We’re Moving, Part 2

If you haven’t read part 1 of our moving journey, you’ll want to click here and read that first!

Thank you so much for being so excited for us about our upcoming move. It really warms my heart that you are so excited to see the new place and how I transform it.

How we Decided on The New House

As we came down off the roller coaster of offering to buy a house: mentally processing the idea of moving and then losing the house – we still were looking at the market, but didn’t see anything else that we liked.

My husband was now totally on board with the idea of moving and started looking at the market on his own.

One weekend while we were out of town, he stuck his phone in my face (in a nice way) and told me to look at this house. I said, “yeah, yeah, I’ve seen that house before and it’s not great.” Green walls, columns in the bedroom, outdated everything. It just looked like a lot of work and none of it appealed to me.

So, he didn’t say anything else about it and we went about our day.

On the way home the next day, I was scrolling my phone and decided to take another look at the house he was trying to show me.

Lo and behold, they had updated the photos and it didn’t look quite so horrible. There’s a lesson in the importance of good real estate photos when you’re trying to sell your home, right?!

Checking off the Boxes

I mentally went through our “must-haves and wants in a new house list” and it was checking off most of them.

Bigger kitchen – check.

Dedicated office space – check.

Walk-in storage space – check, check.

NOT a corner fireplace – check, check, check!

And on and on.

We looked at the house 30 minutes after we got back in town – in the dark – and liked what we saw. But we were hesitant after the last house offer fell through and just mulled it over for a few days.

I began to picture numerous scenarios in my head about how it could work for us, or why it was actually the perfect house for us. And four days later we called our realtor to talk through next steps. And…

We Bought a House!!!! {And now we need to sell ours.}

The very next day–five days after I brushed off my husband when he attempted to show me said house–we put an offer on it.

And we got it! 🎉🎉🎉

We ended up buying that house while simultaneously putting our house on the market, believing that it would sell before we needed to close on the new house. Houses in our price range were selling so fast that we believed it wouldn’t be an issue, even though it was a gamble and super stressful!

We put our house on the market on a Thursday and we received an offer on it 14 days later. It felt like an eternity because we had almost 1-3 showings per day that it was on the market. But looking back, it went really quickly.

Our closing date is the beginning of December and I’m frantically decorating this house for Christmas one last time so that I can share it for my Christmas content this year.

I know I could just skip this year, but I really wanted to decorate this house one last time. Then we’ll box it all up and move between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I plan to put up one tree this year in the new house and decorate it with our family ornaments for the kids and Christmas morning. And then next year I’ll have a whole year of living there and tons of ideas for going all out with my Christmas decor next year. I can’t wait!!

Keeping a Wish List

This whole moving and making quick decisions about buying a house really drove home (see what I did there? 😂) the importance of keeping a wants and must-haves list.

I would highly recommend keeping a list on your phone or somewhere you can easily access with your wants and must-haves for a new home. I’ve kept a running list in my notes app on my phone for years with wishes and needs for a new house – in the event we moved or built a house.

You know when something bothers you over and over about your home? Write it on the list. Some of mine were: powder room for guests, at least 9 foot ceilings on the main level, windows flanking the bed in the master bedroom. And lots more.

Some of my wishes are strictly because I’m a home blogger and I need certain sight lines and design options for my photos. Of course we would never buy a home solely for the blog, but it’s something to consider when it’s the blog that helps pay for the house. Ha!

Perks of the New Home

So, the first home we put an offer on (I mentioned in our Moving Part 1 post) was move-in ready. As in, I wouldn’t even need to paint the walls.

Sure, I was thinking it wouldn’t be much content for my blog, but I didn’t care. Haha! I just loved the thought of it being ready to go. I would just need to decorate and it would be so cute!

But the house we bought instead has fantastic bones, but needs some cosmetic help. Thankfully the real wood floors have been refinished this year and are a lovely color. The roof, fence and A/C units are new, which is awesome. Most of the big stuff is good.

The walls even all have a fresh coat of paint on them. But they are all a shade of lime green or yellow. 😳 The light fixtures are original to the house, so think lots of shiny brass and white. The tile in the bathrooms and laundry room are originals – with LOTS to be desired. We’ve got some hunter green counter tops, even.

I’m not comfortable showing full pictures of the new house until we close and move in, but I’ve created the graphic above to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with. 🍋 I like to call it my lemon & lime house since it’s full of greens and yellows. Lots of brass and white light fixtures, too!

It’s going to be so fun to share the journey of choosing new colors and new fixtures and countertops. There will be a LOT of phase 1 renovations with major overhauls several years down the road.

My plan is to save for gutting the bathrooms and kitchen. I have soooooo many ideas rolling around in my head. I’m trying not to get too far ahead of myself and instead spend my time packing up our current home. But it’s hard not to start throwing together vision boards for the space. I’ll be patient, though.

At the same time, it feels overwhelming to walk into a totally new space with no room “done” the way I want it. I am not sure where I want to start, but I’ll take you through the whole thing and will even ask for your opinions about what you would like to see updated first. (I’ll probably ask on Instagram and Instagram stories – so follow me over there if you’d like to vote and see all of the behind the scenes action!)

If you’re still reading, THANK YOU! I’m so excited to take you along on this journey with me!

xo, Laura

More Posts You Will Love:

• Our Current House
• We’re Moving!
• Introducing: Our New Home!