Movin' on up

Er, actually, we're going west. So, movin' on over.

Maggie and Lucky and I are moving in March.

My friends have this adorable toddler named Finn. He is seriously the cutest thing. He lives in a nice house about a mile from here, with his mom and his dad and his big dog and his little cat. Oh, and - surprise! - soon, a little brother. We are all very excited - particularly me, because they've decided they need a bigger house if there are going to be four of them. And, as it does everywhere, the housing market sucks in NC. So, instead of selling, they're renting it. To me.

It's a great place. My very favorite features are the big spacious kitchen (no more pocket kitchen for me!), the great screened-in back porch, and the giganamous back yard in which Maggie can run and play to her heart's content (we might even get a second dog in a year or so). There's a formal dining room. There's a fireplace. There's a nice space in the kitchen for my chest freezer (it's currently a home-brewed beer tap or something). There's granite countertops. There's room for a guest room again. And there's a really big attic where I can store large quantities of crap.

Not to mention, it's a single-family home (after years of townhouses and common walls, this sounds lovely). There's way better parking than any of the apartments I've lived in. They have great neighbors, several of whom I already know, and it's a nice little neighborhood. The house is set up much better for entertaining than any of the ones I've lived in over the past five years, so I might actually have people over again. And it's about a mile from my current apartment (if that), so it's about two miles from my parents' place. Not too shabby.

HUGE backyard. Maggie's going to lose her puppy mind.

Sadly, though, I can't figure out how we could get a dog door in. Which is fine, because then it would also be a cat door. And when we had one, I always worried that it would be, like, a raccoon door. 

I asked my soon-to-be-landlord if there were any critters I needed to be aware of. After the roaches at the last place and the mice at this one, I figure I can handle whatever (and/or call Orkin), but it would be nice to be warned. He told me that occasionally there were turtles. But, you know, only in the yard. 

I have to buy a lawn mower. And get movers, and pack up my house again. And maybe, since I have to give 60 days notice to my current landlord, I can actually sort and purge a little this time like I'm always threatening to.

Stop laughing. Right this minute. I could sort and purge if I wanted. It might happen.

The actual moving portion of this is going to be stressful. It always is. Hopefully, though, this is a place that can feel like home and we can stay for a good long while.