Home at Last

We finally moved into our new apartment in August 2011, about a month before the baby was due. We unpacked and got settled in record time, knowing that our priorities would be elsewhere once our little one arrived. And although it was quite a bumpy road getting here, we must admit it all worked out for the best—we have room to grow in our new place and it's in a much better location for us. Sometimes things are meant to be no matter how much we fight them.

This is part of a series about our search for a hew home last year while waiting for our first child to be born.

A Shower for Dylan

About a week before we moved into our new apartment, our friends threw us the sweetest baby shower. They all kept the theme under wraps and surprised us with a super-fun afternoon at Camp Dylan, complete with lots of handmade touches, amazing food, and even campfire songs on vinyl. It was so great to have our housing issues pretty much behind us, and celebrate our little one with friends and family. Since we decided to go co-ed, Sandy's dad got to attend his first baby shower. And Matthew's mom and Aunt Ingrid suprised us by coming from out of town to attend—and what's more, they helped us pack for our upcoming move. Definitely a special day that we'll remember for a long time.

Four Years

On July 7, 2011 we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary, spending the night at the magical Claremont Hotel where we spent the first night of our honeymoon. And the icing on the cake was—after about two months of couch surfing and two months before the baby was due—we finally found out we got a new apartment! Guess 7/7 is still our lucky day. (Though we still had to wait a month to move in...)

Interlude

Kite Hill: one of our favorite spots in our old neighborhood. Despite the gloomy weather, I remember this being a happy evening for no reason in particular.

Home Away from Home

Back to 2011... (Bear with us, it was a special time that we'd like to document!) In June we moved into the carriage house behind our apartment, when it became clear that repairs to our place were going to take a lot longer than originally planned. (And after a round of pretty discouraging apartment hunting.) We now had easy access to our place during the repairs, but since it was covered in plastic tarp and had no plumbing, we didn't spend a lot of time there.

The carriage house was our landlord's son's apartment, and since we still hoped this would be a very temporary arrangement, he left all his things—we essentially lived in his living room, our clothes in suitcases and hanging from the picture rail, our bed a futon on the living room floor. (Not an ideal situation for someone six months pregnant!) As time went on and I grew bigger, it got harder and harder for me to sleep on the floor and I had to move to the couch.

Luckily, we were able to keep Bella with us.

There was no TV or wifi at the carriage house, but there was a piano and a radio so we played music and listened to a lot of NPR. (I also knitted and read a bunch of pregnancy books.) Matthew dubbed it our old-timey house. And even though that time was pretty stressful, there also was something kind of fitting about the two of us living in that one room with few distractions while we waited for our baby.