town home tour

We've been in our new home for almost two weeks now so I thought it about time to show you the place. Here are photos I took a few minutes before the movers arrived (i.e. not the best quality - I was too excited for our stuff!).  I'll go floor by floor (yes, we have multiple floors!) and show you the space and what we plan/need to do for each room. Here's our home tour...

First Floor:

When you enter on the main floor we have a small room to one side (my office), a powder room, and the front entrance and the garage entrance. It's hard to tell in the office photos because we already had some boxes in there, but it's the perfect size for a desk, a bookshelf, and a bench for Lily to look out the window. 

^^ One side of office

^^ Other side of office

^^ Powder room

Main floor To Dos / To Buy:

• Desk (done!)
• Desk chair
• Rug for office
• Shelf for office
• Lily bench/ottoman
• Lamp
• Rug for powder room
• Welcome mat
• Hooks/bulletin board/message board for hallway

Second Floor:

When you walk up the stairs to the second floor you enter into a large, open room which will be our living and dining areas. It also has a laundry room (which originally I wished was swapped with the powder room on the first floor, but now I'm liking not having to go down another set of stairs for laundry), kitchen, pantry, and small patio. 

^^ Living/Dining. So much light from those windows.

^^ Full size. Bless you.

^^ View of kitchen from "dining" side of living room.

^^ Kitchen

^^ View of living/dining from kitchen

^^ Patio off of kitchen. Lily loves going out here. We do have plans to put some chicken wire along the bottom just to be safe, but I'm pretty sure she couldn't fit her gallon head through it.

^^ Hello lover. Beautiful, beautiful pantry.

Second Floor To Dos / To Buy:

• Sofa (Done - not arriving until Mid March)
• Chair & ottoman for Al (Done - not arriving until Mid March)
• Living room rug
• Accent chair
• Living room coffee table (?)
• End table
• TV (Done! Al's Valentine's gift)
• Farmhouse dining table (Done!)
• Dining chairs
• Bar cart
• Bar stools (ours are too short)
• Patio chairs / table
• Patio flowers
• Get rid of arch lamp (anyone want it?!)
• Get rid of cement coffee table (anyone want it?)
• Red chest from our old entry way to storage
• Laundry room shelving/storage solution

Third Floor:

The third floor has our master bedroom with en suite bathroom and walk in closet, as well as a guest room with en suite bathroom and closet. The master is about 3 feet larger than the guest room - both are very good sizes and I can't tell you how excited I am to not only have two bathrooms, but two sinks in our master!

^^ Master Bedroom

^^ Master Bathroom (TWO SINKS!)

^^ Master bathroom other side

^^ Master closet

^^ Guest Room

^^ Guest Bath (Notice the linen storage. Mind. blown.)

^^ Guest Bath

^^ Guest closet (aka Christmas and coat storage)

Third Floor To Dos / To Buy:

• King mattress (Done! And never going back to Queen life.)
• King bed (Done - arriving mid-March)
• Dresser for master
• End tables for master
• Lamps for guest room
• Organize guest closet (it is currently the location for I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-this items)
• New towels and bathmat for guest bath (Done)
• Get rid of leather club chair (ugly and broken)
• Makeup storage for bathroom (so weird, the vanity has two sinks, but no drawers?)

Fourth Floor:

Our fourth floor is a fairly spacious roof deck! We love going up there during this nice weather, although I doubt we'll be up there in the full sun during the 100 degree summer months. Lily loves sprawling out and sunbathing up there while I read. The deck curves around to the left and has a faint view of the city skyline.

^^ Same thing as with our patio. I don't think Lily could fit through the fence, but we're going to put some chicken wire along the bottom just to be safe.

Fourth Floor To Dos / To Buy:

• Patio furniture
• Grill (so nice that there is a propane hookup built in up there)
• Outdoor rug
• Chicken wire around fence
• String party lights around top of fence
• Plants, flowers, herbs in pots

Some other things that we love about our place and the complex: 

• Under-stair storage in the garage
• Pool! (Bonus points that it is gated so dogs cannot go in it -- most frenchies can't swim!)
• Two off-leash dog areas
• Friendly neighbors with friendly dogs (Lily has so many new friends and they all romp around each afternoon)
• Great location - close to restaurants, several grocery stores, and an 8 minute commute for Al!

