New House!

It's weird to realize it, but tomorrow marks the one-month anniversary of our family living in our new home.  The entire month of May went by really fast.  As we moved out of our old condo into the new house, we were unpacking boxes, painting, coordinating the remodel of our condo...oh, and taking care of Dominic!

This time has been very exciting for us as a lot of this move has been with him in mind.  We've gone from a condo that had no neighborhood or parks to speak of, to a house on a quiet cul-de-sac.  Our neighbors have kids.  We can walk to a great park with baseball fields, beach volleyball courts, a giant playground, green space, and a beach!  There's also a fantastic commercial area with loads of restaurants, coffee shops, and local stores.  Given the presence of two frozen yogurt shops, I foresee lots of "walks" in our future.

Wall removal

Speaking of the future, we've made a lot of progress with the house.  In the 3 weeks before the housewarming party, we had a fair amount of work done.  After having a structural wall removed, we got to work painting our den, remaining arch wall, living room, and kitchen.  It was exciting to share our progress as well as our brand new digs with so many of our friends and family in the area.

Painting the den

We still have a long ways to go to paint the rest of the house and fill it out with furniture and other essentials, but we're starting to settle into a more casual style of updating the house.

Part of the slowdown is due to our general sanity, but the other part is due to selling off our old condo.  It's about to go on the market later this week, and we certainly have our fingers crossed that we'll be able to sell it for a decent price.  Once we're free from that major financial anchor, it will give us a lot more freedom to invest in the house as well as look to the future.

Today's newly installed countertop at the condo!

We've mentioned in the past that we're a ways out from beginning the adoption process again.  The earliest we could start things up again is in November.  Being able to complete our move and sell off the condo will help erase a lot of our economical question marks before we establish enough savings and begin Round 2 of the months/years-long process.

As we have a brand new house with a bedroom just waiting for Dominic's future brother or sister, I know that I'm really looking forward to the days, weeks, months, and years to come in our new home!  I know that Dominic is already enjoying the new digs as he's had plenty of parties with his wild stuffed animal friends  :)