Today my grandmother is moving out of the house she has lived in for 63 years. Can you believe she’s had just one home her entire adult life? When my grandma moved in at age 19, she was already a college grad and a newlywed!
In my adult post-college life, I’ve called six different apartments in three different states home. When I was 25, I even moved back in with my parents for a couple of months.
JB and I have been in our house almost three years now–the longest I’ve stayed anywhere since I was growing up. But this is not our forever home. When my husband’s military commitment is up, we both want to get out of Omaha. Nebraska’s been a nice place to live for the past five years, but the Midwest is not really us. Where we go next will depend on what career path he chooses to pursue. Unfortunately, nothing is definite right now, which is why thinking too far into the future makes me anxious. We have no idea where will be or what we will be doing. Scary stuff for anybody, but especially for new parents.
Are you where you want to be for the long term? If not, where is your dream house located?
{top image of my grandma in her living room circa 1960s; images of Brooke Shields’s living room via Architectural Digest}
The poor midwest gets such a bad rap. Chicago is the third largest city in the country and has a rockin’ arts + music + foodie scene, so don’t discount it.
I’m not in my dream home by any means (or my dream city for that matter), but my husband has a job he loves, the cost of living here IS a dream come true, and I have the freedom to stay home and pursue my master’s degree and whatever little creative projects I feel like working on. So I don’t complain too much.
I wouldn’t mind living in a more vibrant college town than this one, though, like Boulder or Madison!
I grew up outside of New York City, went to college in Boston and lived in DC, so I have a craving to live near a bustling metropolis. I could probably get used to living in Chicago, where there is much more going on than in Omaha! However, I do appreciate the cost of living out here. There’s no way we could live in the type of house we have now on the amount of property we own if we were on the East coast.
Please come back to DC! (although, I can’t sugarcoat it — the real estate market will break your heart!)