This post is a bittersweet one for me to write. I'm going to go ahead and get the "big news" out of the way, and then share a little back story.
We're moving.
Not far, and nothing really changes here (except you're about to get a crazy amount of home decor posts coming your way). But, for our little family this was a decision that's been in the background of our lives for the last six months. The official move date is getting closer and closer, so it was time to bring you guys into the loop.
THE BACK STORY
First, I love my current home. Like
L-O-V-E love. After ten years living here, I finally felt like we put our touches on every single space and made it our own. We renovated the kitchen last year, and it just felt complete.
And then Mr. Magnolia wanted to move.
For over a year prior to the renovation he had been scouring Zillow. Hourly Daily he was sending me listings to look at. Like so many I even went as far as to try to block them from my email. He would just re-sign me up.
I thought the kitchen renovation would put all that in the back of his mind. It didn't.
He loves our home too. But he also disliked certain things about it.
I'm the more sentimental one. This was our first home we purchased together. We brought all three of our babies home to this little corner of the world. We've had so many memories here, made so many friends, and it's in the perfect location to get to many places pretty easily (that's saying a lot with Atlanta traffic).
There were a few that sparked my interest, and one in particular I felt like was "perfect" if we were to move. We looked at it at least six times. It had been on the market for almost a year. We decided to make an offer. And then it sold.
I took it as a sign to stay in our current home. Mr. Magnolia took it as a sign to up his Zillow searching.
We came around to the idea that if we were going to move, that we would just find a lot and build a home on it.
Then last August we found this home.
At first sight we fell in love with the yard. But then I walked into the home, and I instantly rejected it. It needed some (read: a lot) of renovation. There were just some quirky things the owners had done that we would have to go back in and fix. If this was to be our forever home there would also need to be one big adjustment to the layout of one part of the house, in addition to just some basic updating.
I didn't want to tackle that. We had been living in that on and off for ten years. While I am here for home projects - and think they are super fun! - this was like top to bottom major renovation. I did not want to live in that with three young children.
We looked at it a second time and weighed all the pros and cons. To be honest, from me there were a lot more cons. It was further away work and the airport. The kids would have to change schools. We'd have to find new doctors/dentists/health care professionals. The convenience of location would be gone. How the heck would we sell a house/keep it clean while in the middle of the chaos of school/after school activities/work, etc.? How will the kids feel???
For the record... the kids took one look at the outdoor space and said, "
YES!". They were no help.
We sat on it for a week, and then decided to put in a low-ish offer. If it worked out, it worked out. If not...that was our sign.
Surprisingly, they accepted the offer. And then made it even better. It was un-heard of. So much so that we kept wondering if the house was built on some sort of graveyard or something that we didn't know about.
It's not.
But we took it as a sign, and now...
Now five months later we're knee deep in renovations, and are about to put our current home up for sale.
Tomorrow I'll give you guys the "before" tour, and a little peek at what the house looked like before renovations began.
Come spend the day with us on:
