We Moved!

So many were curious about our decision to move. I know we caught people off guard – especially since we literally finished the bathroom renovations the day before we closed on the sale. 😜

I’ll try to share the pieces of this puzzle with you. Of course, this is very personal, but here we go!

I’ve been feeling this urge to SELL for a while now – years really. But, my husband just wasn’t ready. I’ve felt so strongly about living way below our means to create more financial flexibility for other things that cost money [just to name a few: adoption, travel, even more aggressive savings, and giving].

There were SO many things about our lake home that we absolutely LOVED.

We bought this home in 2018 – while we were still living in Virginia Beach, waiting for Loren’s retirement from the Navy to be official. In Virginia, we had a ton of backyard space for the dogs & really loved the peaceful vibe. We looked for that same peace here in Florida and found it on the lake. It was so beautiful back there – the trees, the water view, the space! We loved it!

At the time, we had a one-year-old. We imagined him growing up playing in the backyard with siblings & us skiing on the lake as much as possible. We had lived away from family for so long – always being states away while Loren served in the military. When we moved back home to Florida, we imagined a full house of family [and children] and so we bought a home that could accommodate that vision and growth.

Here’s what actually happened.

Our lake home, while absolutely beautiful, was an enormous amount of maintenance.

It’s hard to describe this without sounding like a ball of complaints. The truth is, this property required an enormous amount of upkeep, time, manual labor, and money to maintain. From the trees to the bugs, to the weather conditions on the lake. It was never-ending. And to be really honest, it became a big source of stress for our family, most of it falling on Loren’s shoulders.

When we started to really think about the amount of time we needed to spend on cleaning, scrubbing, thinning, demossing and picking up – it reminded us how much less time we were being given to go enjoy the days as a family. When we looked at our finances and actually calculated how much money was being put towards hiring out maintenance crews, upkeep jobs, bug spray system, and property costs – we had to stop and ask ourselves, is this really where we want to be spending this much money?

For us, it wasn’t a matter of having the money to pay for these things – but rather thinking of all the other things that could be done with that money. And it became really clear to us – that to be good stewards of the finances we were given – we wanted to make some changes. So while the view was irreplaceable & very peaceful – all the things that come WITH the view were the opposite of peace-giving for our family in this current season of life.

You guys, when I say bugs…

I don’t mean just some mosquitos or gnats. If you’ve been following us since we moved back home to Florida – then you know. Right after we moved in, we were not very familiar with the bug misting system we had. We didn’t realize the tank ran out of solution & was not spraying for bugs. Now, again – these aren’t just regular bugs.

The particular bugs we had problems with are called MIDGES. They are harmless and look like a mosquito but they do not bite. They are lake bugs. And oh my goodness, when I tell you the number of bugs that would swarm our home & property – it was like a plague from a horror movie. Every time a storm came in or the spray system glitched off – we would have MOUNDS and MOUNDS of bugs as well as INSANE swarms of these midges surrounding our property. Hopefully, I’ve painted a disgusting picture – because it was truly disgusting. LOL. Endless bugs. We were told they were “seasonal” when we bought the home – and they are in fact – NOT seasonal, but very much so…. year-round.

Our home in Virginia had the advantage of seasonal weather.

We spent a lot of time in the backyard in the cool weather. Now, we live in Florida. During the “winter” months we did spend a lot of time outside because it was so nice!!! But every other month – it was way too hot to just be outside. Even our dogs were too hot to be outside for long! LOL!

We hoped to add to our family much sooner than now, and the reality was that Roux didn’t really want to go outside in the backyard and play by himself, and we didn’t blame him! We’d go out and play together as much as we could – but the heat was a major factor for us and that giant backyard barely was used.

As we started to brainstorm using the property more – we knew we wanted to put a pool in.

But we ran into many roadblocks as we started to estimate this project – from having to remove GIANT trees, to building up the sloped hill in our backyard, to having to put a screen around the pool because of all the creatures – that would obviously then impeded the lake view – not to mention the cost of this project became quite high. So, pool was out.

We have been members of a boat club for many years – basically having access to a boat without having to own/store a boat.

We did this first to see if we wanted to own a boat – and I’m so glad we did it this way. Because we joined the boat club, we were able to grab a boat on the lake and enjoyed being on the water. I did ski a lot on the lake and Loren would wakeskate. We would let Roux and little friends tube on the lake with an adult – but another harsh reality is the gators.

For me, I’m not worried about it. I can get in the middle of the lake and ski & for the most part not be too concerned about it. But, as a mother – I could never let my kid jump off our dock and swim. I was never comfortable letting Roux do things like knee boarding on his own or doing much swimming – because there are many many gators in that lake – big ones. Will a gator attack my baby, probably not LOL – but it’s a whole different feeling when you see 6ft gators lurking in the water on a very regular basis. So, no. LOL. We also found that we enjoy being oceanside much more on the boat, simply because we can spend the entire day boating, exploring, beach hopping, and swimming!

