Our Biggest News Yet: A Shocking & Exciting New Chapter Begins!
The Unveiling: A Major Life & Home Update Since Our Blog’s Inception in 2013
Oh my goodness, friends! It has been an absolute whirlwind of emotions and activity these past few weeks, and I am beyond thrilled and slightly terrified to finally share what has been unfolding behind the scenes. Before anyone jumps to conclusions, no, I’m not pregnant! And rest assured, everyone in our family is healthy, and Joe and I are still very happily married. So, what’s the monumental news that has us feeling all the feels? We’ve made the incredible, albeit unexpected, decision to move! We are embarking on a new adventure and relocating to Oak Ridge, a charming community nestled just outside of Greensboro, offering a quieter, more town-like atmosphere compared to bustling city living.
Are you shocked? Because trust me, I am still processing this monumental shift myself! I know this revelation might seem sudden, especially given our deep attachment and long-standing commitment to our current home, but allow me to explain the intricate journey and the compelling reasons behind this decision without delving into every minute detail and risking boredom!
As many of you loyal readers and followers know, our love for our current home runs incredibly deep. It’s not just a house; it’s been a vibrant canvas for countless memories, a living testament to our unwavering DIY spirit, and a cherished sanctuary we’ve meticulously crafted and poured our hearts into over the years. I genuinely believed we would grow old within these very walls, envisioning downsizing only much later in life, perhaps when our girls were fully grown and flown. We’ve dedicated countless hours, weekends, and creative energy into more DIY home renovation projects than I can possibly count, transforming every single room, one ambitious step at a time. If you’re curious about the full scope of our creative journey and the incredible transformations, you can always take our full house tour here to witness the remarkable before-and-after results. We truly adore this personalized space that we’ve made uniquely ours, filled with custom touches and cherished memories.
Our Home Transformation Journey: A Visual Story of Before & After
To truly appreciate how far our current home has come and the incredible amount of effort we’ve invested, let me share a compelling visual journey. Here’s a collage of photos showcasing our house exactly as it appeared when we first purchased it. It was a blank slate, filled with potential, eagerly awaiting our creative vision and hands-on transformation.
And now, prepare to witness the incredible metamorphosis! This is what those exact same rooms look like today, after years of dedication, countless weekends spent painting, building, decorating, and embracing the power of DIY home decor. It’s a powerful testament to what passion, perseverance, and a vision for personalized living space can achieve, turning a house into a truly beloved home.
The Underlying Reasons: Why We’re Seeking a New Chapter
Despite our profound love for our current residence and all the joy derived from our custom home decor and DIY projects, there have been two specific, persistent areas that simply haven’t functioned optimally for our growing family and evolving business needs for the past couple of years. These challenges, though seemingly minor on their own, collectively started to significantly impact our daily life, productivity, and overall comfort. If you’re curious about the specifics of these functional drawbacks that ultimately propelled our decision to explore a new home, allow me to elaborate.
The Overwhelmed DIY Workshop & Garage Storage Dilemma
We are incredibly fortunate to have a spacious two-car garage. However, as many of you who follow our blog know, our lives revolve around home renovation, hands-on DIY projects, and creative interior design. This lifestyle means we’ve accumulated quite an extensive collection of power tools, various crafting materials, seasonal decor, and a significant amount of scrap wood for future creative endeavors. Consequently, our garage has been, quite literally, bursting at the seams. It’s become a constant, frustrating battle against clutter, making it incredibly challenging to efficiently find what we need, organize our supplies, or even comfortably park both of our cars inside. We even invested in two small sheds recently for yard tools, gardening equipment, and overflow storage, but even these additions didn’t fully resolve our pervasive storage issues. Given that renovating, DIYing, and decorating is my full-time profession, and Joe dedicates a substantial amount of his free time to these projects as well, having a functional, organized DIY workshop and efficient garage storage solution isn’t just a luxury; it’s an absolute necessity for our business operations and a manageable daily life.
