A new chapter begins

We finally closed on our new house on Thursday, August 2. After months and months of waiting, Chris and I did one last walkthrough before driving to the lawyer’s office, signing the papers and winding the keys onto our keychains. And, of course, during our ultimate inspection my practical husband walked through every room, opened every closet, pushed every lightswitch and kept eyeballing every little scratch or flaw with such recognition that I finally laughed out loud at him and said, Um, Babe. We are buying this house. I mentally moved in months ago. And he smiled, clapped his hands together and announced to our realtor, Alright, then. We’ll take it.

Insert big smile and deep breath here.

And after squeezing each other outside the law office of Best & Best, we each got into our separate cars and I went to get the kids at Paige’s and Chris went back to work. Because someone has to pay for the big, awesome house we just bought. Love ya, Babe.

But before grabbing the kiddos, I stopped at the store and got some snacks and juiceboxes and a bottle of champagne. And then I drove to my new neighbor Paige’s house to pick up Taylor and Luke. Seriously, I now live nine houses away from my best friend. Unbelievable! I don’t know if I could by any more excited to live that close to anyone. So naturally, she and the kids were our very first visitors ever inside our new house. And I think these two may be a bit excited as well.

As well as these two.

Then the Scully family WALKED back to their house, and the kids and I continued to run from room to room and check everything out. The previous owners/renters left us a bizarre mix of items, such as mirrors, drapes, random clocks and wall attachments. There was also a tattered flag out front that will soon be replaced by a shiny new Hawkeye flag, which will certainly be one of the few in the Tar Heel state. Gotta represent.

And then Chris came home, and we ordered a pizza from our favorite pizzeria, which only caters to the north side, leaving the delivery woman an obscenely large tip in order to notch a couple stars next to our new address. Hey, it worked. We have since ordered delicious pies from Asheville Pizza at least four more times, each time getting the goods hot and fresh within 30 minutes. Score for us.

And since we didn’t even have chairs in the new house, we finished our picnic, cleaned up, turned off all the lights, locked the doors, and drove back to the old house. And as emotional as I thought I’d be over leaving our first house – read previous post – I really wasn’t all that sad to walk out the door knowing I’d never sleep there again. Maybe it was because the actual moving process was so awful. Seriously one of the worst things Chris and I have ever had to do. But that’s a story for a whole other post... For now, let me end with this happy picture of me and the kids standing on my new front porch. Let the adventure begin.