Connecticut

Well I guess we're private now. If you're reading this I must have done something right to add your email successfully.  I know that for me, I only click on a few of my friends' private blogs every now and then because I never know if they updated or not, so I just look every couple months or so. That might be the case with you all now. I think maybe now the blog might be a place to be a little more personal than I was before because it is private. I'll be a little more specific about things perhaps. But we'll see what happens. For now I should write a post about the fact that we're moving to Connecticut.

Tyler and I have told our families, friends, and made announcements on Instagram and Facebook. But for those who have missed it, we are moving to Hartford, Connecticut in May. Tyler has been offered a job to work at LeGrand headquarters and has been assigned to be part of a new initiative. I'll try to explain it simply here.

Right now Tyler works for Wattstopper (http://www.wattstopper.com), they manufacture and sell lighting and energy control products (ex. the sensors that turn off lights when a space is empty or the panels that control a large building's lights, such as an airport, university, etc). His company is owned by Legrand (www.legrand.us) which is the world specialist in products and systems for electrical installations and information networks, offering solutions for use in residential, commercial and industrial buildings. Legrand owns several companies that provide lights, wiring, cables, information systems and data communication - basically all the tools that bring power to homes and buildings.

He is the Southeast District Sales Manager for Wattstopper. When he started in 2009 he was over Florida, Alabama, Mississippi & Louisiana, so yeah a bit of southern travel was involved. Now since Florida's business has grown so much, he is just managing Florida and the Caribbean (thanks to his handy Spanish speaking skills). It's been a great job and he has done great things for the company in Florida. Every year he has been one of the top producers for his company and in 2011 he was the company's leader in sales. Four years later, though, he is ready for a change, ready for a promotion, and ready to be out of sales. Since his company is not based in Florida, however, a promotion or new job within the company will mean we need to move to one of their offices across the country. So we knew this day was coming but we've never known where we would go from here.

Wattstopper has offices in Alabama, Texas, Carlsbad, California & Livermore, California, and the headquarters are in Santa Clara, CA. So we figured we'd most likely be in one of those offices, with the most likely option being Carlsbad or Santa Clara. Last summer he interviewed for a job in Carlsbad with product management and we were optimistic that he would be given that job. However he was told by the CEO that while he would have been great at that job, they had another role in mind for him. Then we waited for a few months, a long time it felt like, to finally find out what this other role they had for him involved.

In August he flew to Connecticut for meetings at LeGrand headquarters. It was his first time there and while he was there for a trade show he also got to meet with some of the leaders of the company. He learned about a special project the comapny was finishing called Adorne. A team of 5 employees from the different residential based companies were brought together to combine their products into one product line. There is a youtube video here that shows some of the prodcuts they came up.

While in CT he heard they were likely starting a similar project with their commercial companies and making a new product line. He was interested in this new development but didn't think about it all that much. But in the coming months he realized that he was the company's choice to be the Wattstopper representative on this project. After lots of emails, phone calls, and visits with the VPs of Legrand it was made offical that Tyler would be joining 4 others to begin this special project, which will be based at Legrand's headquarters in Hartford, CT.

He is so excited for this opportunity. It's basically like he's starting a new company and and with his strong entrepreneurial side to him he's in heaven. And I'm in heaven because unlike an actual startup company, we have the backing of Legrand and still get a salary. For the fist time in our marriage he will be working in an office, with normal hours, and much less travel! He officially starts in April and we will be moving in May.

This explanation is getting long so I'll wrap it up for now. That is the details the black and white, I'll have to save my emotions about the big move for another post.