Closing a Chapter, Opening a New One

I will hit a big milestone this week which is that I will no longer be a twenty something anymore.  When I created this blog it never dawned on me that naming my blog for a decade in my life meant it would retired once that decade ended.  It is both with joy and a little sadness I close out this blog.  

I loved being a twenty something and cherish all the memories but already I'm starting to realize that my thirties will have a lot of wonderful and exciting things as well.  Plus I feel so much more confident in who I am and what I want in life.  I also have a much clearer picture of the types of friendships and relationships that add joy and value to my life.  Accordingly I'm less scared to let the other less healthy relationships fade in the background.  Sometimes you get people for a season in your life and sometimes you get to keep them forever and there is nothing wrong with either.

For anyone who has enjoyed reading along I started a new blog for the next phase.  Little did I know that over the course of one week I'd enter my thirties, we'd sell our first house, buy a new house, and start our life out in the burbs.  My new blog will be the same as this one in a lot of ways.  An informal way for me to capture my thoughts, milestones in our lives, and be a creative outlet for me.  Here is the new URL if you want to continue to follow along:

http://dkj-adventuresofa30something.blogspot.com/

Easter in Texas

We had an nontraditional Easter this year.  We went to Texas to visit my best friend.  Due to all the house activities and expenses our vacations this year are all low key trips to visit friends.  We felt that would be a way to keep travel costs low and get to spend time with people we love that we don’t get to see as much as we would like.  It was such a nice break from all of the house activities to just relax and spend time with friends.  We ate too much food and drank too much beer and thoroughly enjoyed the company we were with.  It was also such a fun treat to get to see their adorable little girl all dressed up for Easter brunch.  Emma is such a cutie pie and I love getting to spend time with her.  It will probably be several months before we get to see them again when they come home in the fall but I always cherish the time we get with them.  Thanks for being such great hosts, we love you guys!

It's happening, it's all really happening!

So my last post was 5 days before pictures and listing our house.  It feels like that was an eternity ago!  We listed our place on March 12^th and got a lot of traffic the first weekend.  The best part was we were under contract by March 17^th, it only took 5 days.  We thought it might go fast but that exceeded our expectations.  There have been a few small bumps but everything is on track and we’ll close near the end of April.  I’ll be turning 30 and leaving the loft in the same week, it is the end of an era but I’m so excited for the future so I’m closing this chapter with fond memories and taking my favorite parts (my amazing hubby, family, and friends) with me into the next chapter. 

In addition to all of that we found our new home.  It hits all the things we wanted in a home and has such a welcoming feel.  For being built in the late 80’s it has been updated and maintained beautifully.  It has a nice flat fenced back yard with tons of potential.  It has an unfinished basement which gives us tons of options for the future whether we want to finish it to include another living room space, another bedroom, an in law suite, a theater, etc.  The master bathroom is about the same size as our current second bedroom and has beautiful natural light!  We close on the new home in May and plan to move in that weekend after we close. 

We did hit one unexpected snag in the inspection with the deck having issues but it’s something we’ll address in our first year or so in the new house.  While it’s never fun to have your timing for an update determined for you we are really excited about designing and building our dream deck space.  The current one is very small and we plan to work with Kyle’s granddad to help design it and then hire a contractor to help us build it. 

We are currently in the process of packing boxes at the loft, thinking about where we want things to go in the new house, and figuring out all the fun details of address changes/utilities/etc.  It is of course complicated by the 3 week gap between the moves but my parents are being extremely gracious and letting us crash with them for that time period.  I have been through so many emotions during this process but above all I’m excited for the future and heading into a new phase of life.