear some comments from people about how they felt after the honeymoon with their first house was over. Do I have anything to worry about? On that note, I will stop writing because she is almost home. to be continued... !!!