Confession: I nearly forgot how to log into the admin feature on my blog in order to write a new post; it’s been that long. I’m finally at a point where I have some free time, so hello! Hope you’re doing well. Let me catch you up to speed.
The last time I managed to post was in the summer, otherwise known as the Chaos of 2019 (I mean, I just made that up right now; we didn’t actually call it that). Chris and I had decided in January that we were finally ready to say goodbye to our tiny townhouse and find a roomier, quieter place to call home! Once we got the ball rolling, the speed of that little ball accelerated quickly and well, blogging and most other things, including travel, were put on the back burner. We canceled all of the trips we had already planned and booked for the year, which I’ll admit was a bit of a bummer, but we knew it would be totally worth it in the end.
The short story is as follows. First, in February we put an offer on a super cute farmhouse in the country that we fell in love with, but we ended up losing in an all-out bidding war. In hindsight it was a blessing in disguise to lose the bid, because we realized that the house wasn’t exactly what we were looking for and that we could fulfill our requirements/wish list a little better.
Our next plan was to build a custom house from scratch on a parcel of our choosing, but the logistics turned out to be far more complex than we wanted. It was quite difficult (impossible?) to find a lot in the countryside, in our price range, and where high-speed internet is available. The plots within our budget were also eerily remote, and my wild imagination probably would have had a hard time letting me feel peaceful there.
So Chris and I turned to Plan C and set our sights on a new construction house in the country (with FiOS readily available!), but also in a neighborhood setting that would feel more familiar to those of us who might have felt a little spooked living on a large plot of land in the darkest of dark countryside. So, peace and quiet, check; internet, check; not terrifyingly remote, check.
We put an offer on a new build home in March, and immediately started getting our townhouse ready for sale by storing stuff, painting, staging, and doing minor repairs. That sentence makes it sound so easy breezy, but it was a ton of work as you know if you’ve been through this process. Plus all of the work was coupled with making selections on the new build which always sounded fun, but turned out to be a little stressful. I might actually write a separate post about the whole new construction process in case it’s helpful to anyone about to go through the same thing.
Our townhouse went on the market in late April, and we accepted an offer after only five days! That offer actually ended up falling through, womp womp, but once we were back on the market we had another offer within a week and the rest of the sale was smooth sailing. Again, that all sounds simple and tidy, but I sincerely hope we don’t have to do the home sale thing for a long, long time because the process was both physically and mentally exhausting.
I said I’d make this story short, but my word count keeps increasing. I’ll try to wrap it up!
The buyer wanted to move into our townhouse in mid-June, but our new home wouldn’t be ready until end of July, so Chris and I put all of our furniture and belongings into storage and we spent 47 nights in a hotel. We had offers from sweet friends to host us, though in the end the easiest thing was to live the #hotellife for a few weeks. It went by at a snail’s pace, but we got through it and it was all so worth it – we absolutely love our new house.
We have peace and quiet and gorgeous views, plus more room in the house than we know what to do with. I have the kitchen and hardwood floors of my dreams, a laundry room with a window, and other weird things you apparently want when you’re an adult. (Though we also have room for a pool table and a place to play video games because we’re both still big kids.) We’re enjoying the settling and decorating process, and our plan for 2020 is to get back to traveling again which, of course, I’m super jazzed about!
So if you’re here for the travel talk, I assure you there’s more of that on the way. If you want to hear more about the new house and future projects, I’ll probably rattle on about that, too! I’m hoping to eventually get back into the blogging swing of things now that we are unpacked and staying put, so please stay tuned!
