Now we're getting somewhere.

I can't remember when I wasn't crazy about houses.

When I was in first grade, I realized that the kitchen of the little English village house we lived in had once been a stable. It had a Dutch door. I went around asking all the neighbors about our house and how long ago my backyard had in fact been a farmyard.

After that we lived in a young suburban development on the outskirts of Montgomery, AL. I set myself up a little workbench in the construction site next door, gathering scrap wood and nails and "building" with imaginary tools. When the workers were gone, I would wander through the framed mazes of unfinished homes, puzzling out what room each space would become.

I've browsed real estate listings since I was in college. I still remember in great detail a little home I did not purchase when I was living in Tallahassee, FL after graduation. It's just as well. It may have been a good investment, but I would have had to go back to Tallahassee to check on it from time to time.

I began shopping homes and farms in Virginia in 2007. Summers were very slow at the Boston accounting firm I worked for and it was a great way to pass the time, dreaming of all the acres my money could buy. In Boston, even a tiny 1-bedroom apartment was way out of reach. I used to compare living in Boston to dating a married man. You are living a fantasy: in reality that man is not actually available to you.

(Just to be clear here, I have never dated a married man. That I know of.)

Honestly, if pressed I would have to list real estate window-shopping as a hobby; I spend that much time on it. A friend recently mentioned to me that women he knew, at about the age of thirty, suddenly take up with Zillow. I was relieved to know it wasn't just me. I have the Zillow app on my phone and routinely check local home prices and rental rates in any new city or town we visit. Or even pass through. See a "For Sale" sign in front of a Victorian in Nowheretown, VA? Instantly see the price and the horrific 70s kitchen remodel.

In the past couple of years, my shopping has been a bit more...earnest. For one thing, I decided to stay in Virginia (a story for another day). For another, household income, local home prices and mortgage interest rates were finally converging around a point where it was not only possible, but actually advantageous to buy rather than rent.

A few months ago, my boyfriend and I got a realtor. Two weeks later we'd made an offer. We close in just over a week. There's some work ahead of us but, unsurprisingly, I can't wait to finally have my very own house.