If anyone has noticed, I've been out for a while. Almost a month to be exact. I never intended to take a month long blogging hiatus, but life has happened and so be it. I'll try not to let it happen again, but if you have actually missed me (ah, you're sweet) I'll fill you in on where I've been hiding out.

We're MOVING!!!!

To clear the air, let's start with the most revolutionary news. A couple weeks into March, we received an offer on our house and we said, "uh, yesss!" The closing was set for a few months out, but I loaded my car with packing boxes that very day and locked myself in my room for a solid 10 mins to rifle through Zillow. For those of you who don't live where I do, this deep searching process actually only took a few minutes. Small town.

Cute side note: I'm the secret keeper of this relationship. The husband, on the other hand, is a blabbermouth. Tell him, keep this to yourself, and he will turn right around and tell. I've learned this the hard way. So, when we signed the contract and he said, "don't tell anyone about this for a bit," I locked it in. Fort Knox. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops, but I shut it down. Not even one hour later, he calls me and says, "I was just talking to someone and they said we should buy so-and-so's house." Wait. I thought we were keeping this to ourselves for a bit? Isn't he cute?

House Hunting

Once upon a time, I was sulky about the fact that the husband and I had never gone house hunting together. When we got married, we lived in the house that he'd bought before I was in the picture. A couple years later, while we tossed around the idea of building on family land, we stumbled onto our current home at an auction. I felt all sorry for myself that we'd skipped out on some right of passage. I was wrong. House hunting with my dearest was the pits! Want to see a man go into a complete meltdown? Tell him you don't know where he's going to live in a couple of months and offer no solution.

We looked at three houses. Yes, three. One of the three wasn't even actually for sale. Small town. The first we looked at, we were sooooo excited about. I'd seriously been wanting this house for a lonnnnnnggg time, but I knew nothing about it other than the neighborhood. But, when we walked through we were stumped. It wasn't what we were looking for. It was solidly built, very charming, had a beautiful yard, but the layout wasn't our dream. And our dream layout was at the top of the must-have list. There didn't seem to be a way to Chip Gaines some walls out and make it the layout we'd hoped for, so we left with the wind out of our sails. Though, as we drove away, the husband said, "This will be the house we buy. I know it."

House number two, doesn't even bear mentioning. But, it does make me mention that this was the point the husband broke down. He literally just couldn't. Two houses in and I was trying to find a medic. His famous last words upon exiting this abode were, "If we're going to pay X for something like this, I'd rather just build." Call me crazy, but I do not want to build ever. I mean, maybe someday, but really never. It sounds awful in my humble opinion, but I went along.

To Build or Not to Build, That's the Real Question

We looked at a couple of building spots. Picked a house plan and talked to a builder. The husband fell head over heels for a property that I could secretly see from the get-go was NOT going to work. It involved living in another house (house number three) on the property for a time (renovating it) and then building after a year or two. Something about it just didn't feel right to me and the husband was over the moon with it. Here's where some types of women will judge me...I like to follow my husbands lead. I like him a little and I think he's crazy smart. He has good judgment and has always put us first. I trust him completely, and by golly, if this was the property he wanted I was going to have his back. But, as one curveball after another came, the situation finally came to a head and we realized it wasn't meant to be. Oddly, the same day we'd decided to move on, I had made plans with my carpenter to look over the property with me. When he arrived I told him the change of plans and I pointed down the street and asked him if he would look at a different house with me instead. Which one? The very first house we looked at. I pointed out my likes and the what-could-we-do's and he gave me his ideas. After less than an hour, I knew this WAS going to be the house we bought. Just like the husband had said a couple weeks before. We were both thrilled and so relieved. We weren't going to get the floor plan that we liked, but we could make the best of it and with the help of my carpenter and his ideas, it would actually turn out pretty awesome!!

Hashtag Demo Day/Packing Up

Now that we've closed on the new property we're making it our own. I have been having a blast with picking out flooring (that's something I'll mention later), fun accents, paint colors (white, white, white), and of course the moment I've waited my whole life for DEMO!!! In the meantime, I've packed a few things. Let me tell you, it's almost as hard to have a drawn-out closing as it is to close in 30 days. I have felt like I should be taking full advantage of the extra time I have been granted, but at the same time, I can't pack away hardly anything because I will surely need it between now and closing.  So, for now, I've packed family sentiments and photos. I've also, managed to finally rid my kids' closets of the massive amount of outgrown clothes. Last but not least, as a way to rid the basement office of furnishings, I had my husbands home office moved to his work office. This was no easy feat. It involved wallpaper removal and heavy lifting (not so much me, but the movers). I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out even though I was silently cursing myself for volunteering to remove wallpaper border.

The Husband's office:

Thanks for waiting around on me. Stay tuned!