Tomorrow we officially begin our search for a new home. Dre and I are meeting our realtor (the same one who helped us buy our current house) on Capitol Hill tomorrow morning at 10am and we are looking for a new place to live. Probably a condo on Capitol Hill, but maybe the Central District or Eastlake or Judkins, and maybe a coop or a townhome. We’ll see.

Dre and I are both suuuuper excited about the prospect of getting back in-city. I can carpool to work every day, and Dre will be able to walk or bike to his job. I realize that for some people a 45-minute driving commute is just fine, but for me, the daughter of a Seattle Metro employee who raised me with the values of SOVs being SOBs, it’s been pretty awful. Since I began my driving commute, I’ve gotten two parking tickets and a speeding ticket — “But officer, I always go 50 in this 30!” I’ve also been stressed out and frustrated and guilt-wracked, even though I only do the commute three days a week.

Moving back in-city also means we’ll be back in neighborhoods where you can walk around (!) and run into people we know (!!). This is hugely important to both of us. I love city life, but part of that is the sense of an urban village, where you know your folks. All the folks I know are in-city, and although I made some feeble attempts to meet my most immediate neighbors, nothing ever clicked. Not sure why. I know folks in Columbia City, but that’s still a 10 minute drive. I am sick of driving to see people, to grocery shop, to go to the park, to go out to eat, etc x 500.

Our realtor is optimistic about our house — the french doors in the bedroom and the remodeled bathroom combined with Seattle’s still-strong housing market have her thinking the house has increased about a third in value. We’ll see how it actually pans out — we’ll put the house up for sale once we’ve found a new place we like.

It’s funny: as someone who grew up living in the same house for my entire childhood, I craaave a move every few years. We’ve been in this house for almost two and a half years, and that’s the longest I’ve stayed in one space for … I don’t even know. A decade? Longer? I don’t even know. I think of myself as somewhat of a stability junkie, yet I go changing jobs and homes pretty frequently. Andreas remains the one constant — can you believe this New Years marks our first DECADE together? Jesus.

Anyway, I’m rambling. Tomorrow: we start the hunt! And I’ve already been prepping our house in preparation for selling it later this summer or early fall.