5 years, at least.

yay? ugh? i'm not sure. moved into our first house this weekend. well, condo, really, but it's 2 floors and we own it. no more renting, yay! signed half our lives away, ugh. on the plus side, though, everything went smoothly at settlement. no interest rate surprises, and our realtor very nicely over-estimated our closing costs, so we walked out with a cheque. made out to us(!) well, 2 cheques, actually. very exciting.

we vacuumed before we moved in. we need to vacuum again. dust, and dust, and more dust. my goodness. the cat is going to freak out again. we took the vacuum cleaner out of the closet last night, didn't even use it, and he darted to the far side of the house and curled up in a little ball.

on the whole, though, for 3 days of moving, everything went pretty smoothly.

unexpected setbacks:
- we don't have a trash can. uhm, whoops.
- the cat had never seen stairs before. the first time someone came down the stairs, his fur puffed up to twice its size and he ran and hid in the kitchen. this was less than ideal, as his litterbox was going upstairs. he's acclimated now. he's even discovered he can stop half way up, instead of tearing up or down at top speed.
- all the dishes, glasses, pots and pans, etc had been packed in newspaper. this necessitated several runs in the dishwasher to clean everything. i don't want to see our first water bill >_<
- we had minimal food. which is to say, we had spices, tea, oils, and alcohol. thank fuck for parents ;)
- the cable tech never came despite being scheduled. we still don't have internet access at home.

on the good side:
- arcade is taking the whole week off work, so many little things will be ironed out, and much shopping will be done.
- the cat is extremely happy with his situation now. less puffy tail, more purring.
- the cable company is going to pay our first month of internet because their tech never showed up.
- it's our own house.
- we have an attic. yay for storage.
- i can walk to work. this is much extremely better than spending an hour breathing exhaust.
- we don't have to do this again for another 5 years, at least.