A Very Moving Christmas

You may have noticed a relative lack of blog posts lately. This is because we have been moving. After toying with trying something different for several years, and considering it more seriously the last few months, we have decided to sell our house and move. We're doing this with the goal of making our life simpler and more sustainable. We plan to have a very focused year, in which we devote all our resources to Doug's business, which seems set to have a busy and important year, Ian, who undoubtedly will have a very eventful and critical year, and my job, from which I have been distracted by pregnancy and baby care and would like to get back on the ball with.

Here are our plans:
- Live in a smaller space
<1400>- Have a lot less stuff
Our loft has minimal storage, so this will be enforced by necessity — we’ll be selling and donating a lot of our stuff, and will follow the “single stuffs” plan I contemplated earlier.
- Get rid of the TV
I would never have asked Doug to do this, but he volunteered, and I’m thrilled. We still plan to watch a few shows on DVD or iTunes on our laptop on occassion.
- Reduce maintenance
We’ll be renting, so that eliminates a lot of responsibility, plus we’ll have no exterior or landscaping to care for.
- Get out of the suburbs
As one of my very pro-Durham co-workers put it, North Raleigh is a soul-killing wasteland. In our subdivision, we can see all our neighbors, but know almost none of them. A lot of this is because there is nowhere to go unless you get into your car (which is inherently un-social). Plus there is an element of fakeness to these planned, heavily regulated communities that we don’t like. Doug and I have both lived in the suburbs our whole lives and are ready to try something new.

This is what we hope this change will accomplish:
- A manageable to-do list
Thinking back, we can’t remember a time when we weren’t stressed and overwhelmed by a to-do list that was impossible to complete. Lately, with the pressures of Doug’s business and the sleeplessness of motherhood, we have added exhaustion to our stress. We are hopeful that a simpler life will allow us to not feel like we’re constantly scrambling.
- A sense of adventure
We’ve had a couple of Saturdays since Ian was born where we went on outings. We found these to be our more enjoyable times lately. Without a house and yard to maintain, and a large stuff-filled space to clean up, we’d like to make a point of exploring the area by going on an outing each weekend.
- A local community
We have a great church community now, which we’re grateful for. Now we’re hoping to have a sense of community where we live. The loft we’re moving into is one of 17, all of which share a common outdoor corridor. The people who live there get together occasionally, so we’ll actually know all our neighbors. Plus, there are neighborhood associations in Durham that we can get involved with to expand our involvement beyond our lofts.
- An opportunity to save more money
Despite the fact that we will be spending a small fortune on childcare this year, our reduced housing expenses will allow us to increase our savings rate.
- Time to hang out with Ian, take the dogs for long walks, read, and listen to or play music.
These are the things we’re planning to do with the time we would have spent watching TV.

We moved over the weekend (by we I mean mostly Doug and Greg, with some help from Pastor Ed -- Ian and I mostly held the doors). We're mostly settled in our cool downtown Durham loft, with stuff still trickling here in carloads from the house. Then there is the overwhelming task of selling/donating/trashing all the stuff we aren't bringing with us - that's something to deal with in January. Then we will neutralize the house according to our realtors suggestions, and put it on the market, hopefully to sell in February or early March.

Our loft is renovated from an old commercial paint shop. The floor and brickwork is original, as are some of the beams. In fact, you can still see on the concrete on our first floor where they've written paint names (eggplant, colonial blue, ivory, etc.). It's an angular space, in which none of the main rooms have four square walls. It's quite minimalist, with very little built in storage. It has 20' ceilings in the main room, and large windows that look onto our small private yard (perfect for the dogs). Here are some photos from before we moved in:

Due to the move and our commitment to reduce the amount of stuff in our life, we had a rather unusual Christmas today. (We are leaving for Long Island tomorrow to celebrate in a more traditional way -- tree, ornaments, etc.). We didn't exchange any gifts, although I did give Ian the whisk to play with, and he seemed quite content with it:

We started with a breakfast of eggs with red and green additions (peppers, spinach, and tomatoes). Then we had a poem-writing session. Ian helped Uncle Greg with his:

And Doug clearly enjoyed writing his:

After poems, we took the dogs and the stroller and walked a few blocks to a nice park down the street with two playgrounds. Ian had his first swing and slide experience, which he greatly enjoyed. Next time we go we'll take pictures. There are at least half a dozen playgrounds within walking distance of the loft, so Ian will have a rich playgrounding experience.

The rest of the day was filled with cooking and preparing for the trip to Long Island tomorrow. Traditional first Christmas pictures of Ian ripping up wrapping paper are sure to come!