home sweet halbrooks

If we’re friends irl (or on Facebook), then you know what a whirlwind the past few months have been for our family. But in case this is first time we’re meeting, here’s a quick recap:

• Until just a few months ago, we had been living it up in the Evergreen State. Seriously, how is Washington so beautiful? YEAR ROUND?!
• Strangely, assignments in mid-Missouri are hard to come by when your job revolves around being near the ocean. We had to jump while the water was right, or something like that, so Taylor put in for orders to the ‘Lou shortly before leaving for his final patrol last fall.
• While he was a thousand leagues under the sea, the navy did a secret switcheroo and slipped his application into a right-location-wrong-job billet, and then cut him hard orders just a couple days after he came home.
• Despite the catfishing, we committed to making the most of this duty station in whatever ways we still could (iykyk).
• [insert PODS drama, a small car accident just two days before our move, a b.y.o.budget garage sale, and driving cross-country with our 7yo son, two dogs, a cat, and a snake.]
• Upon arriving to Missouri in early February, we stayed in my mother-in-law’s basement while Taylor went to Florida for school, and I started the search for a house in the city.
• Speaking of catfishing, the rental market in Saint Louis is a scary place to be. After months of searching and then being burned TWICE by two different slumlords (whom I am unable to name here for legal reasons), we switched gears and bought a freaking house.

So, thanks entirely to the support of our friends and family as we navigated the total tomfoolery that was this entire relocation process, we are now the proud owners of a recently renovated 1907 shotgun-style house in the city. With any luck, it’ll be a sweet place to call home, at least for the next few years.

For now though, we’re just taking things one DIY at a time. Visitors always welcome!

…here on the blog, I mean. Don’t go getting any ideas, otherwise I’ll have to get a new doormat for the front porch.