Step One (of many)

So yesterday was step one of many on what I’ll call “Project Big House” for now.  To sum up, although the soon-to-be hubs and I (more on that later) love our digs in the ever so lovely Park Slope, the plan (I always have a plan) is to head back to my hometown and, more specifically, my childhood home in Montclair, NJ.  Sounds simple, right? But no, as anyone who knows me knows, nothing with me is ever simple.  Ever.  My mom is actually still living, quite happily, I’ll add, in said childhood home, and as much as I love my mom (affectionately known to all who love me, and her, as “Little Debbie”), neither soon-to-be hubs nor I or Little Debbie have any interest in starting off our newly wedded bliss under the same roof.

Which leads me back to the purpose of this post.  Finding somewhere else for Little Debbie to go so that all parties can live happily-ever-after under separate roofs.  Sounds harsh, I know, but I promise it’s not.  By some weird twist of fate, she’s ready to downsize at more or less the same time we’re looking to upgrade, AND somehow I’ve managed to sprinkle some of that “Montclair is the best place EVER” dust on soon-to-be hubs and he’s miraculously, and not too reluctantly, willing to embark on this move to the burbs adventure with me.  Oh, and did I mention that before we actually move in, I want to almost completely gut reno the house from soup to nuts?  Like I said, nothing is ever simple. 

So being the planner that I am, I started looking a full year in advance for a condo for Little Debbie given the fact that there are probably 65 units in the whole town that could possibly meet my dear mother’s exacting requirements: out door space, two bedrooms, walking distance to town center, door man, elevator, parking, basically the works).    As luck would have it, or not, we struck real estate gold much sooner than expected and now find ourselves under contract as first time home buyers, a year before our planned move(s) and about a month before our wedding.  Yeah, like I said, not simple.  We didn’t hit all of her must’s but we came pretty darn close and Little Debbie is psyched, to say the least.

The plan for not driving eachother nuts with all these plans and giant life changes has thus far been to divide and conquer.  Thankfully with my legal background and soon-to-be hubs’ financial background, the division of labor was fairly obvious and so far, pre-wedding and pre-closing tantrums have been kept to a minimum.  We’ll see if that remains the case after our inspection report comes in.   Stay tuned.