27 November 2012

New challenges, new location, new blog


After a couple of years of hemming and hawing, I've made a decision. 

I am going to leave Florida and throw myself into a new challenge. A new challenge and what's increasingly looking like a new life.

At some point this winter, I'll be relocating to Pennsylvania and the place where my life began nearly 48 years ago. Never in a million years would I have predicted this move until the last year or so. It's funny though, the same things I ran from when I was in my early 20s are what I crave now as a middle-aged man.

Check out my new masthead, and yes that's an original photograph.

This blog and its archives will remain here in perpetuity and I'll be updating it as I come across things that pertain to its niche. In the meantime, I'm starting a new blog that will document my move and adjustment to my new surroundings. I'll list the link here when it's ready for prime time.

I started this blog five years ago and it was before I knew what a blog was. In the ensuing years, it has showered me with more good fortune than I could have ever imagined. Over the course of those five years, I've gone from being a struggling designer faced with a collapsed housing market, to a power blogger, to someone who's now plying his trade as a blogger and marketer for other people and entities.

I made my blog into a career path and trust me, if I could do it, anyone can.

People who blog their way through life transitions are some of the most self-indulgent people there are and I cannot wait to be one of them. I hope you follow me through my new ventures and adventures and again and as always, thank you for being part of all of this. I promise to keep my new site entertaining if nothing else.

In the meantime too, I have a bunch of trade shows in North America and Europe on my calendar for 2013 and my findings at them will end up here, on good old K&RD. This site and the community that's grown around it is one of my most cherished accomplishments and even though it's not over, it feels like things are changing.

Thanks for reading me for the last five years.


24 comments:

  1. Best of luck on the next phase!

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  2. congrats Paul! I look forward to the new blog.

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  3. Please give us info here on your new blog when you start it! So glad you will be near your family. I know you were mulling it over after your visit. Good for you!

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  4. Good for you Paul! I lived in PA for 15 years (Mt Lebanon) and although it's not my original home, it's always good to go back. Keep us posted on Twitter, we'll keep an eye out for you! Enjoy your journey.

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  5. Can't wait to enter this exciting, very exciting, new phase along with you. My husband has lots of family in the small towns around Scranton; some of them farmers, and they are all, each and every one of them, among the most decent people I know. Something's in the water in PA... Thanks for the ride and good fortune to you, starting with happiness.

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  6. Donna and Susan thank you. Oh, and Susan, am I going to see you in Germany this January?

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  7. Way to grow Paul! Can't wait to be a part of your journey!

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  8. Congratulations Paul! I'm selfishly thrilled you'll be closer to my neck of the woods =)

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  9. Thanks guys, adventure awaits!

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  10. Well, my man, I wish you every happiness in the new venture. I understand the pull of the home town, although after four decades plus in sunny Southern California I am much too namby pamby for the harsh winters of my native Montana. Please make a big fuss when you start the new blog, as I will follow you there.

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  11. Thanks Joe, and believe me, I know a thing or two about shameless self-promotion. After 20+ years in a tropical climate, my getting used to winters again will be interesting.

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  12. I am very happy for you Paul. You are a great person to learn from and listen too. I have always been blessed to have friends that keep me on the right path that are both near or far...and you're one of them. I look forward to reading more and seeing you soon. Next year for Halloween you could go as an Amish kitchen designer...or would you just blend in well!!!

    Just Timster

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  13. Hey Tim, thanks! Princeton's but a short train ride from where I'll be. In the meantime, I'll see you in Cologne in a couple of weeks.

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  14. How awesome Paul! Thank you for being the very first person I met on twitter and for helping me navigate my way with my blog ! You have always been there if I needed help and I'm looking forward to reading about your new adventures in PA! Best of luck always to you and looking forward to hopefully one day meeting you! Enjoy! Safe travels, and Happy Holidays! :)

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  15. Wow! I was your first? I'm glad I could help and whodda thunk Twitter would become such an important part of our lives?

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  16. I think it great that you are going for a new challenges,location and a new blog.
    Will look forward to your new blog.
    Good Luck!!!

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  17. I can't wait for your new adventure!!

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  18. My first thought at reading this post was "There he goes ~reinventing himself again!" But in retrospect it is but another evolutionary step in your self-guided development (plan?). I like to think I'm planning my life but I mostly just react and hope I make good guesses that will land me on my feet. You, on the other hand, are a model for a renaissance man for our times. You inspire me!

    I can't wait to see what the new blog tells of your new self. Will you be tied still to kitchens, designing and construction? Or will this be a whole new side of Paul we'll get to see?

    Without knowing you have (once again)bolstered my confidence to make some drastic changes as well. I am also going to veer away from kitchen and bath design to focus on my passion of architectural rendering and creating artwork that will subsequently force changes to my website and blog as well. I'm due for an overhaul anyway so this is so very timely! It's unfortunate that a tanking economy with a strangle hold on the building industry would force us to face an occupational change toward that which we actually feel most passionate about.

    The best of success and good luck with your move!

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  19. Wow Pam, thank you! I left the business of actually designing kitchens a couple of years ago and threw myself into the marketing side of K&B industry. My move coincides with my acceptance of a position at a PR agency that specializes in K&B. I'm now one of the people who fills blogger's in-bins with press releases.

    Godspeed in your transition Pam!

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  20. I just read about your new position at White Good yesterday. I met Sherry Qualls at KBIS in Las Vegas last year. She seemed like a nice lady. Plus they have the account for Miele, which I've written about from time to time. Actually, that was Lori Dolnick's account at Frank Advertising, but they decided to change agencies. It's weird. The world is getting smaller and smaller these days. Anyway, my man, I wanted to add my congratulations to the heap of good thoughts that will surely be coming your way. Who knows? We may soon be writing back and forth on blogging matters.

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