There is one thing I’ve dreamed about for a while now. And that is space. More space. To breathe. To leave my shoes on the floor without the guarantee that I will trip on them. To be able to do a cartwheel through the living room should I have the desire (or the ability). Don’t get me wrong. I adore our little one bedroom cottage. So much so that I will most definitely take a ridiculous amount of pictures of it before we leave, lay down on the carpet, and cry an eensy bit. I’ll miss the teal tile in the kitchen (no joke there, I kind of adore it. I even mentioned that when we own our own house, I want to install some. Cale may or may not have thought I had gone insane). I’ll miss the picket fence. I’ll miss our little gravel road, the big tree in the backyard, my front garden, the brick patio we laid ourselves, and the cozy little rooms.
But in the dream of more space, I started browsing Craiglist for two bedroom houses to rent. I had no expectations of finding anything. Clearly it was a far reaching dream: two bedrooms, a big backyard, a detached house, in Sunol, with lots of trees and nature, all for only a little bit more than our already ridiculously-amazingly-low rent for the Bay Area. Who was I kidding? Impossible.
Apparently not. There it was. Two bedroom, overlooking Cale’s favorite golf course. Of course the rent was quite a bit higher than what we wanted to pay, but with utilities included, we thought it wouldn’t hurt to at least look at it. Horrible horrible idea. We both fell in love. Cale’s eyes went so wide looking at all the space. You would have thought it was a mansion. I liked it a lot, but wasn’t sure how I felt about the added cost. We talked it over and came to the conclusion that the added expense really wasn’t worth it. So we put it out of our minds (as much as we could).
Then a couple weeks ago, I left for training. And waiting for me when I landed was an email from the landlord saying they were going to lower the rent, and since they were really keen on us, wanted to know if we would be interested. What a wonderful distraction when I’m all the way in Arizona! Cale was a trooper fielding all my questions, videotaping a detailed tour of the house so I could envision how we could make it work and ironing out all the details. You would think that I was on board right off the back, but I really wavered. We have had such a wonderful experience with our current landlords and cottage. What if it wasn’t as good? Do we want to spend the extra money? But over the week, I became convinced. We both canceled our gym memberships to offset the additional rent. When I got back home, we met the landlords at the house again, and finalized all the details.
So over Thanksgiving, instead of stuffing ourselves and taking a nap, I’ll be busy painting and Cale will be moving our things to the new house. To say that my stress levels at the moment are high, is a drastic understatement.
goodbye our little gravel road
sidenote: If you have our current address, we will be keeping our Post Office Box, so there will be no changes there.
Tags: Home, Memories, Stress Monster
Aw, I love your little gravel road but congratulations!! This sounds like such an amazing chance for you guys, good luck packing!
I hate moving.
We moved so much when I was a kid. I would always crawl under my bed, with my dog, and cry.
It’s all been for a reason, though. I’d never have met my best friends, including my husband, if we hadn’t been a bunch of gypsies.
I’m sure you’ll settle right in and love it. It just takes a while for somewhere to become “home”.
Heather,
you are so right in that last sentence. I think a lot of my anxiety stems from wanting to get everything all finished right when we move in. I just need to remember that not everything will or should happen right away.
Yay!!!!!! i’m excited for you two.
Can’t wait to see the new place/palace.
If I were closer I would totally help you move. Moving is something I excell at…really. I’m embarrassingly good at it.
congratulations! it sounds awesome. i love our tiny apartment too, but am looking forward to the day when we can afford to upgrade. i can’t believe how fast this all happened for you though!
Want some help painting on Sunday? If you’re painting that day? And yay for more space!
I’m probably painting the Wed and Thurs of Thanksgiving. I’m HOPING I’ll be done by then but we’ll see.
Aww ,that’s true, you did do a lot of hard work on the Corwin Cottage! Now you will have more doggie fences to build! (lol)
No need for doggie fences anymore! It has a secure dog run!
That is really exciting! Your place now sounds adorable so I know that this new place must be awesome in order to leave it. Very excited for you guys!
Congrats to the both of you! so exciting and nervewracking at the same time..I wish you a smooth move!!
Congrats on upgrading to a new home with lots of space! That’s sooo exciting! And I’m super jealous of your big backyard and lots of trees and nature! It sounds just wonderful.
I know what you mean about missing your soon-to-be old home. I really missed our first apartment … even though it was right on the street — a busy street! and wasn’t a cottage and didn’t have cool gravel road or a cute backyard. But like Sassy said, this new place has got to be just awesome for you guys to move.
And your new landlords already sound great! That’s so neat they contacted you and offered to lower the rent! Wow!
Congrats again! I can’t wait to see pictures!
The apartment I moved out of at the end of the summer was the 17th house/apt I’ve lived in over the years. SEVENTEENTH! So yeah, moving is stressful, but this is exciting! And and and! Hopefully you and I will soon be living close enough to each other for sporadic playdates
Aww, you did a great job expressing the bittersweetness of this situation. Your little cottage sounds lovely, but I’m sure you guys will make this new place your own in no time. Change sucks sometimes, but it’s the people that make a house a home, right?
How exciting! I hate moving, but I love the excitement of a new place.
That’s pretty much exactly how it happened to us! “Wouldn’t it be nice to live closer to work with a bigger kitchen and a yard and a garage?” And -boom- there it was. We start moving tomorrow.
Congrats on the new place!!
Renee,
Good luck moving tomorrow! I hope it all goes smoothly.
I am so excited for you guys, more space will be wonderful and this new home seems like it was just meant to be! Especially after they contacted you and lowered the rent! SO awesome!
<3
Moving sucks, plain and simple. The packing, the dismantling of things that you worked so hard to get JUST so, the feeling out of place at first, the boxes & time it takes to unpack and organize everything…but in the end it will be just perfect and this new place will become a home where you make lots more sweet memories
Best of luck in your move!!! I'm right there with ya girl so really i'm trying to convince myself with these words, lol! altho, my new place is more of a compromise than I'd like but I'm really trying to look on the bright side, I just HAD to get us out of this freakin apt complex full of crazies
This is definitely an exciting time for you both! To think about it… you’ll probably be getting a better workout while we’ll all be gaining weight. :-X
I can’t wait to see pictures!
Exciting! You know I am definitely taking you up on that visit before way too long–I’ve been dying to get to the wine country, and it would be unacceptable to be that close and not see you!
Elizabeth,
Oh definitely! There is much California wine to be drunk here! There are some in Livermore (right by our house), and then there is the more glamorous Napa Valley of course. I’ve been a bad wine taster and haven’t even been to the ones near our house! This would finally be a wonderful excuse
We’re probably going to get our new bed in January, so after that our guest bedroom will have a legit bed instead of an air mattress
I know I’m super late, but how exciting for y’all! I hope the moving went well and that things are settling down for you now that you are in the new place. I’m going to be making a move… across state lines… in a few weeks, and even thinking about it stresses me out!
EP,
Across state lines?! Yikes. Though now being on the other side of the move, I must say that all the stress wasn’t all that worth it. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. But really? So glad it’s over and done with!