While we lived in the same state as our family…

we were still about an hour away from them when you account for traffic etc. And they just were not over to our house as often as we originally envisioned. Yes, holidays, and some weekends – but not enough to justify all the extra space. There was so much of our house that was simply unused – for years.

When we left Virginia – we were so excited to get home to Florida.

We were new parents & we just did not realize how amazing our neighborhood was in Virginia. Our lake home in Florida had countless PROS and upsides – but it was at the end of a bumpy lakeside road, with four other houses – off of a very very busy road. There was no neighborhood. No trick or treaters, no place to ride a bike or walk the dogs. No neighborhood friends. We didn’t realize how much we would want that community for our family – this is probably one of the biggest reasons for us moving. We were willing to sacrifice a lot of the PROS of the lake house and bigger property + updated renovations because we want our kid[s] to have a safe place to play outside.

These are our MAIN reasons for moving! In a nutshell: we wanted to downsize to a lower maintenance home, we wanted a neighborhood, we want to put a pool in, and we wanted a home that was more appropriately sized for our actual family. So the big question is…. 

WHY IN THE WORLD DID YOU SPEND ALL THAT MONEY RENOVATING JUST TO MOVE!?!?

Oh, my friend! The question that haunted us the most! This alone shows you that we had no serious intentions to sell, at least not so quickly. But as the conversations started happening – we both felt God truly leading us in this direction, we chose to step out in faith to get the process going – and then the process went so quickly! We had multiple cash offers, some over asking price, within days. It was QUICK.

This is the thing – we have redone the entire house since we moved in. The LAST thing that was left were these two downstairs bathrooms. They HAD to be done. If there was any chance of selling the home at any point in time – these bathrooms would need updating.

Now, had I known we would be selling in the timeframe that we did – I would NOT have hired a designer and I would NOT have used the budget we used… LOL. We truly picked out our favorite materials and designed the bathroom we wanted to spend YEARS in. So, yeah, I would have done a lot of things differently, had I known – but we didn’t. We had to make peace with that.

Our home was beautiful.

I can’t tell you how much I miss the hardwood floors we put into that house LOL – among many many other things. But, those things are just things. And the PEACE of mind + SAFETY for my family are of much higher importance to me. I won’t lie though, it was a hard pill to swallow.

We left that home WAY BETTER than when we bought it & that makes us happy. We poured our hearts into that home in many ways & we invested in that home as if we would be there forever. But, you don’t know what you don’t know.

The treasures in my life are not fancy wallpaper or soft-close toilet lids. The treasures in my life are the humans & also the confidence that we are responding to God’s call on our lives – even when it’s tough. We are stepping out in faith & trusting the path ahead.

WHAT DID WE BUY!?

I do have a small secret talent for researching.

When we first started considering listing our home “just to see what happens” …. I started looking for new[er] builds with communities. I stumbled on some stock photos in an unfamiliar area not too far from us. One weekend we decided to map out a bunch of listings and just drive all over to check things out. Was what we were looking for even possible? Did this community even exist?

NOTE: This was at the end of August when we were having these convos and going on these exploration missions.

So we drove all over the place looking at a ton of different properties, communities, and options. A lot of them were okay, but they didn’t make us excited about leaving our lake home.

That one random listing I found with the stock photos was one of our last stops and we could not believe it.

It was exactly what we were looking for. Small community, new builds, simple homes, open floor plans, but really beautiful.

The only problem when we pulled into the community – it looked like it was all DIRT. Not a lot of actual houses up yet. Slight problem…. We don’t know what the real estate market is about to do. We wanted to sell now, and also… minor detail – we are having a baby in a couple of months. To build from dirt would take at least 12 months.

We went into the model home, loved it, of course. And we were told they did have ONE home already built that was called a QUICK MOVE-IN home. Basically, this just means the house is beyond any customizations. It’s a new build – but you don’t get to pick your lighting, your carpet, your tile, your colors, etc etc etc. It’s available as it was already designed. BUT… it would be available for MOVE IN at the end of SEPT or early OCT. 

OK, that’s a big win. That’s a possibility. That would be good timing for our family & we would have a couple of months to settle in before our second baby joins the family.

But, seriously, the irony – first-world problems…

I just spent over a YEAR customizing every single detail in our renovations and now I’m moving into a basic builder-grade home with zero custom details [it sounds quite bratty, I know]. 

I have wanted to build a home for a long time – but the draw for me was always so I [we] could pick out exactly what went into the home! That’s the best part, right!?

Well, we walked over to the “QUICK MOVE IN” option. And the layout was just perfect. The modern floor plan, the pond view, the one level, the kids’ den, it was all there. The things I would want to change were simple things, and all things that could easily be done over time – no rush. It would be easy to change light fixtures, tile, and hardware. Ok, this is looking like more of a possibility.

We didn’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket so we continued to look all over the place for new builds, updated homes, and cozy communities. There were tons of homes and communities that we saw – but nothing compared to the QUICK MOVE IN home & the community it was in.

We decided to move forward with everything, pending the sale of the lake house.

