This past weekend marked one year since we moved to our first home in New Jersey!
I dug into the archives for this one!
Look at itty bitty Ivy! She was just three months old. Woof, that was a hard day and it's been a wild year. So many major life transitions and some big first-time homeowner learning curves, but we made it! I couldn't get cooperation for a photo recreation but this will do...little Kippy on our front stoop.
There are so many things to love about our home, here are just a few.
- Extra space and room to grow
- Separate kids bedrooms
- Garage multipurpose space
- Easy access to the outdoors
- Ability to grill
- Beautiful places to walk
- Proximity to a huge beautiful park and public waterfront/beach
- Community pool
- Clean streets (no piles of festering garbage!)
- Small town feel but close to the city
- Access to shopping and full-sized/well-stocked grocery stores
- Trees and nature and animals right outside our windows
- Driveway and yard for playing and gardening
- Full basement with full bathroom for Mandy
- Less noisy, less crowded BUT not distant or lonesome
- House projects (as long as they aren't $$$)
- Decorating
- Ability to work from home in a quiet separate space from the kids
- Diversity (I was worried we lost that when we moved but we didn't SA is very diverse)
We do miss Brooklyn but Dan and I have talked a lot about how we mainly miss pre-pandemic Brooklyn and that lifestyle and the things we loved are gone. There is no going back even if we still lived there. When I think about the work from home situation and kid dynamic from this past year, I truly cannot imagine how we would have made that work in the apartment. Could we have lived there happily with two kids? Yes, I'm sure of it. But we never factored a pandemic and my working from home for over a year. Add a newborn and a toddler. Yeah, in terms of mental health, moving was essential and we are very aware of how God's hand worked into the circumstances of last year and made it possible for us to find and afford this home. It wasn't easy but it was a gift. If we had tried to find a home this year at the same time? We would be out of the market due to the way the home prices in this neighborhood have soared. It was God's provision, 100%.
But just for the sake of nostalgia, these are the things I miss most about Bay Ridge:
- Close friends close by
- Vivi Bubble Tea
- Ability to walk to Rite Aid for something quick
- Tap class
- Steve's bagels
- A more lively business district with lots of great restaurant options
Some of these things we've solved. There is a Vivi bubble tea not too far away in an Asian grocery store that Dan sometimes treats me to a pick-up. When my parents were here my Dad picked Dan up in Bay Ridge and they got a dozen+ bagels from Steve's and we froze them. Genius, duh! We'll be doing that regularly now. Downtown South Amboy is a little dull but the area is expanding and that will hopefully draw more business. Plus, we don't eat in restaurants anymore (thanks pandemic) so we got used to our loss of Indian and SoCal tacos pretty quick before we even left Bay Ridge. I miss tap dance but my studio closed permanently in late March 2020, so there was no going back anyways. As for Rite Aid, well yes, I do miss telling Dan to run down the block to get a candy bar or Gatorade but we've gotten used to that and it helps to be able to get everything we need for the week in one grocery trip.
On the whole, we've adjusted to suburban life. We love our home. We are looking forward to digging roots and plugging into Kip's school community. Hopefully, eventually, finding a church to attend and making friends. So much is still in flux and this dang pandemic keeps holding on but right now, we're happy, healthy, grateful, and settled.
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