Category Archives: Let’s Be Adults

We bought a HOUSE!

29th August 2013

August has been quite the busy month, I turned 25, spent some great time with family (and an adventure or two in-between) in Charleston and in the most recent and most exciting news…P and I BOUGHT A HOUSE!

We’ve been dreaming of owning something for a little over a year now and started more seriously looking early this summer with a vision of learning about the process, taking a look at neighborhoods, putting together a must-have list and making a move on something later this fall. My lease isn’t up until just after the new year and my current roommate and I just aren’t quite ready to say our goodbyes, so on paper, our charted plan sounded fantastic.

But then we found ourselves narrowing the list and neighborhoods rather quickly…

And then the housing market seemed to pick up over night…

And then we walked into a little house, that didn’t meet half of the things on our list and we fell in love.

As first time homebuyers, it was certainly a roller caster of emotions.

Phase One: Where the heck do we even begin?!

With a realtor. We have always been big Trulia fans (I even have it to thank for finding my last apartment), but when it came time to actually look beyond open houses, Chris from Coldwell Banker became our BFF.

Thanks to some searching online, we calculated approximately how much we wanted to spend each month and how much we were comfortable putting as a down payment.

We also had a rough idea of a few neighborhoods we really liked, so narrowing everything with those parameters made the first few conversations a breeze.

From there, we spent the next few months casually checking out houses as they came on the market. There were no stupid questions in Chris’ eyes and boy were we over the moon thankful for her non-judging ears.

Phase Two: Can we really do this? Are we even capable of owning a home?

Yes we can, stop freaking out. That was pretty much my mantra, or P’s to me, as the searches got closer. We even saw one house we both really liked, which was quickly shot down by our stand-in Home Inspectors, also known as both of our Dads. Seriously, does everyone’s Dad climb on the roof of a house the first time they see it?!

As we learned more about the process and started falling in love with actual streets, it really started to sink in that yes, this is not House Hunters and yes, we were going to find a house and yes, I would be parting with a big chunk of my dear savings account.

Phase Three: This is it.

Our house went on the market on a Friday, we saw it early Saturday (after a canoe trip and in our bathing suits) and put together an offer in the car just down the street. Hey, when you know you know right?

This little guy captured my heart from its sparkly glass window in the front door all the way to its walk in master closet (anyone who owns a home built mid-1900s knows this is a miracle, aka an addition).

From the moment we put in the offer, we were terrified. I thought I might throw up. After a sleepless two nights and two counters (one on each side) we were under contract by Monday morning. Until closing, I was still convinced someone would swoop in and take it from us.

Phase Four: That costs HOW much?

I’m not one for spending money. I’m a saver to my core. When my brother was spending all of his money on Lego sets, I was saving my dollars in my piggy bank, with statements written on paper inside. So needless to say, this process was slightly gut-wrenching.

We knew going in that we wanted to keep our monthly payments very manageable (and with the opportunity to put more towards the principal monthly when it allows) and walk away with a cushion in other accounts, were anything to happen in the future.

The little costs certainly caught us a bit off guard, so we were glad we were prepared. Appraisal fee, inspection fee and knowing that we would end up paying a portion of our closing costs. We went with a mortgage broker and she made the process a breeze, explaining everything line-by-line, which again, we appreciated more than she’ll ever know.

After singing names a bajillion times and handing over more money in one sitting than we likely ever will again, we were approved homeowners. At least now we are on to the fun furnishings part (oh hey Craigslist).

Phase Five: Happy dancing.

There was a lot of happy dancing this week. While it may be a few months before I call this little guy home (and have to move in with a BOY), we are officially, official homeowners.

Excited, overwhelmed, curious, happy, tired, nervous, blessed, thankful…the range of emotions is endless, but it’s a roller coaster I’m not ready to get off anytime soon.

I’m Back!

