May 21, 2021

Well hello hello!

Hello! Hope you’ve been doing okay! It has been a seriously long time since I’ve posted! If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen what we’ve been up to and if not, the quick summary is, WE’RE MOVING!!  It’s been a whirlwind and while we’re sad to say goodbye the the house we’ve lived in for almost 5 years, with the real estate market where it’s at and with the value we’ve added to our place over the years, this move just makes too much sense financially for us. We’re staying in our town and are (shockingly) taking on another 70s fixer upper.

our new home… pic taken from the back yard

We’d been stalking this property for almost two years now without really thinking seriously about it but when the market did its thing, we figured it out. I’m totally obsessed with the house and the 7+ acres it sits upon and can’t wait to make it ours.

Here’s a bit from what I posted on Instagram for those who might have questions about why we do what we do:
“Doing what we do how we do it is definitely not considered “normal” and it’s honestly killer at times so I totally get how crazy it sounds and all the questions. 🙂 to answer the big ones: yes, we really do love renovating and fixing up places in need of love and yes we really love the house we have to leave, but more importantly to us, at this point, it’s a path to financial freedom. We unintentionally have been fixing up houses, living, in them and moving for the past 10+ years or so… originally we moved to accommodate our growing family/ get more bedrooms so had to buy more expensive houses. But in our past couple of houses we have been able to buy houses that cost less than the ones we’re selling but have the potential to be sold for higher once renovated – which gives us more equity and financial freedom. I have hopes of working less hours per week at our design firm and to get to be with the kids more on weekdays / after school etc- which I currently can rarely do- so we go through all the crazy to reduce our cost of living and  to eventually be mortgage-free. It’s an unconventional business model but one we’ve used in tandem with our design business.

It’s something we’re really open with our kids about and even though they don’t always want to move, they do understand how it helps our family. What we’ve been doing we now see in hindsight but it wasn’t something we set out to do from the beginning. Each time we move we fall for a home and the life there and imagine we’ll be there a good long while. We only started thinking about it consciously after living in our current home and realizing if we gave up the place we loved so much I could have more time with the family and it would be worth it.”

We’re extensively renovating our new place so we needed to find a place to live in the meantime. Rather than rent – which is what we originally thought we would do but realized was a big issue with 3 dogs/ 6 chickens/ and a par of geese- we decided that we would live in one of our flip houses so we went hunting for something we could fix up and live in and then sell when we move to our new house.

SO we found one (phew!!) that had an offer on it from someone who was going to tear it down and made an offer and got it! Here’s a pic:

It’s on two acres and is in an equestrian neighborhood in our town.  We’re in the midst of renovating it now and we’ve been doing Live Instagram video updates on it to share progress.  Our back views are my favorite part of the house:

I think the chickens & geese will love their temporary digs:

We were hoping we could get it quasi-livable enough to move straight into from our current house but it’s looking like that won’t be possible so we are moving into our permanent house FIRST for just a little bit- then moving to this place while that one’s being renovated, and THEN moving to our permanent place and selling this one.  It’s going to take some serious exhales and elbow grease to get through but I’m feeling pretty good right now.  🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On another real estate note- my dad sold his North Carolina lake house so we’re saying goodbye to that too! We have so many amazing memories there – it’s been 7 or 8 years- and I can’t believe that chapter’s also over but I keep reminding myself that houses are houses and home is where my people are.

So many of my favorite parts of life happened on this dock and in that water with friends + family

I’m excited for what the future holds, trying not to be sad about saying goodbye, and really attempting to be present and to enjoy this time even though it will be disorganized and a bit nutty.  Mind over matter seems to be working so far lol!!  Anyway, I hope you’re doing okay and I’m sending you all the best!! xo

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