September 2007 - The beginning

N approached me one day in early September of 2007.

"What do you think about me buying a house?" N asks as we are in his fully furnished rented apartment in downtown Denver. "A house? Well, what kind of house?" I am 23 at the time, and have been dating N for a year at this point. As a 23 year old liberal girl from Northern California, co-habitation is not on my mind, so I am not sure what he means by buying a house. The fact of the matter is that I was just getting comfortable giving N a key to my apartment. After a year. N is a good 5 years my senior, and is originally from Wisconsin. I say this in the most loving way I can - N is a mid-westerner through and through. He has done the "I am from the midwest, married my high school sweetheart at 23, moved, and got divorced at 26" deal.

We began dating right as his divorce went though, and the first 6 months were a bit turbulant. From "breaks" to "break ups" to new jobs to new apartments, we definitly put our relationship to the test. When we both finally decided to commit to one another, and give "us" a real shot, things started getting serious. Fast forward to the above conversation...

"You know, a house. It has rooms, a backyard, and a mortgage instead of rent" N snarked at me in his infamous sarcastic tone.

"Well," I counteracted, "If you want to buy a house, go ahead, buy a house!" Famous last words.

N then contacted a good friend of ours, Amy, who is an extremely good realtor, and the hunt started. I am pretty sure that Amy and N looked at 35 houses before they found Foo. Later in September, N called me.

"I bought a house"

"You found a house? Wait, you BOUGHT a house?"

"Yes, do you want to see it?"

Well, of course I wanted to see it. I wanted to know where I was going to be sleeping half of the week, where I would be escaping to from my room mate, and where my precious toothbrush would live. N picked me up, and we headed over to the house. We pull up.

"It's Packers colors, N! Is this why you bought it?"

"Listen, Liv, I am going to need you to keep an open mind. I bought this house as a foreclosure. It's not very nice right now, but with some work, I think it's going to be great. You know that my stepdad taught me how to build a house from the ground up. I think it will be a great project. You'll see! And, it would be great if you could help me!"

All I could think of in that moment, was that I was totally incabable of even hanging a picture on the wall. But, N was excited, and this was no time for me to open my mouth. So, I opened the car door, and entered what is now the house named Foo.