Nothing could have prepared me for the reaction of my readers when I announced we were moving recently on Instagram. You would have thought I shaved my eyebrows off or something. It was confusion mixed with a touch of outrage mixed with a dash of disbelief. In all my years of blogging nothing has garnered so much of a response. My DM inbox was FULL and the comments were flying. Of course there were PLENTY of well wishes in there as well. But it was the first time I really was in shock over the reaction my readers had to a decision I had made (really our whole family made the decision). So it took me a little aback, I have to be honest.
But now that I think back on it I realized that you gals were super invested in the renovation we did to that house. I drew you in with the home tours and video tours of the 'before and afters' on Instagram Stories and then left you hanging I suppose. It's difficult for me to get personal here on the blog. I could do better at it, but I also know I need to strike a balance that I and my family feel comfortable with - that's always a work in progress. But the questions and inquiries over the past month haven't stopped and I realized how invested you are in it all, which really I should be taking as a compliment. We feel like friends. And friends tell each other things. Ya know?
So I'm gonna break it all down for you. I've gotten SO many questions (I mean really, like A LOT) so I'll round up the FAQs - but warning: I'm leaving one major piece out. For my families privacy and my privacy I'm not telling you WHERE I'm moving. Sorry not sorry! Surprisingly this was the biggest question. But for security and privacy reasons it doesn't feel right and since I've had readers stop me in the grocery store and tell me they've seen me at my mailbox before (gotta love the small town that Grand Rapids is) - I just want to keep our privacy as much as possible. But always still say "hi" in the grocery store - I love it when you gals do that! :)
Question: Why renovate the house and then move? Don't you love it?
Answer: We admit we kind of accidentally maybe flipped this house. Maybe it was more like a "slow flip" since it took us two years. But I get this. This is a question we have asked even ourselves. We love every piece of this house. Totally top to bottom. We picked every finish and light and plumbing fixture with the full intention of living here. So we bought exactly what we loved. Somehow the sum of the parts didn't equal a whole for us. It wasn't a fit for us. It just never truly felt like home. In the end we feel like we made one little tiny corner of the world a better place for a new family. And so even though it didn't end up that we would live here, it does end up that another family will hopefully enjoy this home for many years to come. That feels like a happy ending to us.
Question: Why move now?
Answer: Because our area is so dependent on school districts for where people live (are all neighborhoods like this? I'm assuming so!?!?) it means summer is the time to sell. We knew if we didn't sell it this summer it would be one more year to sell it. Also the housing market is SO HOT right now in our area, we knew it would go quick this summer so why not? In the end it also was perfect timing with the house we are buying to be finished. So it all seemed quite serendipitous.
Question: Why aren't you moving to the beach or somewhere warm?
Answer: I LOVE this question because I know so many of you just GET me when you ask this. Yes we REALLY want to move to warmer weather and yes, we hopefully will someday! But with a 6th grader and an 8th grader this year, now is not the time to fly the coop. The beach can and WILL wait! Right!?!?
Question: Are you moving far?
Answer: Nope! We are staying in the same exact school district for our kiddos. Seems like the right thing to do at this stage!
Question: Are you downsizing? It sounds like you are downsizing.
Answer: So yes, our new home is smaller in areas that this house is very large. We are sacrificing on space in a few areas. I will be the first to admit that this is going to be a challenge. But I realized after living in a "big" (for me) house that I don't love all the extra space. It feels wasteful and unused most of the time. For reference our previous home was 1400 square foot of livable space with about 300 sf of finished basement and 300 of unfinished sf for storage. This felt VERY small to us. The house we live in now and just sold is about 2600 sf of livable space with a very large almost 1300 sf unfinished basement (that has basically become a place to throw stuff and not think about it - yikes). Our new home will be about 2700 sf of livable space with a very small storage area. So the livable space is about the same. The space to throw crap to not think about it is non-existent. So are we downsizing? Not really, but maybe kind of. I feel like our previous home was TOO small, the house we just sold is TOO big and the new house will be JUST right. You can call me Goldilocks. Yep. In the end the only way I can describe it in terms of comparing this house and our new house is that they are just VERY different. Different floor plan, different use of space. Just different.
Question: Are you renovating the new house too?
Answer: NOPE! We are hanging up our renovating hats after renovating THREE homes, we are done - for now (I won't say never again because *cough* beach house). This house is a new build... but we didn't exactly "build a new house." The home was almost complete when we placed our offer. Most of the selections had been made by a very talented interior designer. We got to change a few of those last minute to suit our style, but really she had already chosen so many amazing finishes. It was literally a match made in heaven. We were able to choose wall color (spoiler alert: it's white, like this house and our previous house), some flooring, lighting and have a little say in the landscaping - but again, the professionals had an amazing vision for this house already and there wasn't a lot that needed changing. It was already SOOOO our style. I will also say that a few things were not things I would have ever chosen but I still love them. It's been fun to get out of my box a little and buy into a vision that was bigger than what I could have imagined. I will also say that after renovating three homes and making ALL. THE. DECISIONS. it was really nice to let someone else take the lead and trust their design prowess.
Question: Will there be a home tour?
Answer: I hear ya for wanting to see it all and do home tours and the whole nine yards. Moment of truth: I'm feeling really private about this house. I don't know why. I admit I want to savor it to myself for a bit. In the end I LOVE to share - heck it's my job to share things on the internet - but I also want a little time to get my family settled, get moved in and enjoy our new neighborhood. We are REALLY pumped about this new place and all it offers and I expect to share peeks of it - I just don't know when yet. I also feel like since there aren't any wild "before and afters" there is less to share - so again, I'm just working on finding that perfect balance. Any initial sneak peeks will all be on Instagram... so watch there for more behind the scenes action!
I think that is MOST of the questions... feel free to ask any more in the comments and I'm happy to chime in! You can see each and every home tour of this house AND our previous house in the archives HERE - including some juicy before and afters! So if you have questions on sources, etc - you can find them all there!
