So, this is really happening.

So, to recap, we are moving to a 908 square foot condo. We sold our house after an insane journey. We’ve learnt a whole lot about ourselves… and about real estate in our neighbourhood.  Hard lessons.

This feels somewhat crazy sometimes.  This feels blissful other times.

I’m kinda afraid of:

• neighbours.  Especially the ones with the dogs, or the strange dancing, jumping rituals, or any strange late-night noise-making… So much can go wrong with neighbours… I’m really praying we can make some awesome connections and all be on the same page.
• our stuff.  We still need to get rid of so much stuff.  We’ve already purged so much, but there is still a lot of extra.  Where is it all gonna go? Will our space still seem cluttered?
• toys.  Good grief.  I a have always been a bit of minimalist, but dang. This is harder than I thought.  Some days, I look at the floor and almost cry looking at all the little pieces all over… we won’t have space for it. I am comforted by a friend saying that when you don’t have much space to make a mess in, it doesn’t take long to clean up. It’s quick to get messy, but quick to clean.  Phewf.
• cabin fever: it’s a small space and if we don’t get out, I’m afraid I might go crazy.  We have an awesome scenario for a yard, which is great, but I’m still afraid of missing some free space.

I’m so excited about:

• the brand new aspect! Everything is brand new, and clean, and even made environmentally friendly, too.  Nice.
• OUR OWN BATHROOM! Do I seem somewhat excited about that? The more I think about it, the happier I get. No more bath toys next to my hair-dryer, no more diapers on the counter, no more step stools to kick around. Just grown-up things.  We have a really snazzy shower, sans-bathtub, with a rain shower-head, which makes me feel a whole new level of grown-up because I don’t have to stand in a bathtub to shower. I don’t know why… it just does.
• living with less. As afraid as I am of getting rid of some things, I am actually really excited to just have less things to worry about.  When we were first married we owned a condo and loved it, though we couldn’t scoop up the random garage sale find, or couldn’t buy extra paper towels all the time. If sometime came in, something else had to go out.  I think that’s actually really healthy.
• being mostly debt-free. Our only debt will be mortgage debt (which will be tiny, in comparison!). No other debt payments.  Matt calculated that we could have about $600 extra dollars floating around that we could SLAM on our principle and kick that mortgage in the butt in no time.  We can actually pay this down in a reasonable amount of time.  Crazy.
• decorating a clean slate. This condo seems a little more modern than I’m used to, but that makes it really fun. I’ve never had a totally clean slate like this. We are getting painters in before we get there and then having some extra cabinets built to match the kitchen.
• the challenge: this is going to be quite the adventure. And it’s not really temporary.  It’s a big deal. I like a challenge.  Let’s see how I feel in a few months.