As if having a baby wasn’t a big enough life change, I’m currently writing this from our new home.
I guess 2019 really is about going big for us!
Last year around the time I got pregnant, we toyed with the idea of moving. When we bought our condo I was dead set on staying there forever until our next potential move out of the state. I thought we could easily have baby there, entertain, and still have enough room to have people comfortably stay with us.
And then I realized just how much shit babies need.
Sure, we could have made it work and there are people who raise kids perfectly fine in much smaller spaces, but we were already bursting at the seams in our old place. Not to mention we really wanted to live in an area with trees and other families – and we thought that Titan finally deserved to go to the bathroom on real grass rather than concrete. If it was up to my husband, we would have moved to the suburbs, but I was adamant that we stay in the city. Now having a kid, I understand the allure of the suburbs but we moved to Chicago for the city experience and we don’t know many people out in the burbs, so for us, it just didn’t make sense.
So we listed our place and the hunt began. We had a couple of neighborhoods in mind but we really had no idea where we wanted to end up. With the recommendation of Heidy, we used Izabela Sloma and I can’t rave about her enough. We really were all over the place with what we wanted, and she worked so hard with us to help narrow down our search.
In December we got a call with an offer on our condo and they wanted to move in right away. We had a two week close, which means we had two weeks to find a new place, which means this third trimester soon-to-be-mom was freaking out. Thankfully Heidy was more than kind to take us in (dogs and all!) while we finalized plans on a new place! (Side note: Her and her husband were one of our favorite roommates). I miss getting up in the morning and seeing Oliver’s face!
So where did we end up? We bought a townhouse in northwest Chicago, very, very close to Heidy’s house – like a couple of blocks away, close (I mean, are you shocked?). We stayed in an Airbnb while we had renovations done – we had new wood floors put in, had the kitchen cabinets painted, and had the entire house painted as well. When the hospital asked us for our home address, we didn’t really have one to give them since we took our son home to an Airbnb! I can almost look back and laugh (I’m sure I’ll get there someday). We still have many more updates to do, including new kitchen countertops, updating the bathrooms, adding in new light fixtures, and other various projects, but we’re finally moved in and unpacking boxes. I’ve always wanted to update a place and make it our own, so I’m so excited for this huge project!
We’ve had so many amazing memories in our little downtown condo. When we moved in we were boyfriend and girlfriend, and I had just graduated with my Masters. It’s the place where we got engaged, got married, adopted Olive, got pregnant, and had some of our best times in Chicago in. But it was time to say goodbye and it made me so happy that the person who bought the place seemed to love it as much as we did when we first saw it. I hope it brings them just as much luck and happiness as it did us.
Naturally I’ve been spending a lot of time on Pinterest, so you can check out some of my favorite images I’m using as inspiration below! And I can’t wait to share the updates to the home as we make them.