19th August 2013

It’s been a busy few weeks around here. If you happened to notice, changing servers late last week meant this site was down for a few days. If you didn’t, that’s OK too, I’ll take it you were doing more fun things than hanging out here. After a few tech support phone calls, file transfers and pleas for assistance from the developers who sit beside me, and I’m back up and running. Success. I even learned a little something along the way. Score one for ~~pretending to know anything~~ learning quite a bit about web dev.

So, it has been a busy few weeks, and there is more to come, which means there will be plenty to post about. In the meantime, I’m just plain excited that this thing is back in cyberspace, instead of feeling like this:

I’ll leave you with a few little things to be excited about in the upcoming weeks…

1. The agency I work for was acquired (we were in the New York Times, you guys). There were cheers, congratulations and questions about whether or not the infamous company cruise would be reinstated (sadly, it is not), but best of all, it means a lot of exciting things for someone in my position.

2. I turned 25 and celebrated with plenty of wine. Who knew North Georgia was home to quite a few wineries?

3. In a little more than a week (nine days to be exact) I’ll have some extra exciting news to share that includes lots of painting and DIY projects in my future.

4. P and I are venturing to Charleston for the first time, which means I’m scheming ways to convince that kid to go on a ghost tour, naturally.

5. My baby sister goes to college. I’m not sure how that happened.

6. I’ll celebrate three years at Engauge and I’m not even remotely tired of it yet. Which is good, because in agency dog years, I figure I’ve been here around 21 years by this point.

7. College football season is a mere 12 days away and I can already hear the “Glory Glory” cheers coming from Sanford Stadium.

Stay tuned. I promise I’ll be back with more than Zoolander GIFs really soon.

I need a mentor. Now what?

4th August 2013

It rings as if it were some nonchalant item on a twenty-something’s harping to-do list: find a mentor. But as with everything “grown up,” this is another must-have that doesn’t arrive in a neatly packaged chapter in the “how to grow up without messing it all up” manual.

In my head, I almost even picture this mystery person as if she were Professor McGonagall (guilty Harry Potter reference). Or as if this is someone you ask out on a date or sorts and at the end of the night, pop a along the lines of question of “will you help answer all of life’s mysteries for some elusive career advancement?” Shockingly, that’s not real life.

I’ve been incredibly grateful to have several wonderful people I happily call mentors cross my path over the past few years, and I hope someday I’ll be able to give the same advice and guidance in return.

So what should I look for in a mentor?

It probably starts with the people you work with. One of my biggest cheerleaders was a colleague who always had a open door. During my first few years at Engauge, I spent hours in her office each week, trading ideas, asking questions and having her explain how she reached client-related conclusions. Did she hand over the keys to success in a pretty blue box? No. Did she push me to be more confident and trusting of my own work? Yes. Did she make me smarter in the process? Absolutely.

Find your cheerleaders. Someone who will cheer you on and build up your expertise, not through questioning alone, but as a partnership.

Don’t be afraid to step outside of your industry. A mentor isn’t always someone who understands your lingo or speaks in the same client acronyms. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to participate in a women-only leadership program and it was phenomenal. Read more on that here. The most valuable pieces of the program however were the PEER mentorship opportunities. You can be a lawyer, working in manufacturing, or advertising, but you most likely have many of the same questions, the same doubts and the same what-ifs when it comes to managing a career.

Find people who don’t simply get your work, but who also get you. Sometimes a “the same thing happened to me” conversation can be the best support manual there is.

The real secret magic fairy dust? It starts with friendship. In reality, a mentorship shouldn’t be a formal program of sorts for the next few decades, it should be a mutual relationship and it probably starts with a cup of coffee (or in my case, hot chocolate). Finding someone you are comfortable with both personally and professionally, though rare, is insurmountable. When it comes time to ask for advice, you want someone on your side who not only gets your resume, but also gets you for who you are, not the job description you have in hand.

Find someone who you can trust to value more than just your job. Finding someone that remarkable might even feel like winning the lottery.

In the end, there isn’t some magic formula. There isn’t a mentor dating service. There are only the people you surround yourself with, the relationships you develop, and like everything else, we have to seek to build those relationships one day at a time.

PS that leadership program? They are enrolling for the fall class currently, check it out.