Homeowners!

Remember this post, where I talked about our new apartment? And how we were going to be moving in July 2nd?

Well. Clearly July 2nd has come and gone, and here we are, still living in a basement. But there is a very good reason for that! 

We broke our lease late last month for another house opportunity that came up through people we know. That fell through suddenly, and we were left without an apartment or a house.  Plus, we wanted to be in our own place by our wedding, and because the home buying process takes awhile, we were getting down to the wire. We've been living in the basement for two years saving money, and while I've loved living with Tom's family (seriously, they are amazing future in-laws), we are beyond ready for our own space.

We stopped in to a couple open houses and nothing really struck us as future home material. There was one house we liked in our ideal neighborhood, and we decided it wouldn't hurt to take a look. So we set up a time to tour the house, and instantly we loved it. That hadn't happened to us before. This house had everything we wanted, and we could really see ourselves there for a very long time.

We scrambled to get a realtor - a friend of mine - and quickly put together an offer. The house had only been on the major market sites for a week or so, and homes in that neighborhood go quickly. Luckily, we had already been prequalified for a loan, so the approval process moved pretty simply.

Within two days, we had an accepted offer! The home inspection went very well, so now all we have to do is wait. We will be moving in mid-end August and we CANNOT. WAIT! It honestly feels like it is ages away, but we put that offer in three weeks ago. So the next month will hopefully move fast. 

We started packing in late June for our apartment move, so we are basically surrounded by boxes for the entire summer, but it's worth it. We are really happy to be bypassing the apartment and moving right into our home!

We are lucky enough to have two wedding showers before we move, so we have a place to put our new gifts from family and friends! We also scored some secondhand/vintage furniture a couple weeks ago. Putting an offer in on a house? That felt pretty normal. Buying furniture? That felt ridiculously grown-up.

Here's a sneak peak of some of the furniture we got!

This table and chairs will go in our kitchen (minus the rooster...). We have a dining room table that Tom's dad found on the side of the road, and we bought secondhand chairs for that as well.

And this will be a game table for the basement. It's an old-fashioned card table and I thought it was so cool. We got an awesome deal on it, so we decided to go for it.

And this our current living state, though we did organize it all a lot better last night. This is the tip of the cardboard box iceberg! We were ready well in advance with the jumbo toilet paper and paper towel pack, haha.

Soon we will have more space than we know what to do with! Have I mentioned we're excited??

On Quitting My Job

Via

The day after Easter, I woke up in a funk. Actually, it was more than a funk. It was a full-blown panic attack. For whatever reason, I woke up that morning and it felt like someone was screaming at me to look at my current career, and pursue the one I'd been obsessing over on and off for years.

I've always wanted to be a professional writer in some capacity, but as college graduation loomed two years ago, I looked into possibly doing some freelance writing. Really, I was lost and willing to look at any avenue. But I forgot about freelance writing and decided to accept a corporate job with a real estate company.

After four days, I quit that job with its toxic work environment and went back to my old internship. I figured this would last a couple months, through the summer. It lasted 8 months. During that time I decided to look into some freelance work again. Over 8 months, I didn't land a single freelancing gig. So when I got hired at my last job, that all fell by the wayside.

A little over six months into that job, freelance writing started haunting me again. I would go on long morning drives before work, mulling over my future and whether could work in cubicles for the rest of my life. I woke up well before my alarm every day on steamy August mornings to drive and drive and ask myself that if I wasn't happy with my career, what would it take to fix it?

I was at that job for a year when another company approached me about a position at their company. I accepted that position this past winter. And that is where I was when I woke up one morning practically in a frenzy to get out. It was then I decided to really, really look at my life and my options, and figure out what was next.

It wasn't the jobs, necessarily; it was the fact that even though I knew where I wanted to go with my career, I wasn't going there.

I knew it was finally time to act. I got serious about making my life what I wanted it to be. I set goals. I researched. I listened to motivational speeches. And in less than two months of frantic planning and searching, I put in my notice at work.

It's amazing that I spent 8 months looking for freelance jobs with no results, but as soon as I got serious about what I wanted to do, I took action sooner than planned. My original plan was to leave my job in October. But several opportunities came together at once, and I knew it was time to go.

Now it has been one month on my own. It's a struggle, for sure. But it's the right struggle. It's a daily battle of doing enough, marketing enough, planning for the future and cringing at my bank account, but still waking up every single day with optimism and excitement for the day ahead. That never happened at work before. And it really is an amazing feeling.

I think the craziest part is that this doesn't feel crazy. It feels absolutely natural, like of course this was supposed to happen at this time. That isn't always the case. Other jobs or opportunities have felt completely wrong to me, deep down. My gut was right every time. But I'm grateful for all of them, because I learned great tips, hard lessons and basic business skills.

I can't wait to document my successes and failures here, and to answer any of your questions! Anyone else trying to do something similar? What's your dream job?

I'm back...and I launched my dream career!

Well, it has been quite awhile! And a ton of stuff has happened that I can't wait to document. Honestly, I've barely thought about this little blog until tonight, when I realized all of the amazing stuff happening in my life and how I wanted to get it chronicled for later.

Proof I'm still alive:

This will be a quick recap and I'll be back to give more detailed versions of all of this. So, here is what's been going on since I last blogged!

• Had our first bridal shower
• I QUIT MY JOB!
• I launched my freelance/virtual assistant career full-time. So basically, I am now a work from home puppy mom. AKA my dream.
• We got an apartment. Then broke the lease when a house came available. Then that house fell through so we put an offer on another one and we got it!! We will be homeowners in August!
• I launched another book, too!

Then there are all the little things. The wedding invites, picking out furniture for our new place, doing some honeymoon research, and learning a ton about my new(ish) field.

What an amazing summer it has been! So I plan on posting about each and every one of those things because they're all worth it. But I'm buzzing all.the.time because I honestly don't know what to be excited about first. We finally hit the 100-day mark until our wedding, we have a whole house to decorate, and I've got the job (and puppy! and future husband!) of my dreams. So much to be grateful for!