Lots of people decide to change their lives and move and just pack up their house and take their stuff with them. It makes sense. But Chris and I have chosen a different route. Before we even decided that it was Hawaii we wanted to move to, we knew we wanted to get rid of 99.9% of our stuff and just start over from scratch. So how did we get to that decision?

Before we decided to move, back when we were still trying to figure out what we wanted to change, we debated about whether we could change our lives enough where we were, or whether we needed to strike out to somewhere else. Central to that decision was our house.

Chris and I have lived in our house in Durham for almost 11 years. We were living in a rental house (about 4 blocks away from our house) in June 2009. 2008 had been a big year for us: I graduated law school, Chris started a new job, I took the NC Bar Exam (and passed!), Chris proposed, and then as soon as I found out I passed the Bar, I started a new job. And shortly after we started wedding planning for a September 2009 wedding. You know what was not part of our plans? Buying a house.

Once we started telling people about our plans, the first question we got was, “Why Hawaii?” And the second question was always, “Have you been there?” Up until mid-March, the answer to the second question was, “No, but we leave on March 31st to go there for 2 weeks to make sure we like it!” Obviously our plans, like so many others, were derailed, but that’s another story.

So here we are. We’ve figured out that what we have and where we are now aren’t working. Now what?