Yes — it’s true! We’re moving before Christmas. It sounds nuts, I know, but there’s a good reason, so let me explain.
First, the basics: we aren’t leaving Alabama or our community. In fact, we bought a house just around the corner. Same jobs, same schools, the same neighborhood pool and HOA — literally one turn and you’re at our new place. Even the trash day is the same. It feels like an upgrade without the upheaval of a long-distance move.
The House that Built this Blog: Some Back Story
If you’re new here, a little background will help. The house we moved into years ago is actually the reason I started this blog. Seven and a half years ago, during the slow recovery from the Great Recession, we were a young family with a one-year-old and dreaming of a better neighborhood with strong public schools and kid-friendly amenities.
We couldn’t afford everything we wanted in the ideal neighborhood, so at first we planned to build in a less expensive area. But then one particular house caught my eye — its price dropped by $10,000 nearly every week. Curious, I went to see it. It was a foreclosure that had been mostly left intact, with fresh beige paint and beige carpet. Not glamorous, but it was larger than our current home and, more importantly, it was in the exact neighborhood we wanted.
We bought that house before we sold our old one, which I don’t recommend because of the stress involved, but it worked out. I started this blog the week we closed on that house to document the updates we planned for the “builder beige” interior. What began as a simple renovation diary turned into a full-time project and then became my job while I worked from home and raised our daughters. That unexpected pivot has been one of the biggest blessings of my life.
Over the past 7.5 years this house has been terrific for our family. We love the lot, our neighbors, the views, the high ceilings, and the neighborhood amenities like the pool and gym. As a home it was a big upgrade from our previous place — two extra bedrooms, a formal dining room and a true laundry room — but it wasn’t the house of my dreams. I bought it for the neighborhood, not the floor plan. Still, it gave me endless content for this blog and so many opportunities to share home renovation, decorating, and family life with readers.
My Dreams for Something More…
As our family grew and my business expanded, I began to wish we had more dedicated spaces — a bonus/playroom, a separate office, and a proper guest room. My job involves a lot of styling and decor, and a guest-bedroom/office combo has never quite worked for me. For the past year I’ve been using the fourth bedroom solely as an office, which means we don’t have a reliable guest room. When friends or family visit we shuffle the girls around, which is fine, but it’s not ideal.
We also wanted an additional bathroom and a guest powder room. Right now the guest bathroom doubles as the girls’ bathroom and, more often than not, it looks like a toothpaste museum. So I’ve kept an eye on the market for years, looking for the right floor plan in our neighborhood so the kids could stay in the same school district and we wouldn’t lose the conveniences we love.
When We Knew It Was Time to Move
A few months ago the house we’d been hoping for finally appeared on the market. It checked almost every box on our wishlist: the ideal layout, the right location, and the kind of living spaces we’d been missing. My husband was understandably cautious — if it were up to him we’d probably live in the same house forever — but I convinced him to go see it. We put in an offer and, heartbreakingly, were outbid.
While losing that bid was disappointing, the experience was informative. It helped us understand what we could afford and what improvements would help our current house sell quickly. The market right now is hot — homes like ours are going under contract in 24 to 48 hours — and we were pleasantly surprised by our home’s value and the low interest rates available. That combination meant we could realistically move into a larger, more functional home while staying in the neighborhood we love.
I’ll stop here for now since this post is getting long, but there’s more to come. In the next installment I’ll share how we prepared our house to sell, what we learned during staging and showings, and the final outcome. Stay tuned for Part 2.
Continue to Part 2…
More Posts You Will Love:
- Our Current House
- Introducing: Our New Home!
- Two Years: Before & After Home Tour