Buying a house can be simplified to a single transaction of an asset; I never viewed it that way, but my expectations for how I would be emotionally effected were not even close. My prediction was that I would be elated to move into my families first home together, and even though there would be challenges I would be so happy to be there that I would not let those challenges phase me. I still had those elated feelings, sometimes I still feel like my life isn’t real, but I seemed to be more sunk into reality that I know have a lot more responsibility than I have ever had before. I did not prepare myself for the emotional toll that these new responsibilities would weigh on my mind. Since we have moved in I feel like my creativity has been at an all time low since starting this project. I find my self coming up wit titles, but nothing more ever comes from those ideas zipping past me. On top of that, we haven’t had time to make many changes to the place, because we are just trying to figure it out as we go, so we have yet to put our stamp on the place. I can go on and on about how I feel like I am now on the way up mentally from this home purchasing experience, but what started it all was beginning to make our home feel like it is ours. We have been holding back on making and major cosmetic changes for the first month or two to make sure our finances are in order. I believe that regardless of what stress I have now, adding some financial stress on top of it cannot make it better. Knowing that, we still decided that it was time to paint (we might have been pushed a little after we discovered that there was a 40% off sale). Paint seemed like one of the least expensive changes we could make, and we want to do it anyway so no long term loss if it didn’t make a difference. After painting our bedroom, I can assure you that I feel much better about sleeping in there at night, purely by how I feel when I walk in the room. I can only describe it as putting our mark on the home, and no longer are we living in someone else’s space. All it took was a few gallons of paint, and for us to borrow some paint supplies from our family to turn things around. We didn’t eliminate any problems, all we did was give the walls a facelift and it has kicked us off in the right direction. All of a sudden I can feel my creative flow coming back, and am more motivated to keep pressing towards my goals that I have laid out before. This experience has me thinking, I wonder what other small changes I can make in other areas of my life that could have a larger impact than what they would cost me. Often it is the smallest changes that make the biggest difference.