Guess what those are? Yes, duh, boxes. But special boxes. Magical boxes. Moving boxes.
{Picture David and I doing the sprinkler dance in our living room right now!}
YES, FRIENDS. WE'RE MOVING! It's true. At the end of February, we will finally be ending David's year-long stint of driving 150 miles a day to and from work. When he accepted his new job over a year ago, we never expected that our house wouldn't sell and that he would have to make the lengthy commute for so long. But, that's the way the cookie crumbled. I'm not gonna lie, it hasn't always been easy. David has really long work days in order to avoid some major Atlanta traffic, which means he oftentimes only gets a few precious minutes with baby H each day. It has also been really stressful having the house on the market both when I was pregnant and with a newborn. But we've been pushing through, having faith in the fact that David is in love with his new job and understanding that a temporary long commute will be small potatoes in the grand scheme of life.
While we are moving now, we actually haven't sold our house yet. Let me explain. Back in December, I was chit-chatting with my best friend about our frustrations when she shined a whole new light on the situation. Instead of waiting to move, why didn't we rent an inexpensive place closer to D's job while we kept our house on the market and continued to try and sell it? My brain went crazy thinking it through. Hm. It must be too expensive. Well, to tell you the truth, we spend a gigantic chunk of change each month on gas for David's car... almost a house payment's worth. So if we weren't driving as far and spending that much money on gas, we could spend it on a rent payment. Right? But what if we sold our house while we were renting and were stuck in a lease? Well, that would actually give us some time to find a dream home to buy instead of having to buy immediately after selling our house. But if we weren't living there, how would we show the house while it was still on the market? The more we thought about it, we realized it would be easier because the house would be empty and ready to show at all times. Dang. This all made sense. Holy cow... why didn't we think of this sooner?!
To add to the story, little H has been in temporary childcare since I went back to work in January. We planned for him to go to the corporate daycare at David's office (an ah-maz-ing program!) once a spot opens for him in early March but, clearly, he can't make David's lengthy commute each day. We've been stressing about how to get him in a more permanent situation. So, if we move closer... well, you get the picture. H gets his daycare. D gets his shorter commute. Even I will be driving about ten miles less to get to work! Bada bing, bada boom.
To give you some background, that idea came to fruition in December. From about mid-December until the end of January, we pretty much obsessed over finding a place to rent. In case you guys have been wondering where I've been (hello, it really shouldn't take a normal person three weeks to answer an email... so sorry!), I've been researching rentals online or spending my free time visiting them. It's been all-consuming. But all of our efforts paid off, because we found an adorable house to rent. With three bedrooms and two bathrooms, it's definitely a much smaller home than we've got now, but we're okay with that. In fact, we're excited. We're in the midst of paring down what we own to take to the new house, storing some things and selling/giving away others. It's a great feeling.
To make a long story short, I can't even handle how excited we are. David and I will each be less than thirty minutes from our offices. We'll be closer to most of our friends and some of our family. We'll be in a part of town that we've always wanted to live in. It will be amazing! And we (as well as our realtor) has faith that we will sell our house this spring/early summer when the market picks up. So hopefully everything will fall into place. Of course, we have a few back-up plans if life doesn't pan out that way, so don't think we're going at this blindly. God has definitely made some wonderful plans for our little family, and for that we are so, so grateful. David and I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to move and get situated in a place that's better for us. We're counting our lucky stars a lot over here these days!
What does this mean for you guys? Well, thank goodness... home projects! You obviously won't see any major bathroom renovations or big time makeovers since we'll just be renting, but you can be sure you'll see lots of fun decorating going on at our new house. I have so many ideas! And for those of you out there who are also renters, hopefully I'll be able to come up with some great home improvement tips for all of us in temporary housing. At least that's the plan!
Well, that ended up being quite the wordy blog post... but it does certainly feel like a great big ol' end to a long saga. Or if you look at it another way, the very beginning to a whole new story for us! And I'm excited to finally share it with all of you who are along for the ride.
Now, who wants to come help me pack up boxes?!
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