it’s been a minute. life has just been crazy, crazy busy, crazy good. so blogging has taken the back seat, lately. I promised I would share more about our move, literally in August! SOOOOO much has happened between then and now and it has taken MONTHS to finally get to a place where I actually know what we are doing, officially. so here is the short story, we are moving…duh duh duhhhhhh…to the BURBS!

I never knew it was possible to experience the gamut of emotions that have been flying round over here. we are SO excited for this next chapter, heart broken to leave our condo that has been home for the past 7 years, sad to leave our city life, so ready for suburb living, and SO so so grateful for the home that we found. continue on for the long version…

to be 100% honest, I could stay in the city for another 3 years. but blake is a country boy, grew up in nashville, tn and has wanted to be in the burbs since the day we moved to the city 7 years ago. marriage is about compromise, right?? I told you guys we were moving in August. for everyone that keeps asking and checking in, thank you so much for following along and being patient. I never imagined it would take 3 months to share all the details. but a lot of twists and turns have happened since then. until about 3 weeks ago, our plan was to build in the western suburbs of chicago. we had a lot, had started on plans and were going to stay in the city through the build process.

about three weeks ago, a new listing popped up in our dream town. blake and I are one of those weird couples that actually enjoy doing open houses on saturdays and sundays, just for fun. I love seeing interior inspiration for architectural designs and decor. so we went to see the house. I got those butterflies I had when we first saw our condo. I literally cried when we were walking through the house. I knew this was the house we were supposed to live in.

it is not the style I ever imagined we would end up with and it is way smaller than we thought we wanted. but it is our house. my mom always said that someday we would find a house that we loved so much, that selling our condo would not be so hard. obviously, in true daughter fashion, I did not believe her. until the day we saw this house, I was devastated over the prospect of selling our condo. like sick to my stomach, losing sleep, crying all the time about moving out of the place that has been our home for 7 years.

…a little flash back to when we bought our condo. the second I stepped into our condo for an open house 7 years ago, I said to my mom, “I am going to live here.” blake was traveling for work and literally could not get home to see the condo. I hated the kitchen, the wall color, the bathrooms and the floors, but something about the bones of the condo just clicked with my heart. I felt so confident deep in my bones that it was going to be a good and happy home. he trusted me and bought the condo without even seeing it. if that’s not love & trust, I don’t know what is. and my gut was 100% right, this condo has been more than a home. it feels like it has a heart inside it’s walls and these 7 years have been the best I’ve ever had.

our new house gives me that same feeling, deep in my bones, that it is going to be a good and happy home. I’ve cried happy tears over it a dozen times. I am not a person that says or believes those cliché things like “everything happens for a reason” “it’s fate” “it’s meant to be,” but this is as close to that feeling as I will ever get. it feels like all the set backs, stress, tears and headaches that have happened over the past 6 months brought us to this house.

the family that is moving out sent us a personal letter after we were under contract, just telling us about the house and what is has meant to them, and I cannot get through the letter without crying. everything they say about the home is what I imagine it will be for us. I am so grateful and happy and feel truly blessed that we found this house.

the first floor was just renovated and is perfect, but the second floor needs some TLC. so I am excited to share some renovations over the next year or so. would you guys like to see some home content as we renovate and decorate the house? we move out of our condo next week, wish me luck! but we don’t move into the new house until the new year, so we are staying with my parents for about 6 weeks. works out perfectly that we are with my parents over thanksgiving and christmas, since we spend that time at their house anyways. I talked this in circles with blake, about when the right time to share the news was, because we don’t want to jinx anything. we don’t officially close until december, but as we move out and move into my parents, I want to take you all with us along the way!

in an effort to be better about sharing this whole process, I am starting a new series, the weekly edit. I will try to share updates as we go! thanks, as always, for following along on this crazy ride! I cannot wait to show you all the whole house, but for the time being, here are the only pics I have, crappy iphone pics from the day we saw the house. the picture of bb running down the hall literally brings happy tears to my eyes 🙂 I love every single thing about this house, but here are the first few things I fell in love with: the original barn door off the back, the leaded glass windows, the tiny but mighty backyard and the reading nook of my dreams.

xoxo