As soon as we met with our realtor things moved very very fast. Pictures of the lake house were done, drone filmed a video, and private listings were scheduled before the house was publicly listed. Before the house was publicly listed we had multiple offers – the kind of offers you want. It got very real. It was tough to accept we were leaving that home. However, we felt so grateful to find ALMOST exactly what we wanted in this QUICK MOVE-IN home – and that so many others were interested in our home and the updates we put into it. We had the best home in the area, and it made us proud.

There are pros and cons to every single property. 

• The QUICK MOVE IN home has all new warranties – whereas EVERY SINGLE BIG warranty on the lake house expired the year we moved in! It was comical. We replaced everythinggggggg including the septic tank and the THREE AC units in the home… among other things. To have new warranties on this new home was a big draw for us. –

• The QUICK MOVE IN home is smaller – because that’s what we wanted. Ironically, it has the same amount of actual living space. The storage space is way less in this new house. While that is a big pain – it’s also a big blessing because it gave us an opportunity to really go through things, to minimize, to donate, and to purge – which felt really really good! 

• We are THE ONLY ones in this neighborhood LOL… literally a ghost town – but the future ensures a community & so we enjoy the space and amenities all to ourselves for now until some friends join us! 🙂 

• We have basic build materials  – silver and gray everything basically LOL – but that’s ok!!! It’s not bad at all, it’s just not our preference – and over time, we will change things out to make it more of our style.

• In the lake house, the playroom area was upstairs. I never realized how impractical that was for me – when the rest of the living is downstairs. So, to have the kids’ rooms and kids’ den all downstairs on one level with the rest of the living area brings me so much peace! 

• The lake house had an enormous master bedroom & bathroom. I mean, it was huge and actually too big. But we’ve swung to the other direction! We are much more condensed which meant we needed to rework furniture and belongings LOL – it’s an adjustment but one we are so willing to make. 

• Along with the basic build vibe – comes things like no water softener, water filtration, closet organizers, fence, or ceiling fans, or big appliances like fridge and washer and dryer – so those are all added expenses that needed to be poured into this new home right from the start. 

• The lake house was going to require a massive investment to put a pool in – but here at the new house, we’ve already started the pool design process and it’s much more reasonable.

We accepted the official offer, went through inspections, and all the things.

We then started packing things up, purging, selling, donating, etc. Our movers were scheduled weeks in advance. We did our final walk-through for the new build. And then Hurricane Ian threatened to hit our EXACT location on the EXACT move day & closing day. The movers canceled, the title companies closed, and we had to unpack boxes to live and eat for the next few days of unknowns.

The hurricane shifted away from us – but everyone was still closed LOL. No one knew what the heck was happening. Luckily 3 days later – our movers called and said they could come and move us the next morning! So, it was extremely hectic to try and get the title companies to work with us on closings and coordinate all the paperwork in such a weird time for the state of Florida.

Our realtor team & Loren’s extreme diligence made it all happen.

It was an absolute cluster as moves usually are. The moving company estimated 4 hours to move us [?? HOW] and it was easily a 12-hour job. These guys were unpacking a final load at ONE IN THE MORNING!!! But you know what, they never complained. They laughed the entire time. I grabbed them food and they just kept on going. I am really thankful for that. They really did set the tone for what could have been a really frustrating process. At the time I was 31 weeks pregnant, had a 5-year-old running around, and my mother-in-law came to help with whatever she could. My mom was here too but physically not able to help much. They all helped us so much – and Loren, bless his heart, carried the brunt of it all.

Roux and I snuggled up on the only piece of furniture that was put together so far at midnight – which was the couch in the kid’s den. He fell fast asleep while I rested my swollen pregnant feet LOL. The guys snuck past us into Roux’s room and put his bed together before we sent them home from probably one of the longest moves ever. I was able to move Roux to his bed. We all slept the best night of sleep we’ve probably ever had. Moving is exhausting – but seeing how every single thing worked out gives us so much gratitude. It all worked out.

God led. We followed. And it all fell into place.

Now, we are settling in – adjusting to our space changes and organizing as much as we can. We lived out of a cooler for a long time as we waited for our fridge to be delivered. All of our appliances were scheduled to be delivered – then canceled because of the hurricane.

Roux is out riding his bike every day. We have such peace of mind being here. And the person who bought the lake home is really happy to have that property. We know we left it in great hands! 

I’m SURE I left some parts out – but that’s the majority of it.

I know there was a lot of curiosity around this decision for our family. I do really appreciate it because I think, for the most part, that just means people care about us – and that means a lot to me. So, thank you for caring!

I didn’t share in “real-time” because it was just a lot to process. So much of it was up in the air until the very last moment. It was a lot for Loren and me to discuss, to process, and to come to final decisions. Sometimes I do share things as they happen – but for me, this felt more private for our family & I was thankful to have the space to make these decisions as a family before sharing. Somehow – some of you suspected it though! LOL! 

Now, we get these boxes OUT OF THE HOUSE & get ready for a baby!

xoxo