Move or Migration?

By way of introduction, We are a family of 7. My wife and I met in 2001 and I knew almost immediately she was a kindred spirit. We value family deeply. We are simple in our aspirations and enjoy a generally simple life.

Soon after we married we found a nice little 3 bedroom/2 bath. It was a diamond in the rough! The owners could never seem to be vacant when we came to see it. It was cluttered but we pride ourselves now in hindsight on our ability then to see its potential.

For 15 years we made it a home. I expanded my tool collection from a single circular saw to a full shop and used that to make repairs and upgrades. We painted ... often! We eventually put in floors and updated the master bath.

We also filled that first house with children! First, "Bear" arrived and I made a nursery. Then, when "Beana" came, I lost my home office to a new nursery. "Boo" came and I was tasked with making bunk beds. When "B" came we saw the writing on the wall with three boys in one room! "Evie's" arrival cinched it. We were out of space! Even a second set of bunk beds couldn't help the fact that I had two girls in one room that were ten years apart in age and three boys spanning nine years in the other!

So the hunt began. We had actually tried twice before to move. One attempt even got to the point of having a contract only to see it all dissolve when our buyer (a military family) got new orders elsewhere.

Our budget as a single income family limited our options, but we pressed on looking at a number of houses. C (my wife) was really hoping for something "move-in-ready" knowing how long I could take on projects! We wanted 5 bedrooms and ideally some place to do home-school that did not include the kitchen table. This turned out to be a tall order and our options looked bleak.

Then our agent called about an opportunity that we should "prayerfully" consider. That intro was both ominous and hopeful. The opportunity was a house that needed a lot of help. The owner was not in a good place to get it into a sale-able state. The state of the house brought the potential price into our reach and we decided to look.

The process that following took over 6 months to complete. Setbacks came at every turn: financing delays, negotiations and completion of minimal repairs, title issues, etc. It was a mess at times, but our agent was amazing as was the team she brought in for every part. In the end we were able to overcome the obstacles and ultimately move in. Given the size of our crew and the slow pace we joked that it was more of a "migration" than a "move"!

Thankfully the sale of our beloved first house was as smooth and uneventful as the purchase had been difficult. It was tough parting with it. C and I cried, laughed, reminisced and ultimately said our goodbyes. It helped that the buyers seemed to be another young family. We wished them the same happiness we had found there. Then we closed the door and walked out for the last time.

As I write this, the "move" part of moving is over. And, that brings me to the point of this blog: we are now officially "in" the house, but the work is far from over! Everyday brings a new project, and I've decided to start capturing a lot of that work right here. From top to bottom there is work to be done. I've always been inclined to do my own work and I see a lot of opportunity here for some really fun projects. So, that is what I'll be writing about. They won't all be "amazing" but they will be the stuff of homemaking, things I want to remember and share, and things I find along the way. So... let's do this!