The New House

Where were we? About a month ago, we all moved into a new house. Did I mention that? It happened suddenly, sort of. Nick and I began to think about what it would be like to have a bigger house, with a yard, more room for the kids to run around inside in winter. Out of what I thought then was idle curiosity, I contacted a broker in the East End I had run across at open houses around Munjoy Hill. He came over, checked out our house, and had a conversation with us about how easy or difficult it might be to sell Two Cats. Though we weren't certain we were ready to sell, Tom is a mover and shaker, and before we knew it, we were setting up an Open House of our own for 10 days out. We cleaned Two Cats like our lives depended on it. The Open House was a smashing success. Tom and his team said it was the best one they had ever had. A couple things worked in our favor: It was a sunny, warmish, beautiful February day, and a recent snowfall blanketed the Horseman's backyard in pristine white, disguising our home's biggest eyesore. (If you haven't been following, here's a clue as to what I'm talking about: We once documented a slice of pizza that remained impaled on a tree branch in the Trott's backyard through an entire winter and into spring.) The day after the open house, we had three offers in hand. We went with the one from a young-ish couple much like ourselves, in that they weren't really all that young (like ourselves), but did have a very young son, a five-month old. They had both also lived in NYC, like us, and he wore glasses, like Nick, and she was very pretty, like...well, in the interest of modesty, I won't finish that sentence. So. There is so much that went on in the time between accepting their offer and putting in our own offer on our new house. I wish I had blogged it all, because to try to summarize it all now in one big post means I'm dropping some of the great details and stories that go along with buying a new home. I'll try to add stories as I think of them. But in sum: we have moved. Our new house is wonderful. It has a fenced-in yard, a shed, a driveway, four (4!!!) bedrooms, a living room with a wood stove, a kitchen, a dining room, an office, a playroom, several closets, and two bathrooms. And it gets lovely light that moves around as the day goes on. It's near Evergreen Cemetery, which means we have a huge swath of running paths and bike trails, and the cemetery abuts what is apparently the largest acreage of woods in Portland. Which reminds me, Sadie turned four and can ride a bike now. Yes, I know, seems like yesterday I was posting photos of my baby bump. Did I ever even mention Clover, who is 21 months old now? More to come. We plan on shuttering our other blog, 2cats.wordpress.com and starting a new one. We just can't come up with a blog title. Which is kind of a lame excuse for not blogging the whole process of moving, setting up house, etc. Because believe me, we have stories to tell....