original entrance
F
or us, like so many, the pandemic prompted some serious soul searching. There we were, in sunny California, ostensibly “living the Silicon Valley dream” but in reality, feeling disconnected. Disconnected from our families, our people, a sense of true community, and from worlds and environments where our two biracial / Black boys could see themselves reflected all around them. We’d spent the last couple of decades as itinerants with 20+ addresses over the last 25 years (including a short, but beloved stint in the Montrose neighborhood of South Orange before we moved to California), so as we thought about putting down roots - and for the the first time, solving for Community instead of just Career coming back to South Orange felt really natural.
With that decision made, we called up our old friend and superstar Realtor, Vanessa Pollock (who had sold our previous home in South Orange) and got the ball rolling on finding our new home. Thus began an 18 month saga from search to moving in. We had a notion of creating a space that could truly be ours, so the first thing we looked at was a plot of land on Irving Avenue for a full build. That fell through rather quickly, so we expanded our search and looked at a wide variety of homes - from move-in ready to fixer uppers. We even put in a couple of offers on places, but lost out to other buyers. We were doing all of this remotely from California - with Vanessa taking us on handheld FaceTime tours, while working on selling our California home. Suffice it to say, all of this felt rather stressful!
before