Back To Tennessee
We did it! Ashley and I moved back to Tennessee! She took a new position at RockTenn and I am working remotely. We sold the condo and bought a new home in Lebanon in a new subdivision called Hearthstone. Ashley's job is two minutes away, and the house is about 4 miles from Liam's daycare.
It's wonderful. I see someone I haven't seen in 15+ years at elast once or twice a week. All of my fraternity brothers live in the Nashville area as well, and I'm so much more active. Liam will get to grow up in the same county where I grew up, and we have family that can help. Mom watched Liam last night while Ash & I went out with Rob Arreola and his wife Melissa.
Our condo sold in eight days once we put it on the market. When I bought the condo in 2007 I bought it for $145k. It sold for $131.5k. We had to take $7k to the closing, but you can't truly put a monetary figure on quality of life and happiness. This move cost a lot at every angle, but it has been our goal ever since we married and knew we wanted children. We cashed out some of our 401k to make this happen, but our home is beautiful and we see ourselves growing old here, raising a family.
I have my own office upstairs in our house and I have a special closet for all of my collectibles. We even bought a gun safe so we can keep the firearms safe and away from Liam. It will take a while to completely furnish the house, but we are getting it done and having fun doing it. Having your own garage is awesome, especially after not having one for almost my entire adult life.
Growing up, I hated mowing the yard. It was one reason I wanted a condo when I bought in Atlanta. But this little yard is cathartic and I enjoy taking care of it. The lawn has been mown twice already and I have watered it regularly during our mini-drought. The lawn has already been watered, seeded, reseeded, and fertilized in the three weeks we've been here and I'm slowly filling the garage with useful tools.
Ashley has focused her efforts n decorating the downstairs while the upstairs is my domain. It will take a while to do the rec room the way I want, but we'll get there, eventually.
I had to make a hard personal decision about the move, though. I had planned to bring Tennessee and Blackie with me to Lebanon, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like it would be a bad decision. Ferals don't do well in new environments and they are safe at McGill Park. I also found a wonderful woman who has also been caring for the animals. Ultimately I gave her their cat house and left the colony there. It was hard, but the whole reason I took care of this cats was because no one else was. Now they have a wonderful crazy cat lady mom named Lori looking after them, as well as about 4 other residents. So far our threee kitties love the new house. Foxy has a black and white friend that comes to the back door at night. I might have to call that one "Georgia."
All in all, life is good!
Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
It's wonderful. I see someone I haven't seen in 15+ years at elast once or twice a week. All of my fraternity brothers live in the Nashville area as well, and I'm so much more active. Liam will get to grow up in the same county where I grew up, and we have family that can help. Mom watched Liam last night while Ash & I went out with Rob Arreola and his wife Melissa.
Our condo sold in eight days once we put it on the market. When I bought the condo in 2007 I bought it for $145k. It sold for $131.5k. We had to take $7k to the closing, but you can't truly put a monetary figure on quality of life and happiness. This move cost a lot at every angle, but it has been our goal ever since we married and knew we wanted children. We cashed out some of our 401k to make this happen, but our home is beautiful and we see ourselves growing old here, raising a family.
I have my own office upstairs in our house and I have a special closet for all of my collectibles. We even bought a gun safe so we can keep the firearms safe and away from Liam. It will take a while to completely furnish the house, but we are getting it done and having fun doing it. Having your own garage is awesome, especially after not having one for almost my entire adult life.
Growing up, I hated mowing the yard. It was one reason I wanted a condo when I bought in Atlanta. But this little yard is cathartic and I enjoy taking care of it. The lawn has been mown twice already and I have watered it regularly during our mini-drought. The lawn has already been watered, seeded, reseeded, and fertilized in the three weeks we've been here and I'm slowly filling the garage with useful tools.
Ashley has focused her efforts n decorating the downstairs while the upstairs is my domain. It will take a while to do the rec room the way I want, but we'll get there, eventually.
I had to make a hard personal decision about the move, though. I had planned to bring Tennessee and Blackie with me to Lebanon, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like it would be a bad decision. Ferals don't do well in new environments and they are safe at McGill Park. I also found a wonderful woman who has also been caring for the animals. Ultimately I gave her their cat house and left the colony there. It was hard, but the whole reason I took care of this cats was because no one else was. Now they have a wonderful crazy cat lady mom named Lori looking after them, as well as about 4 other residents. So far our threee kitties love the new house. Foxy has a black and white friend that comes to the back door at night. I might have to call that one "Georgia."
All in all, life is good!
Happy Memorial Day Weekend!