Barking Dogs and Boiling Points
In 2021, my husband and I were living in Arizona. It was the weekend after Thanksgiving, and I was putting Christmas lights on our home of fifteen years. I was sweating in November.
We lived in a typical Arizona neighborhood. I would even consider it a nice neighborhood. However, the lots aren’t large and our neighbors and their dogs were loud. This particular Christmas season, our neighbor’s dogs decided to stand at the wall and bark at me the entire three hours it took me to put up Christmas lights.
I have heat-intolerant epilepsy. I’m a redhead. It’s Arizona. I was not having fun.
I sat on the top of my ladder and counted in my head. It was 100 degrees. When did 100-plus weather start in the Spring that year? Was it March or April? Even if it was April, that was eight months of scorching heat.
I was so tired of being hot. I was so tired of being stuck indoors when it hit 110 and higher because of my epilepsy.
I was so tired of those dogs barking at me when I was in my front or back yards, tired of hearing them in my house all day.
I wanted out.
I walked into the house, threw down my gloves in our home office, and I told my husband that we were moving.
A Longing for Change and a Push from the Office
For fear of sounding like a tyrant, I should explain, that we’d been talking about moving for almost six years. This past year, my surrogate mother who had lived eight houses down, had moved to Arkansas. On top of that, our closest couple friends had moved to Virginia.
It felt like a mass exodus of the people we loved most.
I was hot, and I was lonely.
I also wanted my husband to initiate the move. Over the past six years, we have made trips out to a few different places like Washington and Oregon. We liked a particular area in Washington. But we’d just never made the move to actually leave Arizona. Things were too comfortable in Arizona socially and financially.
Then, my husband’s company started “bringing people back to the office.” To be clear, my husband had worked for this company for over fifteen years and had never worked in an office. It was silly of them to say they were bringing people back to the office after the pandemic for an employee that had been 100% remote for his entire career, but there it was.
Charlotte Calling and a Serendipitous Encounter
The result, we could choose to live in one of six designated technology hubs: Phoenix (obviously), San Francisco, Austin, Minneapolis, Manhattan, or Charlotte. We ran through the list. Manhattan and San Fran were too expensive. Austin was too much like Phoenix. Minneapolis was too cold for people who had been in Arizona most of their lives. That left Charlotte.
I work in social media for the home building industry. I was aware that the area was booming. My husband and I decided that we had to go see.
I started searching for homes that had what we wanted. We wanted at least an acre. We wanted to be surrounded by trees, and we needed room for a home office.
I immediately found a home I loved. It isn’t the home we bought, but I loved it so much. I can still picture it in my mind’s eye.
What that home listing got me was the most spectacular real estate agent. Her name is Caroline. Caroline in the Carolinas. Isn’t that cute?
I called her. I told her our situation. She gathered some listings for us. What she proved to me was that she hung on my every word. She was spot on in finding what I was looking for.
We flew out to see her. I was not and still am not sold on this area of the country. Things don’t quite gel with me, but I love my home and my neighborhood. So at least Caroline knew what she was doing!
Moving from the East to the West has taught me that, as a whole, people here are much more close-minded. It makes me sad. I feel like I have to hide a lot of myself since I have been here. I am also aware that many people may have a different experience than what I am having, but this has been my experience. It has motivated me to be here, online, finding a different way to connect with people.
A Whirlwind Move and Unexpected Challenges
The rest of the story of our move was a whirlwind. My husband and I bought a larger home. My younger brother has had trouble getting a place of his own. We bought a home that had ample space for him to have an “apartment.” He got cold feet last minute and didn’t come with. It also means that in the interest of money, we bought a place that needs a little love.
I’m not mad that he didn’t come. Moving is a big decision. He’s been out to visit several times already. I miss him dearly. I want him to succeed.
My brother not being with us has made our home the place to visit. We have found ourselves hosts to friends and family dozens of times in the past year and a half, and that’s been great.
Back to the story, Caroline got us a deal on this house. We needed to be on the East Coast one month after she sent us the listing to sign. We hadn’t even put our Arizona home on the market!
One of my closest friends in Arizona is also an amazing real estate agent. I ran straight to her house and told her, “I need you to sell my house in the next two weeks, so I can pack up and be on the road!” In true friend fashion, she said, “We got this!”
She came by the following day. She told me to paint the main living area and start packing décor except what she pointed out, and she would send over the paperwork. She had the house sold in a week and a half at over list price. If you ever need a wonderful real estate agent in the Greater Phoenix area, feel free to email me and ask for her info. She’s amazing.
Several of our friends jumped in to help pack and clean the house from there. I called my dad in Texas and told him we were moving. He had us stop at his place and pick him up on the way. He helped us move in
It was truly one of the most amazing adventures of my life.
Now, here we are on the East Coast.
A New Chapter and an Open Invitation
Being here has been more foreign than spending months in foreign countries. I’d like to take you along for the adventure if you’d come with me…
