Exhausted!

The last 8 weeks have been nothing short of exhausting and while we have a few more weeks of insanity, hopefully after this weekend, we can actually breathe for 5 minutes. 

I've never made so many trips to Home Depot in my life and yet over the past week and a half, I think I've spent more time there than just about anywhere else.  Paint, fire alarms, a new faucet, a washer and dryer, patio furniture, parts for this and that, you name it, we've checked it out and spent hours visiting multiple stores in multiple municipalities around the STL.  We've spent ALOT of time driving as well.  While our new home is only a 15 minute drive for each of us to work, it's a 45 minute drive from our loft. Driving 45 minutes, with a carload of our belongings gets tiring when you do it multiple times a week let alone multiple times a day.

It's funny that we weren't going to do much in the way of maintenance and repairs before moving in and now we've just about redone every room in one way or another.  The kitchen and living room both needed a new coat of paint and while we thought there was enough extra paint to touch them up, we found it was just easier to repaint everything in similar colors.  This past weekend, we got all of the carpets cleaned, built our new patio furniture, had the washer and dryer installed and pulled weeds from the partially overgrown landscaping.  And now, the big furniture is ready to be moved in.  I think we're both ready for it after all of this hard work!

It has become a bittersweet move for me though.  I didn't think I'd have any sad feelings towards moving from downtown, but over the last day, I've had a few moments where I know I'll miss being in the loft.  D and I have a lot of special memories together in the loft.  It's where I hung out with him before we started dating.  Memories like our first work Christmas party where he held the "pre-party" and "post-party" at his loft; the "pre-party" before the pre-season Rams game a few years back; our first actual date on New Years Eve 2012 where he cooked me dinner and we rang in 2013; our walks to work in the bitter cold and extreme heat; our first few dinner dates where we had to sneak out through the alley to avoid running into our former coworkers who frequented the bars below so they wouldn't find out we were dating just yet; and bringing Kinny home after we adopted her.  I know we'll have a lot more great memories in our new house but it does make me a bit emotional leaving the loft.

I will be happy to be settled into our house and I'm excited to show off our place to our family and friends.  We've worked extremely hard to be able to afford such an awesome home!