new direction

Well, I can finally say it, Matt has gotten a new job. We were told that his job was 95% safe at his current company, but that 5% is still a big if. When the company told everyone that they had to make cutbacks, of course he dusted off the resume and sent it out to as many places as he could find. Luckily, he was able to find a job close to where his current job is, so that we don't have to try and sell the house and move. It was an option though. Everything was an option at that point. But, here we are, starting on a new direction, and hopefully it is a good one. Not that you should jump ship just because your company is going through difficult times, but the new company seems to be a better fit for him, plus it is a management job, and that is always a big plus in my book :-)

Another new direction we are heading in, is trying to combine the upstairs living space with the downstairs living space. See, our house is a duplex, with the first floor being one part, and the 2nd floor the other part. However, we have decided to make the upstairs living room/kitchen/bathroom/entryway into a studio, and then close off that part from the other 2 bedrooms upstairs. Eventually one room will be for Matt and I, and the other for Emma, but we are starting out by just getting one bedroom done.

Matt is in the process of getting the closet built, funny that older houses don't have closets...and when they do, they can't even fit a hanger in them...hmmm. We bought some "no VOC" paint at Lowes last weekend, and will be painting this weekend, and hopefully next week I will be able to get everything settled. I'm very excited though. I think it will be great to have a dedicated bedroom, with a door on it. Our current bedroom doesn't have a door and is downstairs. Plus, our house is completely full of "stuff."

I have been having such a conflict with myself about all the stuff that we have. I keep going through everything and getting rid of tons and tons of it, but it hasn't really made a dent, and now with the addition of Emma, well, it seems like it's that much worse. Not that she has a TON of stuff, but she does have a high chair (currently sitting in the middle of our kitchen because there is no wall space to put it against), she has an exersaucer (also in the kitchen, but it goes between the kitchen and the living room depending on what I am doing), then there is the pack and play (which she doesn't actually use at this point in time unless I put her in there to nap - not often, but she will use I'm sure once she can sit up) and that is in our current dining room/office and takes up most of the floor space. I really don't like clutter and neither does Matt, but since we have zero closets in the downstairs part of the house, clutter is inevitable, even with less stuff around. I think that getting the bedroom upstairs will help a lot. Then I can use the current dining room as an actual office, and we can have a nice big dining room and I will have plenty of room to have my craft stuff in there. And since Matt is building a closet in the upstairs bedroom, we can use our two wardrobes as closets downstairs, yay! I'm very excited about all of this, if you can't tell :-)

I recently read a post on Simplicity Soup that talked about "moving in" to her house, where she has lived for a few years. I could definitely relate to that, because I feel like I haven't really been settled since Matt and I got married. First we were living at my Grandmother's, then at my mom's, now in this house, which has been in a constant construction mode since we bought it 2 years ago. And now I am trying to actually get things settled. I want to have pictures on the walls, have my kitchen be "just so", be able to have people over without feeling like they are looking at how this doorway doesn't have trim yet, and that doorway still needs to be painted. So, hopefully, this move upstairs, and Matt's new job will help me to feel a little more settled.