Hey, friends, happy "Thirsty Thursday". I feel like I haven't used that phase since college. Oh college.... I guess I'm getting older. Mike & I are having a date night tonight since we're both having our respective bachelor/bachelorette parties this weekend. Wahoo!
Let's pretend, instead, you & I are sitting down for Happy Hour, "Thirsty Thursday," if you will. It's one of those happy hours where the bar isn't insane, the wait staff is somewhat nice, and we feel like sharing real events in life, not just how upset we are with our country and talk of TV shows (which I can never really contribute to). And, hey, let's say they have solid specials too. Why not? So here we go.
How's your summer been? Mine has been a bit crazy. Here's what I'd tell you:
-At the surface we're planning a wedding, house hunting and moving out of the city I've lived in for 12 years and away from all my friends.
-Wait. You're buying a house? I guess I haven't mentioned this in this space yet. As Mike & I started looking at the rental market in St. Louis in May we realized it's not what we're used to. Then as we looked at home prices, it honestly made more sense to buy.
- Moving on to the fact that neither of us know the St. Louis neighborhoods very well. We've gone down three times in the past month and a half to look at houses and generally walk around neighborhoods to see where we want to be. Turns out we want to be where everyone else does...
-What's the experience of buying a house for the first time like? I would say not fun. Did you know you need a realtor? We did not. That should give you some perspective of where we were at. We stood in the Whistler's patio and googled all these things 2 days before our first trip to St. Louis. We found our realtor at an open house.
- Note: I think Mike is having fun with it. Which is good because if we both disliked it that would be rough.
-One trip we went down for an interview for Mike and house hunting. We found nothing in those viewings and got home at 1:00am. I know I shouldn't complain because I fell asleep in the passenger's seat (against valiant efforts) and Mike drove the whole way.
- My parents have been super helpful driving by houses we send them to check out the neighborhood and going to open houses for us, giving us a detailed recap.
- My sister gets credit too because she gets to calm me down every time I get stressed out about it.
-The last trip we actually found a couple houses we liked. We put in an offer on one after there was already an offer in play. It was tax abated for the next 6 years, had geothermal heating and cooling, it was smaller. We didn't get it. (That was last night.) Mike immediately said he was diving deep in to our search. I said I was taking a break for the night. I'm kind of over it right now. (And I made him take a half break - he brought his laptop - to tuck me in.)
- The other house is beautiful and huge (decks galore!). Property taxes are very high and we'll need to do some real work to it. Jury's out if we still want to put in an offer.
- The reality of the move hits me in waves. Sometimes I am super excited. (The 102 degrees there last weekend did not feel terrible.) Other times I get nervous (mostly about leaving my friends). Also, we'll be in the suburbs at a condo my parents own, which they have generously offered we can stay at until we find and close on a house. This scares me more than anything else. I work from home and the suburbs feel lonely to me. Who has tips for making new friends in your 30s?
- The Cardinals have been fun to watch this week. I am definitely looking forward to more games.
- I feel okay about the wedding right now even though we still have quite a bit to do. Wedding playlist, decorations. It'll be okay. Maybe everything else going on during this time has helped me keep the wedding in perspective.
- Work let my boss go yesterday and I'm not happy about it. We'll see how that one plays out.
- And then I might have a few tears in my eyes, not because I'm sad, just a bit overwhelmed. I say this knowing things are going to balance and work themselves out. Maybe the calm (and slowness - dare I say) of the suburbs will be good for me for a couple months?
So although this summer sped by, and everything I just listed out ;), it really was lovely. From taking advantage of the Park + Field brunch, having an anniversary brunch with my parents at an awesome place in St. Louis, a lovely family vacation, spending time with friends, catching up on scrapbooking, hitting up some Chicago classics like movies in the park. It's been a really fun summer.
I'm still good over here, I just thought, 'hey, why not share in bulk.' ;)
Happy Thirsty Thursday!
Let's pretend, instead, you & I are sitting down for Happy Hour, "Thirsty Thursday," if you will. It's one of those happy hours where the bar isn't insane, the wait staff is somewhat nice, and we feel like sharing real events in life, not just how upset we are with our country and talk of TV shows (which I can never really contribute to). And, hey, let's say they have solid specials too. Why not? So here we go.
How's your summer been? Mine has been a bit crazy. Here's what I'd tell you:
-At the surface we're planning a wedding, house hunting and moving out of the city I've lived in for 12 years and away from all my friends.
-Wait. You're buying a house? I guess I haven't mentioned this in this space yet. As Mike & I started looking at the rental market in St. Louis in May we realized it's not what we're used to. Then as we looked at home prices, it honestly made more sense to buy.
- Moving on to the fact that neither of us know the St. Louis neighborhoods very well. We've gone down three times in the past month and a half to look at houses and generally walk around neighborhoods to see where we want to be. Turns out we want to be where everyone else does...
-What's the experience of buying a house for the first time like? I would say not fun. Did you know you need a realtor? We did not. That should give you some perspective of where we were at. We stood in the Whistler's patio and googled all these things 2 days before our first trip to St. Louis. We found our realtor at an open house.
- Note: I think Mike is having fun with it. Which is good because if we both disliked it that would be rough.
-One trip we went down for an interview for Mike and house hunting. We found nothing in those viewings and got home at 1:00am. I know I shouldn't complain because I fell asleep in the passenger's seat (against valiant efforts) and Mike drove the whole way.
- My parents have been super helpful driving by houses we send them to check out the neighborhood and going to open houses for us, giving us a detailed recap.
- My sister gets credit too because she gets to calm me down every time I get stressed out about it.
-The last trip we actually found a couple houses we liked. We put in an offer on one after there was already an offer in play. It was tax abated for the next 6 years, had geothermal heating and cooling, it was smaller. We didn't get it. (That was last night.) Mike immediately said he was diving deep in to our search. I said I was taking a break for the night. I'm kind of over it right now. (And I made him take a half break - he brought his laptop - to tuck me in.)
- The other house is beautiful and huge (decks galore!). Property taxes are very high and we'll need to do some real work to it. Jury's out if we still want to put in an offer.
- The reality of the move hits me in waves. Sometimes I am super excited. (The 102 degrees there last weekend did not feel terrible.) Other times I get nervous (mostly about leaving my friends). Also, we'll be in the suburbs at a condo my parents own, which they have generously offered we can stay at until we find and close on a house. This scares me more than anything else. I work from home and the suburbs feel lonely to me. Who has tips for making new friends in your 30s?
- The Cardinals have been fun to watch this week. I am definitely looking forward to more games.
- I feel okay about the wedding right now even though we still have quite a bit to do. Wedding playlist, decorations. It'll be okay. Maybe everything else going on during this time has helped me keep the wedding in perspective.
- Work let my boss go yesterday and I'm not happy about it. We'll see how that one plays out.
- And then I might have a few tears in my eyes, not because I'm sad, just a bit overwhelmed. I say this knowing things are going to balance and work themselves out. Maybe the calm (and slowness - dare I say) of the suburbs will be good for me for a couple months?
So although this summer sped by, and everything I just listed out ;), it really was lovely. From taking advantage of the Park + Field brunch, having an anniversary brunch with my parents at an awesome place in St. Louis, a lovely family vacation, spending time with friends, catching up on scrapbooking, hitting up some Chicago classics like movies in the park. It's been a really fun summer.
I'm still good over here, I just thought, 'hey, why not share in bulk.' ;)
Happy Thirsty Thursday!
You have had an overwhelming summer! Things have a way of working out. :)
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