The Challenge of a Productive Home Office in the Heart of the Home
The other significant hurdle has been the setup and location of my home office. I am incredibly lucky to have a large space dedicated to my work—perhaps even a bit too large, some might say! However, its primary drawback lies squarely in its location: it’s situated right in the center of all the activity in our home. This room was originally designed as a formal living area, meaning it’s inherently a highly trafficked and public space. It connects directly to our family room, which doubles as the main play area for our girls and their numerous toys, via beautiful French doors. While we recently added another door to connect it more directly to the rest of the house, the issue of true privacy and quiet remains. There are countless times when the entire family—kids, dog, and all—find themselves bustling in and out of my office while I’m trying to concentrate on complex design tasks, content creation, or business calls. I’ve always found it challenging to seamlessly switch gears between my professional life and home life, so these frequent interruptions are not just frustrating but incredibly time-consuming, pulling me out of my workflow. Adding to this complexity, the recent global pandemic and our decision to embark on homeschooling this year have only amplified the problem, making the need for a truly dedicated, private, and productive workspace more critical than ever for our family’s harmony and my business’s efficiency.
From “Never Moving” to “The Search for Our Dream Home”
For the past couple of years, Joe has been gently, but persistently, suggesting that as much as we truly love our current home and cherish the memories within, it simply wasn’t functioning as effectively as it should for our evolving family needs and burgeoning business. My response, however, was always unequivocal and delivered in no uncertain terms: “I AM NOT MOVING.” I was absolutely convinced that we could engineer a creative solution to make this house work for us. We exhaustively discussed various home solutions. We explored the ambitious idea of adding a third bay to our garage, potentially with a private office space built directly above it. We even seriously considered constructing a custom “she-shed” in our yard, specifically designed as my tranquil, dedicated workspace. We left no stone unturned in our quest to find an alternative, even looking into renting external office space to separate work and home. My determination to stay in our beloved home was unwavering, fueled by our emotional investment and countless DIY home projects.
However, about a month ago, during yet another discussion about our home’s functional shortcomings, something profound shifted within me. The cumulative effect of the challenges became too significant to ignore. I told Joe I was finally willing to consider moving, but only if we could find a place that offered a true escape from the city hustle, relocating to a quieter area with a bit more breathing room and significantly greater privacy from our neighbors. With this newfound openness, we collaboratively developed a very specific and non-negotiable dream home checklist. This list included a truly dedicated home office that would be quiet, private, and conducive to deep work and creative flow. We also prioritized a large bonus room, perfect for our girls as they grow older, providing them with their own space to relax, entertain friends, and have some independence. Beyond the interior, we dreamed of a yard with fantastic outdoor living space – perhaps a patio for entertaining or a quiet spot for morning coffee – and significantly more privacy than our current suburban setting provides, allowing for true relaxation.
The Emotional Rollercoaster of House Hunting
With our refined wish list in hand, we cautiously but enthusiastically began exploring property listings that piqued our interest in the Oak Ridge and Greensboro areas. What followed was an intensely busy and emotionally exhausting few weeks. Anyone who has ventured into the competitive real estate market, particularly when searching for their ideal family home, truly understands the rollercoaster of emotions involved in house hunting. It’s a delicate balance of hope, excitement, disappointment, and unwavering resilience.
We quickly fast-forwarded through the initial stages, putting a strong offer on a house we absolutely adored, only to lose it to a competing bid. That was a truly super bummer, leaving us disheartened and wondering if we’d ever find “the one.” Undeterred, we then placed an offer on another home that I truly loved and genuinely believed Joe loved just as much. However, our offer wasn’t accepted, and in a candid, much-needed moment of reflection, Joe admitted he didn’t quite love it as much as he initially thought, leading us to strategically withdraw the offer. Needless to say, I was ultimately incredibly relieved that particular deal didn’t work out. I firmly believe that for a home to truly become our sanctuary and next chapter, both Joe and I must love it equally and wholeheartedly. After those two unsuccessful contracts, I honestly figured our plans to move would likely be put on hold indefinitely, as the emotional toll was starting to weigh heavily.
