old house/new house.

red house blue house.  not really.  our old house was pink brick and this new one is like grey stone and some green siding with brown trim.  anyway.  we are in the new house!  yay.

as i'm sure i've mentioned, we have been looking for another house off and on for almost a year.  mostly on, though we took a little hiatus when jb was without employment.  the real estate market in austin has been bonkers and we wanted to be more central and we wanted to be in a neighborhood where we'd be able to send the kidlets to public school, SO...hence the onus for moving now.  we were scared that if we held out until closer to kinder-time, we wouldn't be able to afford to live central anymore.  also, it's hard to live in a great house (which our last house really was) knowing that you're not going to be there for very long, and not being able to fully settle because you will probably be moving.

so.  at the end of october, we saw a house list on a wednesday.  it is in a neighborhood we love, near jb's work, good size, good layout, no mandatory right-away projects, and no pool (turns out tiny kids + pool = neurosis for me).  we saw it within two hours of it listing, put in an offer right away, and got accepted!  this was a small miracle, as we've put in a few other offers that we've lost over the last several months.

anyway....everything has really fallen into place and gone incredibly smoothly with this whole process.  of course, moving at any time is a beast.  moving during the holidays with two small humans is a super beast unbeknownst to me before this endeavor.  we listed our old house on ek's birthday and got an offer right away.  we closed on that house wednesday (dec. 11), nine days after closing on our new house.  so, timing-wise, this was really incredible.

a word about the old house.  i really loved that house.  i think we all did.  it is where emme learned to walk, where hollis was born.  it was spacious and comfortable and served so well as our little slice of existence for two and a half years.  this was our first time selling a house, and i have not been without nostalgia about it.  we had lots of fun with the pool, in the kitchen, sitting on the front porch waiting for daddy to get home.  we made it our home in every sense of the word for the time we were there.

and now here we are.  a new place, a new normal.  we will build our lives here, make new memories.  we are grateful for this house - nestled in a place where we can (hopefully) find a community, a sense of belonging.  so, once we get out of all the boxes and chaos, we are excited to begin!