A Big Move!

I have been super busy lately, and it’s not because I’m a homeschooling mom of two children with an almost one year old baby- It’s because we moved!

I cannot even believe I am typing these words! 

Hallelujah, the day has come!

Backtrack:

My husband and I have been living in our house since our wedding day ELEVEN years ago. I’ll never forget how excited we were to buy this little charmer and renovate it over the years. However, it began to lose it’s luster about three years ago when we started to experience the growing pains that came with a growing family. And now, with three children, it has been seriously exhausting trying to make it all work. I have tried to keep in mind that this is a first world problem and that many people grow up in one-room houses with dirt floors; but still, our world seems to demand something different.

Every piece of furniture I have built has some sort of storage compartment to maximize our space and efficiency. Even though we have made the best of it, we are so excited to finally be free!!

We have been diligently praying over our housing situation for the past three years. After our first attempt to sell in a depressed market, we held on to our little house (growing more cramped by the day) waiting for the opportunity to sell WITHOUT having to pay to get out of our mortgage. Fortunately for us, there has been a recovery in the housing market, and we can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. We can actually sell our house now, and maybe even stand to make a small profit.

We were ready to expand our family, and a larger house was definitely part of that plan, but the baby came before the new house- so here’s to God’s plans being greater than our own!

Another issue keeping us in our home was debt. Ugh…such a dirty word.  My husband returned to school to finish his degree several years ago, and we acquired student debt due to unavoidable paycuts and a demotion that would accommodate his class schedule…and don’t get me started on student loans! After he finished school, we struggled for a couple of years. He has been steadily promoted and his pay has increased dramatically, but we are still cleaning up from those years of scraping by. We did not want to purchase a new home and carry over any debt as both of us were not comfortable with that; so it pushed back our new home shopping by another year.

We had braced ourselves to dig in and suck it up for the next 1-2 years if need be in our little house when something awesome opened up. Talk about God’s perfect timing! Some friends from our church were relocating out of state for a job and selling their small farm. After some time on the market and not a lot of action, they decided to pull the listing. They offered us their home to live in while they decide what to do with it in the meantime.

All of these plans came together this past month! The family moved out at the end of September, and a week later we moved in! I am excited and a little scared; I have been a homeowner since I was 20 years old, so I am a little nervous about being a renter. Someone else’s home is a lot of responsibility, but we are so grateful for the opportunity. It really is a perfect solution to our housing situation. We have moved in and will be finishing up some small projects on our house so that it can be listed as soon as possible. Unfortunately we are headed into winter, so I hope that our home will sell quickly despite a slower market.

So far during this move, here are some things I have learned:

1. I have a lot of stuff

2. I never want to move again

and

3. I never want to move again

I am so tired!

My husband took a week off of work and the two of us singlehandedly moved our entire house. No joke, I can’t believe we moved so much stuff in so little time by ourselves with three little kids running around! We still have some things at our old house, but 99% of  it has been moved.

Although our new home is temporary, it is buying us some much-needed breathing room. And did I mention this?

The house is more than TWICE the size of our old house…on SEVEN acres! Say “Hello” to Fuji Farms:

We are so excited to be out in the country! It had always been a dream of mine for our children, but just a little out of our reach. I still can’t wrap my head around this one quite yet.

Oh, and also- I get to decorate!

This house is in a bit of a nineties timewarp and we have permission to do updates as we desire (It’s got wallpaper, y’all. Tons of it.), I cannot tell you how inspired I have been lately. I mean, in our old house, I painted each room at least three times and crammed more furniture in there than there was wall space, so it feels great to have a blank canvas to work with!

Realtor photos:

We are going to be doing minor updates and keeping things neutral for a future resale, I am so excited to begin this new chapter. I feel refreshed and reinvigorated and super blessed right now!

One thing we are bummed about are the awesome neighbors we are leaving behind. It’s one of those things you don’t know you have until it is gone. Over the years, we have formed great friendships . I have watched their children grow up as they have mine. The Fourth of July will not be the same without them. We may just crash the annual block party next summer.

And the other tragedy; our sweet cat Prince stowed away on the U-Haul and popped out when we opened the door never to be seen again. He hopped out and panicked when he realized he was in a new place and it spooked him good! I spent several days at our new place calling for him and asking neighbors if they had seen him to no avail. I am hoping he will be like one of those cats you see on the news that travel miles and miles to find their owners. I am stopping by and checking mail and checking for Prince, fingers crossed he somehow made the distance and is waiting for us at our old house.

So, my next goal it to get completely unpacked (that includes getting the rest of our things out of the old house and getting it listed too). Our closet is not organized and my china cabinet needs a new set-up. Everything in time, I suppose.

Oh, and here is another bonus- goats!

While they are relocating, we are taking care of their goats until they can move to their new home in sunny California. The girls have loved it, and we are starting to get slightly attached to the little guys. They will be gone in just a little while, but they sure are cute to look at!