brewery

I’m officially in Cedar Falls, Iowa. I start my new job in about 12 hours, which is kind of unbelievable. The past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind, with submitting my resignation, getting our house ready to sell and driving down to Iowa to start this new chapter of our lives. We’re moving to Iowa. What?!

I snapped this picture on my way to Cedar Falls on Friday. Our house was officially listed on Thursday and we’ve had some interest. No official offers yet, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll hear something soon. Getting our house ready to sell was way more work than I anticipated. Plus, it’s stressful to feel like we’re living in a museum. I know I’m getting a break for the next week, but it’s definitely having an impact on our family. Poor Hoss just doesn’t understand why all of his toys and doggie beds have been put away. I have my fingers crossed that we have an offer soon!

We hit the road on Friday around 10:15am. We had to drive to Iowa in separate cars because Jason needed to get back home to Minnesota on Sunday for work. It was a bit weird not to be in the same car, but I passed the time listening to the Up and Vanished podcast (so good!) and harassing Jason on our walkie-talkies.

When we got to town on Friday, we checked into our hotel then met with our realtor. We looked at five houses on Friday night. There were a couple that were horrible (can’t sugar coat it!), but two that were contenders. The housing market is definitely different in Iowa. The houses are older and definitely are not cookie-cutter layouts like in Minnesota. We saw two houses we liked on Friday night, but it was definitely a reality check for us to remember that our house search in Iowa is going to be much different than our house search in Minnesota was.

Saturday morning we woke up and had plenty of time to get breakfast and explore the area before meeting with our realtor. We had breakfast at the Village Inn (a throwback to my fave Milwaukee breakfast restaurant growing up), then drove to campus so I could show Jason where I would be working. We had fun walking around campus and exploring. Afterward, we drove to Waterloo to check out that side of town. They have a cute downtown and we ended up at Singlespeed Brewery. They have an amazing taproom and good beer. Definitely a good sign!

After our morning of exploring, Jason and I went to meet with our realtor for day 2 of house hunting. We looked at a few houses out of town, as well as more in Cedar Falls. Day 2 was more a bit more promising, with more houses that we felt excited about. We saw one with “ghost steps” (pic below). These steps were in a bedroom leading up to the attic. CREEPY!!!!!

We left day 2 of house hunting feeling really good about two houses and knew we had some serious discussing to do. We decided to head to Main Street to check out the other local brewery, Second State, and restaurants and chat about houses and such. We had a lot of fun doing more exploring.

This morning we spent time chatting with our realtor making some decisions about next steps with the houses we’re interested in. Jason left  to get back to Minnesota around 11:30am and then I was all alone in Iowa. That was a sobering moment – I definitely had a mini-freakout. I went to two open houses to get a better feel on two of the houses we looked at and do some more thinking.

This week, I’m staying at an Airbnb. It’s close to campus and gives me a chance to get to know the area a bit more. Plus, there are FOUR dogs here to keep me company while I’m so far away from Jason and Hoss.

So, this new adventure kicked off Friday and officially starts tomorrow morning. I’m excited and anxious, and can’t wait to get started.