Goodbye First Home, Hello Unknown.

If you’ve ever said goodbye to a place you called home, then you may be able to relate to how I’m feeling:

Gratitude for the home we shared. Sadness for the loss of having a place of our own. Uneasiness for what our future holds. & Excitement for what’s to come!

We laughed, I cried & together we shut the door on this chapter of our lives.

Wait, where are you going?

If you’ve been following along on Instagram, then you may know that Richie & I opted to not re-sign our apartment lease in Weehawken, New Jersey & have started the journey of looking for our first house (!!!) You might also know that the home-buying process is my least favorite season of life thus far. If you’ve ever felt a mad rush of adrenaline, love, and heartbreak all at once, congratulations - you’ve experienced a sliver of what it’s like to buy a home! I was prepared to make compromises and even sacrifices if it was the right house for us. I wasn’t prepared for the continuous ‘no’ and the never-ending feeling of being in limbo. Every home I fell in love with went off the market just as fast as it came on the market {nearly 24 hours or less}. Oh, and if we wanted to put in an offer, it was due yesterday {like actually the date of yesterday at noon}, meaning our decision had to be made without seeing a home in person or had to be made the second we were done touring the home. Talk about STRESS. To top it all off, thanks to Covid, homes in the Tristate area where we’re looking go on the market within our price range but sell for nearly $100k over the asking price because of high demand…can a girl catch a break?!

That’s super stressful but so exciting! Where are you looking?

Connecticut & New Jersey! Our ideal radius is roughly an hour-twenty away from NYC since we’ll eventually need to commute back to work once the world gets back to ‘normal’. We’ve fallen in love with a few towns in both states and pray the right one will come on the market in the right neighborhood for us.

So what now?

Now we wait! Wait for the market to come down, wait for the right house to come on the market at the right time, or simply wait for a miracle. We’re extremely fortunate that we’re both still working from home for the near future and that gives us so much flexibility. We’re currently living in Long Island, New York with his aunt until just after Thanksgiving - then we’ll be hitting the road for the sunshine state! We’ll be in Florida between Richie’s family & mine for the month of December and potentially even longer!

For anyone reading this who may be on the same journey, pppllleeeassssee know that your time will come! If this season has taught me anything, it’s to lean into my faith & trust that God knows exactly what He’s doing. One of my closest friends gave me some of the best insight that I now keep close to my heart: God will bring you exactly where you’re meant to be - He knows your future neighbors and knows where you’ll make a difference. Here’s to hope, strong faith, and peace in knowing this too shall pass.

XO, Nicole