We moved to Horsetown, USA!
Well, that about says it all. We joke and Mike tells people it’s because I ran out of diy projects and I say it’s because Mike wants to be a cowboy and own a horse. And that’s kinda true so if you like you can stop here and just move a long or you can keep reading if you’re really curious why.
We moved in November of 2017. So, a few months ago and it’s taken me this long to post a blog. I’ve really struggled to write an update because I want to be completely transparent with all my posts. I’m a pretty transparent person. I guess since most of my followers are friends and already know this, it just never came up on our blog that before Mike came along I was a single mom to Evie and Sienna. They were 3 and just barely 5. We share custody with their other family 50/50 and I like to think we all have always worked hard to normalize it for the girls. However, Mike lived a little over an hour from my previous residence and because of the recession wasn’t able to sell his house. Because of my custody arrangement Mike and I drove 3-4 times a week (after we moved in together and got married) just for our custody arrangement. Mike also drove that same direction to go to work (we met through work he’s a firefighter and I’m an ER Nurse) so he was making that drive often three times in one day. We did this commute for 6 years. In the past few months, while we were completing the pool, it became obvious to both of us that our situation needed to be simplified. We noticed that the girls were no longer interested in just hanging out with us after school and on the weekends that they needed more time with their friends and after school activities and we needed to become more involved supporting them emotionally. We also felt the time in the car was hard on Jack and Kate and eventually they would need to start school too and have their own activities and we weren’t willing to sacrifice more time with the girls. It’s impossible to be in two places at the same time. It was also important to us, since Mike and I are both shift workers, that we be together as a family as often as we can.
As much as I loved our home – because we literally built it ourselves and Mike and I designed it to suit our needs and it was awesome and we barely even had a chance to enjoy the incredible pool we built – I love my family more. I couldn’t make us stay in the house because we built it, it was awesome, it was finally done, or any other reasons I came up with. The reality was: it’s a house and it doesn’t make our home. Family makes our home and our family was not functioning at 100% and we knew it could be better. The beauty of doing all the improvements and changes to our home was that we not only doubled the value of our home, but we created the equity we needed to move without financially crippling us. We entered escrow on our new house while we were still finishing the pool/patio cover build. Our house sold in 3 days with multiple bids over asking price. It could not have been possible without all the effort and love we put in to it. The new owners love the house exactly as is and for them it’s as though we built it just for their family. How great is that?
Here’s a tour of the old house, some of the photos were taken by our Realtor’s photographer and are over saturated: 
My dad, before we built this house, used to tease me that I’d move as soon as I’d plant some fruit trees. He was partially right, the last part of home improvements I ever do is plant my garden so it’s coincidental that I’ve moved about 10 times in the past 10 years and each time I moved after I’d plant something. The reality is I make anywhere I live a home and I’ll keep doing that…I’ll keep giving 100% of my all to each house we live in because that’s what makes a house cozy and comforting and welcoming and worth coming to. And as Forest Gump would say, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
