Derek and I are standing on what will soon be our front porch. Yay!

Yesterday I shared the news that Derek and I will be buying our first house together. If you missed it, no sweat. You can read it here.

It feels really great to finally share the news. I’ve been harboring this big secret source of excitement and stress for a few months. Since I’ve been pretty MIA lately — both here on the blog and out in real life with my family and friends — I now feel a huge sense of relief since I can finally say why.

Derek and I are in the process of one of the biggest things we’ve ever done and it’s exciting. Terrifying, mind you. But also pretty exciting.

Yesterday I mentioned that we put together The Great Housing Adventure (TGHA) of 2013 Plan. It included a lot of big milestones. For example, getting the storage space empty meant we would save some money each month, so getting that done was a huge relief. Since we’ve met a lot of those big milestones, I won’t bore you with too many details.

I will share a part of The Plan that includes selling Derek’s bachelor pad. It’s a townhouse in North Raleigh and it’s pretty awesome. I’m going to miss a lot of things about living there, especially walking to Gonza, Sola, and Sawmill. Walking to restaurants is one of the things that makes me ridiculously happy because it’s greener and safer — especially if you want to split a pitcher of margaritas, which I highly recommend you do at Gonza because they’re ridiculously good.

Side note: if you know someone looking for a great townhouse in North Raleigh, give me a shout.

Selling the townhouse soon would be phenomenal, as it would help us better afford our new home. We’ve been really busy prepping for the listing: staging, de-cluttering, de-personalizing, curb appeal improvements, deep cleaning, power washing, etc. Basically anything our agent recommends, we jump on it. We’ve been really lucky so far because we’ve had a lot of showings and the majority of the feedback is positive.

Anyone who has sold their home knows how challenging it can get. I don’t think you understand it until you go through it. You just have to experience it, as we say at Meredith College.

This is our first time selling a home. It’s wild. I’m learning a lot.

You go through a lot of emotional phases when selling. There’s excitement at the beginning and a lot of nerves. Then you start to feel a sadness about losing something that’s been dear to you. Then you get excited about what it means for your future. Then you feel a little emotional separation, which is good because it means you’re probably ready to move on to the next phase — actually closing on the house. All of it feels risky and emotionally messy, which makes it tough to share with most folks.

When you start to focus on the future, though, it gets exciting again. I’m trying to hold on to that, instead of worrying about things that are outside of my control. Worry does nothing but give you an excuse to pound a pint of Phish Food, which I’ve totally stopped doing, btw. (You believe that, right? MKgreat.)

While these past few months of housing shuffling have been wild, I spend most of my time feeling really grateful. I am incredibly lucky. And I try really hard to never forget that.

Tomorrow I’ll share more details on how TGHA 2013 directly impacts my filmmaking efforts. All of these things take time and energy and effort away from filmmaking, but tomorrow’s post will be much more specific. Hint: it has to do with the physical space in which I do my creative stuff.

Thanks for going on this journey with me, my friends. I appreciate your time, patience, and understanding. You have no idea. Much love to you all!