Back in 2007 as newlyweds Jon and I searched for our first home. Our first big massive purchase as husband and wife. We had been looking for a while and nothing had really spoken to us. Then during a family get together Jon’s youngest sister,Jenn mentioned she had seen a house for a sale nearby. When she described the house I did what any sane potential buyer would do. Ran over to the house and proceeded to peek thru the windows and check out the backyard. What? There were no cars in the driveway so, I figured it was safe to get a little look. While the house looked small from the outside and Jon wasn’t super excited about it I was smitten and needed to check it out.

Low and behold it was not as small as it looked from the outside and we found hardwood floors, a fireplace, a separate living room and dining and a closed off kitchen. I know open concept is all the rage, but I’m not a fan. I like having the separate spaces. It just feels more traditional and charming to me. It also had a massive backyard and a basement and crown moulding all throughout. It was built in the 1930’s and the lady that was selling the house was the daughter of the second owners of the house.

I loved the charm and saw the potential and knew right away it was meant to be ours. The only downside? It was in a bad school district. However it was in a super charming part of town and really close to family. Plus at that time we were thinking puppies not children. So, we put in a bid and almost lost out to an investor that wanted to knock it down. The home owner didn’t want it knocked and we raised our bid a little bit and got it! We signed on the dotted line in September of 2007 and officially moved in a couple months later. Since it was a house for the 30’s we needed to refinish floors and build a new kitchen.

Throughout the years we have loved on this house fiercely. Our weekends have been full of projects and when I started blogging in 2008 and working in interior design the love for our home went to a whole new level. Eventually the thought of only wanting puppies subsided and we had babies on the brain. Of course, life is never easy and it took us almost 3 years to have Hudson. So, our time line in our little starter home kept stretching and my love for it kept growing.

My water broke in our bedroom literally all over those hardwood floors and sweet little Hudson came home to that house. The house where I hibernated all winter long with my little December baby. We knew the house had an expiration date for our family, but we still considered staying and eventually putting Hudson in private school. Then a little surprise arrived! In May of 2014 three became four and our house got an additional person to love on it. Ah sweet Asher.

The boys became roommates because we only had 2 bedrooms, but all was well and eventually bunk beds where purchased and for a while we were content as could be. Life was good. Family was good. Our house was good. The issues over the school district still loomed, but Kindergarten seemed so far.

Then 2 years ago we realized it was closer than we thought and we really needed to get serious about a new house. So, many potential houses were visited. By many I mean in the hundreds. I felt like Goldilocks, because I just couldn’t find the perfect house. Then we found a house we both really loved. Sure it had some quirks, but we could make changes and it had been on the market for ages so we were getting a deal for the school district. Well you probably know how the story goes. We put in our bid, it got accepted and we put our house on the market and sold it in a week! Great, right? Nope! While this was happening the owners of the house we had put a bid in got an all cash offer! It was over! We kept looking for houses hoping to find something, but we couldn’t find any contenders which left us having to pull out of the deal with the potential buyers of our house.

We felt like it was fate that we just weren’t meant to move at that time. We decided to stay an additional year and then finally sell next Spring. The hunt for a house continued and we expanded the towns we were willing to live in. Still nothing. All the while the housing market on Long Island became a sellers market. Houses were selling in hours and bidding wars were making them go for much higher than asking. When we did find a house we loved we would lose it. We love older homes that might look like a hot mess, but are diamonds in the rough with character in good school districts. Guess who else loves them? Contractors that are all able to pay all cash. House after house we kept losing bids. Spring loomed and we knew we had to list our house. I cried many, many, many tears.

Our house sold quickly and more tears ensued. An inspection was done and I nearly lost my mind and then we signed papers and went into contract. More tears. I knew we needed to get into a better school district and timing wise it all needed to happen now, but that didn’t make it any easier. I had our agent stretch the closing as long as possible. We needed time to find a new home and secretly I wanted to have one final summer in our house.

Summer is over and today we officially close on our house and hand over the keys. August has been rough. We have been purging, packing, moving, cleaning for what feels like the entire month and is actually pretty accurate. Having to move 10 years of your life is no joke. I know everyone is all about Marie Kondo and only keeping things that bring them joy, but my problem is that very many things bring me joy and my house is full of these joyful things that I have had a hard time parting with. The most joyful thing? The house itself. So many memories, so many good times, so much time and love that we put into it. If I could have kept it forever I totally would have. As is I want to chain link myself to the front door instead of going to the closing.

A chapter in our lives has closed and while we always knew this house was a stepping stone for us it doesn’t make leaving it any easier.

If you have made it this far I’m certain the burning question on your mind is where we are heading next. Well we haven’t found the one yet and since we have been looking for a while now we don’t want to just settle. We still want to find the one. Which means we are shacking up with my parents. They have a big house that we have currently overtaken with toys, clothing, boxes, bags and oh yes two spirited grandchildren. We are very grateful for a place to stay while the hunt continues and it’s in an amazing school district for our little Kindergarten that had his first day yesterday.

Stay tuned for a full home tour! I had professional photos taken earlier this summer for a big site and I can’t wait to share!!!!