So that's it! Our humble abode. We're excited, if you can't tell. :) Willing to take all decorating tips and ideas. We are overwhelmed with all this space, but are adjusting quite well. I think it will really start to feel like our home once our furniture is delivered (6 to 8 weeks delivery time is so painful!).  

My step-mom sent me this cartoon from the paper last Sunday. It couldn't be more true. More space has it's pros and cons (and so many stairs!).

farewell week recap

Hello from Kansas City! We're not in Dallas just yet - we don't have access to our place until the 29th so we stopped off to hang with our families for a few days before we drive down to Dallas. We made it here Sunday night and missed all Juno-related snow issues, thankfully. But I'll admit, I did have a little bit of Juno FOMO yesterday.  

We had one spectacular last week in New York City. We started to call it our Farewell Tour since we had something just about every single night. It was a great way to see tons of our friends (and eat some great meals). Here are (quite a lot of) photos of our last week in the city...

Two Saturdays ago we had a fun morning doing a little goodbye surprise (you'll see photos of it soon, I promise).  After several hours in the freezing cold we stopped for brunch in the meatpacking district.

That night we had a big group dinner with some friends at Fedora. It came together last minute, but ended up working out perfectly. I called Fedora meekly on a Thursday asking if they had a private space available for ten people that coming Saturday (a notion that completely absurd). Thankfully, it worked out and it turned out better than I expected. Highly recommend their private dining room in the basement. We had great service, great food, and the private space made for a much more intimate experience.

The following Sunday we met my boss, her husband and darling daughter for brunch at Marta - a new place that I'm so sad we just discovered! It's so close to our apartment. I mean our old apartment. Yikes. Anyway, carbonara pizza for the win!

After brunch, we decided to tackle some of the drawers and spaces in our place that have been collecting the most random of our possessions over the past five years. Since we didn't have to pack (Al's new company paid for packers and movers), this was the extent of our physical work for the move (so lucky). We found some seriously great things - a first generation i-pod, 6,000 lip sticks, tons of old Lily toys, FLOPPY DISKS, my stash of Taco Bell sauce, and way too many expired foods. I'm thinking we should have been doing this exercise once a year...

^^ Not pictured: a first generation i-pod. I had to persuade Al to throw it out. He claimed we might want it as a "back up".

^^ "Guys, this bag better not be the trash bag. I need all these toys."

^^ The winner of the expired food awards. Food coloring from October 2011. 

^^ Threw out all but the essentials in our fridge.

^^ The great lipstick sort. Moses parted The Red Sea. I parted the lipstick pile. Can you guess which side was keep and which side as trash?

Sunday night we met our friends Matt and Megan for a delicious dinner at Dell'anima. I forgot how much I love that place. We ended the night with an after dinner liqueur they introduced me to and now I'm hooked - Amaro Nonino. Oh it's so yummy. Can't wait to sip an Amaro Nonino in Mexico in October at Matt and Megan's wedding! 

We had Monday off for MLK day and finished the clean-out process and called around and did the ol' cancel cable/power and change address routine. So many different people you have to notify about a new address. You'd think there'd be a site that you could enter the information once and it would change it on your bank, credit cards, post office, catalogs, voter registration, etc. 

Monday night we had dinner with our friends Ryan, Laura, and Patrick at The Smile. It was good to get the group together. Ryan and I work together and also went to KU together, and he's engaged to Laura who went to law school with Al and Patrick. How's that for a circle of friends? Another great goodbye meal. The Smile is darling, btw!

Tuesday my team at work threw me a little goodbye celebration. It was so nice to have all my friends from work from different groups stop by for a going away drink. And Al made an appearance too! We miiiiight have over-ordered on the appetizers a bit. So typical for my team (we are known for our eating habits...and our excellent work product, of course). 

Lily was so over us and our weeknight plans. She's used to us coming home after work to be with her. Not a fan of the farewell tour. 

And after some seriously intense work days (writing down a training manual for your future replacement is so daunting), it was Friday and the packers and movers were at our place and it all started to feel real. 

^^ Going to miss this view, for sure. 

