After I sold the house in Sacramento, I intended to wait a while before buying a new home. But Katie and I kept trolling Zillow for properties in my price range, and went to quite a few open houses in the area. We even put an offer on one that was just up the street from Dave and Jenny's home, and came close to doing so on several others. But for one reason or another, none of those deals came through.

Although we had our minds set on a house, a remodeled condo in one of our favorite neighborhoods appeared online one evening. A couple of days later, we mentioned it to our realtor. She made arrangements for us to see it that night and, by the next day, we submitted an offer. After a bit of back and forth, we beat out an all-cash buyer and then waited for escrow to close.

On the last weekend of the year, we enlisted the helping hands of Dave, Jenny, Emily and Ellie to move the items we'd brought from Sacramento out of storage, plus our furniture from the rentals we've had the past three years, and somehow managed to get everything into the new place. For someone who hadn't moved for nearly 30 years, these last couple of years going from place to place has been a bit crazy -- and I'm ready to be in one place again for a while.

Welcome home.