Monday, January 11, 2016

We're Moving!!!!

As I said on Friday, I had some beans to spill today, so consider the beans spilled, we're moving......
IN TO MY CHILDHOOD HOME!


We moved in 2003 to the house that my parents currently live in, so after the move my parents turned our old house in to a rental. Fast forward 12 years later and add in the combination of a few bad renters, the house is a disaster. Like I am talking, new sheet rock, new floors, insane landscaping etc etc.

But before I get in to that, let me backtrack a little and tell you why we're moving.

In August, we got pre-approved for a mortgage and we were hell bent and convinced that we were going to buy a house before we got married. Well, I can't tell you how many houses we looked at, but none of them were quite "right". We put off the search (but still looking at Zillow, daily) until one morning in December we stumbled upon our IDEAL neighborhood while doing real estate drive-bys. Unfortunately this neighborhood about 40-60K out of price range. Woof!!!! So after some serious discussion, we decided that we would put off buying until one of us got another job (or both got jobs) so that we could afford that neighborhood. We're at the point where we could buy a smaller starter home, but we're thinking babies and we would prefer a home that is a little on the larger size that we can plan on being in for 10+ years. Space is what we're after, seeing as how our 1100 sq foot humble abode is very cramped.

Our wedding gifts had been piled in our dining room since the beginning of December. I was "fearful" of even going through them knowing that we LITERALLY did not have anywhere to put them. Steven and I did a lot of purging and we were able to find space for all of our presents!! However, this purging lead to us talking about finding a larger rental house for the next year until we buy. Enter my parents rental house.

It took Steven almost three weeks to wear me down. I had "issue" with moving back in to this house. This might not make sense, but I wanted my memories of that house, to stay with that house. I didn't want to go home again. On our first trip out there, I had really mixed emotions. Steven was so excited over the prospect of moving in and I was feeling weird. I mean we will be sleeping in my parents bedroom, I still remember the way my mom had the kitchen cabinets set up, there's a corner in the game room where I used to make out with Tyler Hubbard bahahaha! Yes, that Tyler Hubbard from Florida Georgia Line. I need to dig up some of those old photos!!!

On our second trip out there, I cried. From the hearth in the living room, I delivered many a "performance". Its hard. That house is my WHOLE childhood!! Family thanksgivings and my parents dinner parties and our cat, Mr. Tanner, that is THAT house.


The last trip out there, my feelings began to change. My parents were with us and we began to talk about what we wanted to change. The kitchen is getting a re-paint and new appliances, Steven and I get to pick out the paint colors for the interior, the bathrooms are getting renovated and the pool deck is getting a facelift.

I began to feel guilt as we talked about all the changes that will be happening over the next month, I'm seeing nothing but dollar signs. My parents just gave us the wedding of our dreams and now they're probably going to spend half that again to make this house move in ready for us. They reminded me that this is something that would have had to have been done anyway, the house is currently not "live-able". Sure they might be going a little fancier that they typically would have because it is us, but they would rather us be living in the house and taking care of it, instead of another low-life renter who let the house go to shit. When I say shit, I mean it y'all. They let a leak in the garage get so bad that it rotted the sheet rock. Come to find out, they were smoking in the house, so as you can imagine this has lead to another laundry list of problems. And if that wasn't enough, they never cleaned up after their little dog and they apparently didn't care that it pissed it in every.single.room. resulting in my parents having to rip up ALL the flooring in the house. Yea. As you can imagine, its heartbreaking to see your childhood home in shambles.

Ok, so enough about all the sappy, emotional feels, let's talk about the good stuff!!!!!

A) THREE toilets! You may be laughing, but we're not! When you only have one, two more is a amazing.

B) A laundry room!!!!!!! No more laundry in the kitchen! I practically hang dry every piece of clothing that I own, well guess what, it has to hang out in the kitchen while it dries. Now I have a room where I can leave it, close the door, and no one will see it!

C) TWO guest rooms! Who's ready for a party???

D) ROOM! SPACE! I can do cartwheels in the living room! Did I mention space? We're going from 1100 sq feet to almost 2500 sq feet!!!!

E) A garage!!! Right now we have a carport, but this house has a garage! It has one garage door, but it is oversized and there is room for two cars. Little red will be sitting pretty in there everyday, but Steven's tahoe does fit, so if we have bad weather, we'll both be able to park under there.

F) The pool deck! There is no longer a pool there....my parents filled it in when the walls began to rot a few years ago :( BUT our plan is to add some sand to that top and turn it into a boche ball/ladder ball/cornhole court! I am SUPER pumped about entertaining come spring time!!

G) 23 minutes to downtown Athens!! 11 minutes to the Oconee Connector! 9 minutes to Hwy 316 (the main highway that connects Athens to Atlanta)! We are so much closer to our friends and being where we LOVE.

The plan is to be in this house for 12-14 months. We're thinking of starting our family in 2017, so our goal is to purchase a house before we add two feet to the Caudell clan. Although there is this horoscope thing floating around Facebook with names of women who will get pregnant in 2016, and both of my names are on there haha!!! I would be ok with that, as long as it happened on 12-31-2016 HAHA!!!

Tomorrow and Wednesday I'll be bringing you interior and exterior photos, the game plan for the interior re-do and some of the design inspiration that Steven and I have talked about! Now, who wants to come up with an awesome hashtag for us?? I'm at a loss!






6 comments:

  1. Yay! So exciting! I'm sure it is a giant adjustment but think of the extra memories that you will get in that house. It won't wipe away the old memories it will just add new ones! I'm so happy for you! Can't wait to see more!

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  2. Yay that's awesome!! We are starting our house search now and it's not fun :(

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  3. YAY!!! So excited for you guys. More room, more room! And little babies soon... ok so 2017, but still! Excited to see what changes come in the house.

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  4. WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!! SOOOOO excited for y'all!!!!!!! Can't wait to see more of it! It sounds like y'all are in the perfect location as well. What a blessing!

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  5. How freaking exciting, lady! :)!

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