Life In Our New House!

For the past 5 1/2 years, Scarlett, my husband Jay, and I lived in a 1,512 square foot 2 bedroom condo.  When we moved into it in 2014 from a 700 square foot apartment it felt gigantic.  For a few years after that it was wonderful.  Within the last year or so, it started to get cramped.  Scarlett's bedroom was tiny and barely had any room for furniture also.  When Jack was born we knew we had to get out.  He had no bedroom and his crib was in our room.  He shared a small closet with Scarlett and I had all of his baby items in a bin under my bed.  Not really a great set-up if you ask me!

While I was pregnant with Jack, we looked at houses because we knew a move was needed.  Everything we saw in the town we lived in in our budget was either not a good fit due to various reasons, or the house was extremely old and needed a lot of work.  Jay and I decided to look at a different town about 20 minutes away from us where the housing prices were more affordable. We saw many more houses and then finally saw the house we bought.  At first I didn't like it at all.  Jay loved it right away because it's in a woodsy part of the town, and the one acre backyard has a stone wall that is very appealing to him.  

During our house hunt, Jay always went back to this house and said we should consider it.  We weren't finding anything that stood out to us, but he kept mentioning this house.  We decided to back for a second showing a few weeks after initially seeing it.  Our realtor mentioned that she was surprised that it was still on the market due to the location and the price tag considering the sellers purchased it for a lot more.  

In the end, we decided it was a good fit and went for it.  We made our offer in early October and just shy of 2 months later, we're in the new house! Packing up our old house was extremely overwhelming with two kids.  We did what we could at night and on the weekends, but we had no help.  I can't lie and say I didn't freak out a few times at the workload we had.  

It all worked out because we moved in two days ago! It was bizarre and sad seeing our old house completely emptied out and 5.5 years of life on two moving trucks. This was Scarlett's only home she ever knew.  We tried to talk to her for weeks ahead of time about the move and answer any questions she had.  Our new house is 4 bedrooms, 2,500 square feet and 2.5 bathrooms.  The old house had 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and 1,512 square feet.  So you can see this was a big upgrade in terms of size! We were lucky to get central air in this house just like we were used to.  A lot of homes we saw did not have central air.  We do have oil heating which is something we're learning about and getting used to.  It would have been nice if we had natural gas, but you can't have it all.

My parents flew in to help us with the move which was wonderful.  In 24 hours, 85% of the house was emptied and put away.  If it were just Jay and I it would have taken so much longer due to having two small kids.   But with four people helping to unpack it goes a lot quicker. 

The new house has a huge unfinished basement which we're currently using for storage.  It's a blessing having so much more space and room to grow.  Scarlett and Jack have a beautiful playroom off the kitchen that has fantastic built in shelving and cabinets for all of their toys.  Our house was built in 1958 (which is typical of the area) and has been updated in some aspects but has original charm like huge bay and bow windows.  

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any families on this exact street, but I've been told on the next one there are.  I have to find out who they are exactly so Scarlett can hopefully meet some new friends her age.  We also need to get pictures hung up on the wall and buy some new furniture since we have bigger rooms to fill.  

We're thrilled to be in the new house and look forward to many happy years here filled with memories! I also don't want to move again for a very long time!