Before I ever walked through the house, I had already found the grocery store, the post office, coffee, the library and, naturally, sushi.
Priorities ya know!
I know a house can look perfect in photos. An area can look beautiful when you're visiting for an afternoon. But that doesn't necessarily tell me what it would be like to actually live there.
I wanted to know what a completely boring Tuesday would feel like.
Could I buy groceries without driving 30 minutes away? Could I take Georgie somewhere for a good walk? Could I work from home without noise driving me crazy? Where would I mail hundreds of Story Post envelopes every month?
Those are the things I was quietly paying attention to during this trip.
Watch the full video here:
I wasn't really testing the house yet
I had already seen the house on FaceTime and looked at approximately every photo available to me. Probably more than once.
Okay, definitely more than once.
On paper it checked a lot of boxes, but I've moved enough times to know that the house itself is only part of the decision.
I needed to see what was around it.
Not tourist attractions. Normal life.
I wanted a grocery store nearby. I wanted places where Georgie and I could walk. I wanted coffee shops because I consider that infrastructure! I needed a post office because I run an actual mail business out of my house.
And yes, I found sushi. We're counting that.
My actual "could I live here?" checklist
I've realized I have a pretty specific list now.
What does it sound like?
This has become a big one for me.
I work from home. I film from home. I spend a lot of time at home because I genuinely like being there.
So constant construction, traffic, machinery or some weird industrial hum isn't a small inconvenience to me. It changes my entire day.
I actually drove by the house before my appointment just to sit there for a while and listen.
Very scientific research. Me sitting in my car quietly staring out the window.
Can Georgie have a good little life here?
My housing decisions are a joint venture now. The little one has to approve too. She's the boss ya know!
I notice grass. Walking areas. Traffic. Whether I'd feel comfortable taking her outside at night. Whether there are places we could explore together.
And of course I immediately start thinking about finding another veterinarian.
She, meanwhile, is perfectly happy as long as I bring her food and give her access to the good pillows.
But I do think she appreciates a perfect patch of grass to roll over and sun her belly. Check! It has that.
Can I actually work here?
This one has changed a lot since The Story Post started growing.
I don't just need somewhere to put a desk anymore.
I need room for equipment, boxes, envelopes, supplies and whatever small paper-product explosion is happening that month.
I also think about Internet, filming, privacy and whether I can use my own home without constantly worrying about what someone can see through the windows behind me.
A beautiful house that makes my work harder isn't really a good fit.
Can I actually spend time outside here?
This matters to me more and more.
I love being surrounded by nature, but not in a “let’s go hike for six hours” kind of way.
I mean the everyday version of it.
Can I walk outside in the morning with a cup of coffee and sit on the patio? Can I eat lunch outside? Can I hear birds instead of traffic?
I want to be able to step outside and immediately feel like I’m in nature without having to drive somewhere to find it.
That’s one of the things I loved about this place right away. The trees, the space, the quiet, the feeling that I could actually use the outdoors as part of my daily life.
And honestly, I can already picture myself out there with coffee in the morning, probably still in my pajamas, listening to the birds, Georgie in my lap. Oh wow. I can see it now. It reminds me of being in vanlife. It's one of the biggest things I miss about traveling is waking up in nature around me.
The thing that made this decision harder
I wasn't desperately trying to escape my current life.
That's actually what made this strange.
I have neighbors I really like. Georgie has her little social life. I've built routines there. I know where everything is. There are parts of living there that have been really good for me.
But I could also feel myself outgrowing it.
My business has grown. My needs around privacy have changed. The environment around the apartment is changing. And I kept thinking about how I want my everyday life to feel for the next few years.
I wasn't comparing good versus bad.
It was more like good versus, maybe, a better fit.
That is annoyingly harder.
And then the practical part showed up
The funny part is that I spent all this time wondering whether I could imagine living there.
Then I got the answer. I got the house!
And apparently I had nine days to move!
A few things I mentioned
The video: https://youtu.be/QmmJKIaHjfw
The Story Post: https://www.amberjbaldwin.com/storypost
My monthly snail-mail club, which will somehow continue going out even while I am surrounded by moving boxes because I apparently enjoy giving myself challenges.
For now, I have a dog who thinks every hotel bed belongs to her, a house full of things that somehow need to travel five hours north, and a rapidly shrinking number of days to make that happen.
I'm curious, when you've considered moving somewhere new, what was the small everyday thing that made you think, "Yeah, I could actually live here"?
