We’re Moving!

For years, my husband and I have talked about moving. We looked at many houses during this time. That usually ended with me trying to convince my husband to make the move.

For example, this house in 2018 which we made an offer on but were outbid.

In early 2019 I found a fixer-upper that was really in bad shape. Shockingly my husband actually liked this one too.

Before bidding on this we called a contractor in and he said the house was so bad it needed to be knocked down. A second contractor said the same so we moved on.

At the end of 2019, and the very beginning of 2020, we were seriously shopping. We were looking for a fixer-upper that we could make our own. We even made an offer on a house in Jan 2020, but were outbid. Again. Because my husband was always so hesitant to go all in.

It was a great old house with the most beautiful entryway, shown above.

Then Covid happened. And it hit us hard. My husband got it in the very first wave and he got it bad. He spent 3 months on a ventilator during which time many doctors told us he wouldn’t make it.

Fortunately, after many prayers, he came off the ventilator but that was just the beginning of a very long recovery with many more ups and downs. And when I say ups and downs, I mean day-to-day was literally a balance between life and death, keeping him going, and getting him better.

His story made local and national news as he spent one year straight in the hospital, and earned him the name “miracle man“. After the initial year, he was in and out of hospitals for another three years dealing with all the damage done. He wasn’t able to eat or drink anything for a couple of YEARS due to damage from the ventilator. It took us to find a specialist surgeon in NYC to fix it.

It’s a long, unbelievable story that we plan to turn into a book one day.

While he was recovering, I came across yet another amazing historic house. This one was truly the most amazing but he was recovering and still not working so we couldn’t even bid on this one.

And these are only a handful of the houses I tried to get my husband to move to. There were many others over the years!

During these last 4 years, we also sadly lost both my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. Their home has always been the family headquarters and the center of every family holiday and birthday. No one in the family wanted to see it sold to strangers.

My husband was interested in buying it, but, this time, he had to convince me.

Which he did!

We plan on renovating the home and have been working on those plans for over a year. There have been delays, most of which were due to a surgery John had earlier this year that went very wrong. Thankfully he’s better now and we are moving full steam ahead.

Both the exterior and interior of the home will be getting renovated. We hired an architect last year to develop the plans and we have picked a contractor. It’s a raised ranch-style house, shown below.

The existing house is under 900 square feet. (It does have a usable basement of about the same square feet.) We are planning an addition, including a new kitchen at the back of the house. The existing kitchen will then become the dining room.

We will also be adding a bedroom and turning one existing bedroom into the main bathroom.

Another thing I’m really excited about is the addition of an enclosed porch. I did have to convince my husband to include that, but I know it’ll be used and enjoyed daily.

In all the years I tried to make moving happen, never once did I imagine it would be this family house that we’d move to.

And while I had to be convinced initially, I now feel very at peace about it. It’s as if God was saving this for us all along.

Now I’m excited to begin. We have never taken on a renovation of this magnitude before so we know there will be bumps along the way.

I have some fun details planned that I am looking forward to sharing. Then there are still other details I’m still a little on the fence about and will decide as the renovation progresses.

The backyard is large, private, and tranquil. Lots and lots of space for gardening and growing flowers.

I’m going for a classic, vintage cottage vibe inside and out. Because we’ve been planning this for so long, I’ve had time to reflect on what designs I love and which have been passing trends.

I plan to share all the details here on the blog as things progress. Behind the scenes, real-time progress will be shared often on my Instagram stories as well.

I’ve always been interested in the thought process people go through during renovations and how and why they decide on the design details. Especially when I love the results. Everyone gets inspiration from somewhere.

Let me know if there are any particular parts of renovating, remodeling, and/or moving that you’re especially interested in!

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