Some News!

I’ve been so bad at blogging lately! You guys, two kids are no joke. Ridiculously exhausting. I am starting to get the hang of it though and slowly get back to regular routines, and hopefully blogging is one of those.

We have done SO much work in the house in the past few months. Mostly because we have decided that…. we are MOVING!

If this seems surprising considering all the work we’ve put into our house to make it our own, it came as a surprise to us as well.

One night after Christmas we were talking to family members about how we were going to live here forever, but we planned to send our boys to a neighboring (highly rated) school district. The next week, out of curiosity, I researched tuition rates for out of district students at that school, and we were shocked at the price. Since the school is a public school, it made so much more sense to start thinking about moving into a different district. We also realized that a move could bring Steve much closer to his job, cutting his commute in half. So, we made the difficult decision that moving would be the best thing for our family.

We listed the house at the end of August, after a whirlwind few months trying to get it ready with a new baby. And, we still haven’t decided on our next house, so life feels really unsettled right now. As we’ve looked, we’ve honed our wishlist to three wishes.

WISHLIST:

1. Unlike many second-home buyers, we wouldn’t mind something smaller, and would love to go from a three-story (counting our massive attic) 2200 square foot house to a more compact two-story or ranch. This could really simplify our life in so many ways (less cleaning, less maintenance, less stuff), so it’s a really exciting concept for us.
2. An open floor plan (well, an open kitchen, as our floor plan is already pretty open otherwise) would be amazing, so that I can watch the kids playing while I’m cooking.
3. And, a big, shady yard that we can fence in so that the boys can play safely would be a dream. I want to feel like I’m in the country, even if we are still in the middle of the city.

Of course, there are a lot of other little details I am looking for (great light, symmetry, a fireplace, a window over the kitchen sink, architectural character, a designated playroom), and while we want something solid, we don’t necessarily want something totally move-in ready (because I almost always hate the finishes in new or “updated” houses, and I’d much rather earn the equity ourselves and pick our own updates). But, you know how wishlists go; we will see how many of those things we can find in one house!

So, that’s our big news! We feel a little crazy to be doing this with a brand new baby and a two year old, but we also feel like this is 100% the best decision for the boys.

Even though I’m nervous about finding the right house, I would by lying if I said I’m not excited to document any updates we do when we find it (and you know there will be projects, there are always projects). So stay tuned!