New House Tour: First Stairs and Big Excitement

Now that we’ve officially started wrapping things up at our current home and announced the new place, it feels like we finally gave ourselves permission to let loose. This video tour captures that bubbling excitement—the kind that comes from finding a home in the neighborhood you’ve been dreaming about. I know I sound overenthusiastic in places; consider this my official confession that moving can make you delightfully unhinged.

Seeing that first set of stairs inside a house that’s ours for the first time was oddly emotional. It’s a small detail, but it already feels like a landmark moment that will be tied to the memories we make there. The tour shows the house in its “before” state—raw, full of potential, and honestly a little echo-y—so forgive any audio quirks. Empty rooms and house fans don’t always behave well on camera.

A few quick notes about the tour and how we filmed it:

• We used John’s phone to add a time stamp, which involved a bit of Googling “today’s date” right before we started filming. High-tech, right?
• There are plenty of enthusiastic “I love this” moments—feel free to tally them if you want to play a drinking game. (Non-alcoholic options encouraged!)
• John operated the camera while I walked and talked. Occasionally his finger drifts into the frame to steer me, which made for some unintentionally charming moments.
• Audio gets strange in a few spots because empty rooms echo and the upstairs bathroom fan is surprisingly loud on film. We’ll try to explain anything that’s unclear in follow-up posts.
• I even sing about the stairs for a second. Consider this living proof that my life is a musical right now.

As we move from excitement into planning mode, please be patient with our answers about renovation plans and to-dos. We’re compiling a master to-do list and sketching out a floor plan, and we’ll publish those details once they’re more settled. Right now we’re still in that indecisive, constantly-rethinking phase—one minute we’ll love a paint color, the next minute we’re two steps away from changing our minds again.

There’s a lot on our plates for the next few weeks: selling the current house, packing, coordinating logistics, and starting to imagine how each room will function. We want to share the process in a thoughtful way, with clear posts about the floor plan, priorities, and the timeline for renovations. When those posts go live, they’ll include the full master list of projects, budgets, and priorities so you can follow along from start to finish.

We’re really excited to bring you along for this next chapter. Expect honest updates, plenty of photos, practical lists, and the occasional burst of silliness when the excitement gets the better of us. If you have suggestions for layout ideas, paint colors, or renovation tips, feel free to leave them in the comments when we open up the discussion. We’ll consider everything as we finalize plans.

To wrap up: thanks for sharing in our excitement. Moving is equal parts chaotic and thrilling, and it’s been so encouraging to have people cheer us on. We can’t wait to show you the transformation—from the “before” tour to the finished rooms. For now, imagine an understated, giddy “ahhh” and a big, grateful kiss blown your way. Also, Mom: if you’re reading this, I can feel your influence creeping in—and I’m mostly okay with it, even if my shoe collection is about to get chaotic.