We sort of forgot that we didn't have overhead lights in our apartment except for the kitchen. And with the lamps all packed up it made for some early dark evenings sitting around in our place. The future tenants wanted a few pieces of our furniture which worked out well so that we could seep on our couch for a few nights before we left. So we pushed the couch as close to the kitchen as possible for some light and hunkered down for the night (and watched The Wire). 

And then it was time - our last night in the city. We asked our friends to meet us at Anfora for a going away celebration. So many people turned out. It was really perfect and a very bittersweet night recalling old times and saying so long. 

^^ Hardest part was saying goodbye to my dearest and closest friend, Jolie. There were some tears for sure. Love you Jo Jo!

^^ Couldn't imagine doing any of this life stuff without Al. I feel like with him we could do anything and live anywhere. Love you, Al.

Sunday was our last day in the city. We spent it walking around to some of our favorite places and having one last meal at Friedmans with Jolie and Sean (we just couldn't say goodbye for real on Saturday night).

^^ One last carry home. Can't wait for the stares we'll get doing this in Dallas.

^^ One last play in the dog park for Miss Mayo

All packed up and ready to go. We definitely both had tears in our eyes (and mine streaming down my cheeks) when we walked out of our building for the last time. So much life was lived inside those walls.

And then we took our one-way tickets (!) and headed for Kansas City. What a great last week in the greatest city in the world. We love you New York and all of our friends.  See you very soon, I'm sure!

We're hitting the road for Dallas tomorrow (we hope - we were just informed that our moving truck didn't make it out before the snow storm - ughhhh).  See you soon new home!

moving

New years are about change right? New goals, new routines, new states...

Yes, that's right. New states. Not as in a new state of mind (although there will probably be that too), but a new state in which to live. A state that is big in more ways than one. A state with a whole lot more space. A state with people who value the convenience of the conjunction "y'all". 

Enough beating around the bush (presidential pun intended). We're moving to Dallas, Texas y'all! I know, it's crazy. I still can't quite wrap my head around it - partly because we just made the decision and partly because we're moving in two weeks. Yes, two weeks. Here's a little background. I'll try to keep the emotional rants to a minimum.

Over the past few months Al and I have been talking about next steps for our family. The type of life we want to live, how we want to spend our time, where we want to raise kids some day. And unfortunately, as much as we love this tremendous city, it just can't provide us with the life we want. We both grew up with lawns, and cars, and public schools. Where the baby sitter was a family member, the idea of owning a home wasn't a pipe dream, and it was possible to haul groceries home without plastic bags cutting off the circulation to your fingers.

So we started looking at our options for markets where Al can practice the kind of law he does - which turns out is only a handful of cities. After a few months it looked like our best option - both for quality of life and demand for handsome, tall, efficient lawyers - was Dallas. Al went on some interviews, nailed 'em (obvi), and after a few weeks of back and forth we had agreed to move to Dallas by February 1. 

It has been a whirlwind to say the least. And to use a phrase I deeply despise - it's been a real roller coaster of emotions. I'm thrilled we'll be in a city that will allow us more space, more savings, and a little bit of an easier way of life. I'm proud of Al for obtaining an incredible job. I'm excited to be closer to our family in Kansas. I'm nervous about meeting new friends that are as good as the ones we have here. I'm anxious about learning a new city again. I'm heartbroken to leave New York City. 

I'm not even sure how to begin to say goodbye to this place that has meant so much to us. Perhaps that's another post for another time - two weeks time. Until then, we have a whole lot of logistics to figure out and tasks to execute before we become Dallasites (?) Dallastonians (?) Cowboys (?). We've done a lot already on the logistics front. For instance we know that...

-- We're going to rent for a year before buying a house. (Headed down this weekend to check out multi-level town homes for rent. I believe our Realtor said we are looking in Oaklawn and East Dallas?)

-- I'm going to continue to work for my company remotely part time for a few months.

-- We're going to get really fat eating all of the glorious Mexican food in Dallas

-- We know very little. People who know Dallas - tell us everything! (most notably where to live and where to eat.) Please provide tips in the comments below.

So that's the gist of it. The Roses are moving to Dallas! Now if you'll just excuse me while I get back to the massive checklist we made for ourselves containing everything we need to do between now and February 1...

P.S. What Dallas bloggers do I need to follow?!