Tomorrow is the big day. The day we move to an area we've only dreamt about moving to for a while now. It has been quite the experience preparing for this move, and as I sit here in a staged great room/kitchen of my current home, I feel inspired to share our story with you.
It was May of 2020. My first daughter was born. We lived in a split foyer, 3 bed, 2 bath home. It was our first home. We lived in that home for about 4 years until right after our baby was born, we had the itch to move and live somewhere different. Obviously that was scary COVID time, so the market was crazy low prices and interest rates were at its lowest too. We made the decision to build a home that was building a neighborhood in the town my husband grew up in 15 minutes from where I grew up. Basically, we didn't leave where we both grew up. Stayed in the same county. Stayed with what we knew and was comfortable with.
We listed our home July 2020, and officially sold it in September 2020. Our new build home was not ready for us to move in yet, so we moved in with my in-laws for a few months. At the end of November 2020, we officially bought our home and moved in. Our little baby was 6 months old.
A month later, I find out I am pregnant with our second daughter. That was when I decided I was going to finish the school year, leave the classroom, and stay home with my babies.
March of 2021, we go on vacation to an area along a bay. We stayed with my family at a home that was right on the water. The house had a huge deck that gave beautiful views of the sunrise in the morning. It also had a private beach. It was incredible. This inspired my husband. It was only two hours from where we lived at the time. He said right after that trip that when we retire, he wants to live on the water and have a home with views just like the one we stayed at for vacation. I was all about that! I absolutely love views and the water. I've always been a beach girl. My husband and I even got married on the beach! So it was definitely our vibe.
Fast forward to September 2021, my second baby girl was born and I officially started my SAHM journey.
Ever since my second was born, we did so much on our new build. We got a new deck, fenced in the yard, added a stamped concrete patio, replaced the main room flooring from carpet to LVP, painted our kitchen cabinets, updated wall colors, and finished our basement. We did a lot to it! I love reflecting on how much we did. I'm proud of it!
It's September 2022, and it was my husbands year to choose our vacation spot. He chose an area similar to the house we stayed at the previous year in March but on the other side of the bay. We stayed at a home with its own dock and beautiful water views. It wasn't the exact same but we ventured out more in the area and found parks, trails, waterfront restaurants that we just loved! We were also sick with COVID and dealing with my 2 year old having lice and still had the best week. We fell in love with the area. I remember walking the trails, both girls asleep in the stroller and my husband saying he wished where we lived had trails like this. We talked the entire trail what it would be like to live there. And then we continued to talk about that being the area we wanted to retire and have a waterfront home one day. But at the time, it was only a dream. Something we wish we had and wish we could do but didn't seem possible.
January 2023, I had this feeling like I was missing something. For the longest time, I thought I was having baby fever and wanted a third baby. Then I would think about it and realized there's no way I want a third. I'm happy with two and I'm finally starting to feel Iike myself again. I didn't like the idea of "starting over" with another baby. But I couldn't shake the feeling. My husband this month lost a remote day and his contract with a position was coming to an end, so he want from working 2 days at home to one. His commute being 75 miles one way started to take a toll on him. He was struggling with sleep, not able to be present with me or the girls when he was home, went to bed early so he never had down time for himself, he was not okay. When he started a new position in March and they confirmed he would still only have one remote day, we knew we needed to make a change for him and his mental health. Randomly one day in March, he was complaining how tired he was and he just didn't feel like himself, and I said to him it would be so much easier for him if we lived closer to where he worked. He completely shut the idea down, but then after a week of thinking about it, he realized that he wanted to start looking at potential home buys, and started to like the idea that his commute would be less time.
We basically started our new home/area search at that time. We didn't take it too seriously yet. We just wanted to get a feel of the market and look at the different areas around his work. During the MANY hours on Redfin looking at different homes, I realized that feeling I had at the start of 2023 that I couldn't shake. I wasn't having baby fever, I was experiencing house fever. And in April it was in full swing. Both my husband and I were obsessing over different homes. The only thing we could not decide on was where we wanted to go if we chose to move. It wasn't until June that we realized the Bay Area we fell in love with last year on our family vacation was only 35 miles from his work, cutting his commute in half. We both agreed, that was the area we were going to look at.
It's July 2023, and it is getting serious. My husband has all his finances in order and he contacted our realtor who helped us buy and sell our first home. We started looking at homes. The only thing though, there weren't a lot of homes for sale in the area we were looking. The homes were either crazy expensive and over our budget, or shitty and not taken care of and felt as if it would be a downgrade from our current home. We went to look at homes (about 2 hour drive one way) three times in the month of July and no luck.
It's August and we were getting ready to go to a house we were looking at for a while. It was "coming soon" for a couple weeks. We were hopeful, that we would like it since it was within our price range. The pictures of the house didn't come out until the day before listed so we had no idea what to expect. At this point we were feeling so defeated. I remember feeling so exhausted from the many hours on Redfin and nothing was coming up that we would like. Nothing felt right. The house we were planning to see, we were hopeful about but only had 3 beds and it just didn't feel right.
It's the night before we go see the house that was "coming soon" for a while and I get a notification a house was just listed as "coming soon" for the next week in the exact same neighborhood we were planning to visit the next morning. It was only outside pictures, but it felt different looking at it then all the other homes we looked at. It was like I instantly knew, this is going to be our home.
We went to the area the next day and decided we weren't as much of a fan with the home we planned to see and instead wanted to wait until the home that is coming the next week in the neighborhood. We still at that point did not know what it looked like in the inside, but I had this feeling it was going to be everything we were looking for. The pictures were posted three days before the listing, and we instantly fell in love with it. Our realtor scheduled us for the first showing the day it was listed, and we prepared our offer letter two days prior so we can send it while we were at the home.
When we saw the home, it was prettier than the pictures. My husband did not go with me. It was just me and the realtor. But I made sure to video the whole house as a virtual tour for my husband. We sent in the offer and they accepted it that evening. It happened so fast! I loved how it all happened too. In the moments my husband and I were feeling so defeated, this house just randomly pops up and turns it around for us.
It is now 30 days later, and tomorrow that home will officially be ours. My husband STILL hasn't seen the house yet. My girls haven't seen the house either. So I will video their reaction! They're going to LOVE it.
We didn't know 3 years ago when waiting for our new build to be completed as we were staying at my in-laws that we wouldn't stay here for very long. We didn't know when we went to vacation in the bay area a year ago, that we would be moving there a year later. It is crazy where life takes you. We wished it, we dreamed it, and now we're doing it. It all seems so unreal to me. I'm nervous and anxious but I'm mostly excited. I'm excited to start a new chapter of my life somewhere new. I'm excited for my husband that he gains more time by cutting his commute in half. I am excited for my girls, that they get to grow up near the water. We are in for a fun and exhausting day tomorrow, but I wouldn't want to have it any other way.
We are listing our current home at the end of this week! We've been working extremely hard on this house to prepare it for listing! I can't believe how empty it feels right now, but I truly believe the next homeowners are going to love it and love the amount of work we put into it! Crossing our finger we get offer(s) within the first week. That would be AMAZING!
If you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading. I'm here to tell you that it is okay to be content with the way your life is, but to also want more. There is nothing wrong with wanting more. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Here's to our new adventure!
Thank you for your love and support,
Susana
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