Finding “The One”: A Home with Untapped Potential
Yet, amidst our intensive house-hunting efforts, there was a third house that consistently captured both our attention and our hearts. What initially drew us to this particular property was its absolutely perfect floor plan – one that intuitively flowed and met nearly every functional need on our dream home checklist – and its incredibly inviting outdoor living area. However, we had hesitated to place an offer because it undeniably required a bit more home renovation work and cosmetic updates than we had initially hoped to undertake to truly infuse it with our unique style and personal stamp. To be completely transparent, we are tired, y’all! LOL! The thought of immediately diving into another extensive home transformation project right after the stress of moving felt a bit daunting.
Our initial hope was to find a home that required minimal home improvements, something truly move-in ready that already aligned with our modern and vibrant aesthetic. While this third house wouldn’t be classified as a “fixer-upper” in the traditional sense, its current aesthetic is very traditional, which, as you know, is not quite our signature designer style. It’s currently very beige and brown throughout, much like our current house was when we first purchased it. This means it requires a fair amount of cosmetic renovations and strategic interior design efforts to truly feel like “us” – to reflect our vibrant, modern, and deeply personal style, transforming it into a space that perfectly marries form and function.
Still, despite the anticipated work, we found ourselves strongly considering it, revisiting the listing multiple times. And then, a pivotal moment arrived: the price dropped to a point where we both instinctively knew it would sell very quickly in the current market. In that instant, an undeniable gut feeling swept over us, confirming that we absolutely had to make an offer. We both admitted, almost simultaneously, that we would feel profoundly disappointed if someone else were to purchase it. It was clear this house held a special kind of potential, representing not just a new residence, but a thrilling new home transformation journey for our family.
The Next Steps: Under Contract & What Comes Next
So, here we are! We are officially under contract on that house! The excitement is palpable, bubbling over with anticipation, but it’s undoubtedly accompanied by all the familiar feelings of stress and anticipation that come with purchasing a new home. Oh, and adding to this grand adventure, we now have the crucial task of selling our current beloved home as well – a process that demands its own set of home staging tips and marketing efforts! On top of all this, we are about to embark on our new homeschooling journey with the girls, adding another layer of significant life change. It’s a lot to juggle, to say the least!
But honestly, this is just how we roll, y’all. Our lives tend to be a series of undertaking super stressful, yet incredibly rewarding, things in quick succession. We thrive on challenges and new experiences. Case in point: Joe and I got married less than a week after I graduated from law school! Between graduation and our wedding day, we managed to pack up our entire lives and move everything down to Tampa, Florida (a city where neither of us had ever lived before), only to immediately drive back up to North Carolina for the ceremony. We then had a mere four days after the wedding to squeeze in a brief, relaxing stay at a nice hotel before permanently relocating to Florida and diving headfirst into my intensive bar review classes. So, you can definitely see what I mean – this level of organized chaos and embracing big life changes is somewhat our norm, and we genuinely thrive on the energy and growth that comes with it, lol!
Join Us on Our New Home & Renovation Journey!
And so, that’s the big, exciting announcement! We are officially on to our next grand adventure, and we are absolutely thrilled to share every single bit of it with all of you, our amazing community. We’ll be sharing many more details about the new house, its inherent potential, and our ambitious plans for its transformation into our ideal home. We’ll also be posting the listing for our current house once it officially hits the market (so if you or anyone you know is considering a move to or within the vibrant Greensboro area, keep an eye out for our real estate updates!). Furthermore, we are eager to answer any and all questions you might have about buying, selling, home staging tips, and our entire moving process. So, if you have a question, please don’t hesitate to send me a direct message on Instagram so I can compile them for a future Q&A session and provide valuable insights!
In the meantime, if you’re curious about my proven approach to transforming rooms and spaces in our home, from initial concept to beautiful completion, be sure to check out our signature resource, Designer in a Binder®. It’s our comprehensive, step-by-step guide designed to empower you to create a home you truly love, reflecting your unique style and needs!
And for exclusive content, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks of our new home, and early access to all our renovation updates and design choices, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter before you head out! You won’t want to miss a single step of this exciting new chapter and our ongoing home decor journey!
