so...  here we are.  non-home-owners.  we are officially between houses - the closing on our st louis house went well, and we are (trying anyway) patiently waiting to close on our new columbus home.  not having a mortgage (or rent!) is nice, except that i keep finding things that the new house "needs"...  you know how it goes.

as we pulled away from our st louis home with our moving truck + trailer for the very last time, we both commented on the mixed emotions that we were feeling.  while we were obviously sad to be leaving something that had been such a huge part of our lives, and free time, for the past 6 years, we also felt a sense of completeness.  the multi-phased moving process somehow made it easier to leave.  first we moved our clothes, our smaller possessions, our pets, and our baby.  but the house was still ours, and was still filled with our furniture, so we didn't have to say goodbye just yet.  we knew we'd be back.  then we lived away from the house, getting settled in our temporary space with family in ohio.  and we were busy.  busy starting new jobs, busy catching up with old friends, busy looking for a new home, busy selling our old one...  a few months had passed before we went back to pack up the rest of our belonging and our furniture.  that time, it was just mike and i - our family (pets included) stayed behind in ohio.  we frantically packed up our remaining things, helped the movers load up our uhaul, ran out of space in said uhaul, rented a trailer, and filled the trailer (with chairs... mostly chairs...  i might have a problem).  so when it came time to say that final goodbye, we knew that everything that was truly important was already gone - and we knew that the new homeowners were excited and anxiously waiting to start making our old house their new home.

before we move on to our next adventure, i thought that it would be fun to do a final before and after picture post.  i'm so glad that we were able to see past the pink carpet, the crazy paint colors, and the wallpaper.  thanks for the adventure 528!