Howdy! Yep, it's been awhile since we chatted. Let's just say, I got completely and utterly sidetracked by house hunting . . . totally consumed and obsessed . . . well, you get the idea. Not that I was completely unproductive. I did make an extraordinarily wonderful necklace that I'm proud to say found a wonderful home with one of my collectors in Australia. Just in case you missed it, this is the truly epic Ocean Goddess Collar . . .

After taking on such a complex piece I needed to give my brain a rest. And sometimes when I'm not sure what to make next, it can be thoroughly rewarding, not to mention very soothing, to go back to basics. Which is what happened when I spent about a week totally focused on putting together some super lovely combinations from my stash of assorted sterling chains and white pearls with a few KVK components here and there. You can see more of those here on the site.

But now, it's time to come full stop and start packing . . . one more time. We finally, after months and months of searching, found our little slice of Florida heaven. It's a little 1959 concrete block house in a really excellent neighborhood here in Gainesville. It's got pristine, very cool original terrazzo floors and pine cabinets and original tile in one of the bathrooms, all the mechanicals have been updated as have the windows and roof . . . a very big deal and a huge relief.

When I started this whole process I had no clue how difficult it would be. I had the idea that we would find a great deal on a classic little mid-century modern concrete block house that needed updating. Turns out, if we had moved here one year earlier, that might have happened. In all the months of looking, I found not one . . . not a single one. Virtually every house we looked at, and I looked at a lot, had been updated . . . but not in a good way. Terrazzo floors had been ditched for wood laminate, cookie cutter kitchens all straight out of the local home store, horrid bathroom updates, scary light fixtures . . . oof! Still gives me the willies just thinking about it all.

I was getting regular emails from 3 different real estate sites, one site as soon as a house hit the MLS and I checked CraigsList at least twice a day. If something hit the MLS at night, there were late night messages to the realtor to arrange early morning viewings - one time we got to a house at 9am only to be third in line to see the place. That one had a full price offer by 2pm. I would drive around neighborhoods, feeling pretty much like a stalker, looking for houses "in transition." I'd write down the address, then go home and look up the deets online, then if it looked promising, I'd write the homeowner a letter of enquiry - on nice watermarked 100% rag stationary. I actually came pretty close with a couple of these . . . close but no cigar.

Then our realtor told us about a little house a couple of doors down the road from her and owned by a friend that was virtually untouched ... finally! It never made it to the MLS. We signed a contract straight away for the asking price. We knew what a rare treasure this was. Now, we're just waiting for our closing date of 5-11-15, very symmetrical, huh? Plus there's 3 one's in the house number as well. Gonna have to look at the numerological stuff.

So here we are again . . . getting ready to pack, one more time . . . and hopefully the last one for a very long time.

No, I don't drink this much . . . been hitting up the local liquor stores for boxes!

And what this means for the world of KathyVanKleeck.com is that my studio will, once again, be packed up and moved and unpacked + the shop is going to be inactive, probably until the first of June. The good thing in all of this is we're just moving down the road a bit . . . about 3 miles to be exact. Which means that we don't have to be so militant about packing and can shuttle loads in the car for a few days after we close and then we can rent a truck and move the big stuff on a weekend. Plus, we'll have until the end of the month to get out of this apartment. Of course, the sooner the better . . . I am SOOOOO over apartment living!

I guess that's it for now and for awhile. If you'd like to follow the adventure, I'll be taking pics along the way and posting them to Instagram and Facebook.

with deep gratitude . . .

- kvk