Still Renting

Some of our friends have ventured in to homeowner territory, but Ryan (the husband) and I are hanging tight in the renter-zone. There is something about owning a home that currently scares the crap out of me. Maybe its the huge sums of money you need to have. Maybe its the "permanence" of the purchase (I mean, who buys a house to live in for just a year?). Either way, we're happy paying rent and.... ok, that's a blatant lie.

The fact of the matter is that while I am dying to settle down and buy our first home, in the last 5 years we're lived in four different states (we're both from NJ, went to grad school in the midwest and currently live in MD) and want to get back to New Jersey. Thing is, we have great jobs in Maryland. And so in all reality, why buy a house here if we're looking to eventually get back to NJ? And when I say "eventually", I really mean in 2 or 3 years... which probably isn't long enough to build any real equity.... and so we pay rent.

And lucky us, we've got 2 rents to pay this month! ::rolls eyes, checks bank account, sighs at dwindling numbers:: Moving Day is this coming Sunday and we're moving about 30 minutes south to an apartment community that happens to have some townhouses. I am thrilled to death about moving in to a townhouse. There's something about the two floors that screams "I'm an adult with an upstairs and a downstairs!" - just like a real house, but if something breaks we can still call the rental office (or move at the drop of a hat if one of us gets an amazing job offer in Jersey). Yey for us!

So with just about a week till we move, I'm still packing and it is NOT FUN. No worries, I have another post coming up about the packing. And for those keeping track - the den is still a war zone. But what I really want to talk about is decorating. Our current place is sort of an extension of our college apartments... mismatched furniture, no real color schemes, stuff everywhere. I want our new house to be "put together", but obviously don't want to spend a house sum of money and we probably won't paint (apparently we can but we would have to paint back white before move out). So any ideas? I guess matching furniture would be a start, right?

What have you done to make your rented space feel more like "yours"?

And PS - for those wondering, another marriage certificate showed up... and it has the correct date!!!! Next week I'm venturing to the SS office and DMV for some new identification. Here's hoping that process is a little easier than getting the paperwork.