Work to be Done

Now that the unfun mess of packing up and saying goodbye was over, the real fun could begin...making this house our own!

The fact that our stuff was piled from the floor to the ceiling of our new family room was a little daunting, but there was no getting around it. We couldn't move anything upstairs until we painted and put in new carpet. But the upside was that the kids loved their new climbing challenge. :)

Time to get rid of the old green walls...

 and the thirty-year-old carpet...

and ta-da! The changes were transformative!

 

 

 Everything looked soft and clean and fresh. I was thrilled!

 

We all stayed with Donna and Marty the whole week which was extremely kind of them because we are a lot to take in! We produce a lot of dirty dishes, a lot of noise, and a lot of chaos. So while Donna and Marty were holding down family operations, I was able to come over to the new house during the day and after the kids went to bed to start the business of organizing and putting away. I worked till midnight almost every night, but I honestly could have gone longer. It was that much fun being in our new house and organizing closets and cabinets exactly the way I wanted them. 

I worked in the yard...look at the snowball bush that was blooming!

 And even took pleasure in organizing the shed. I loved making the space our own...

 The kids had fun with their grandparents...

and finally Saturday morning arrived. After a long week, it was time for the movers to come back and move all the big items upstairs. The moment we had been waiting for all these months had finally come- time to finally move in and live at our new home!

The Back Story

 

So how we came about this house is a funny story...

It all started back in October- the weekend before Halloween when we were in Hickory. Out of the blue, I received an email from Susan Rogers asking if we wanted to come see her house. The reason she emailed me is because she remembered a conversation we had a long time ago.

Almost exactly three years ago, I was pulling out of our house to take Addie to story time and Susan just happened to pull out of her driveway at the exact same time. Turns out she was headed to storytime too with her grandson. I had never really met her before, but we chatted at the library and turns out she was friends with Donna and her daughter Louise used to have playdates with Brian! But since she and her husband, Richard, had bought and restored a historic property in Virginia, they mostly lived there so we didn't see them much.

Well after we made that connection that day, something made me want to reach out to her with a crazy request. It was January of 2015, and we had just sorted through all the Christmas presents and tried to find a home for all the new stuff. It made me realize that we were quickly running out of space and that we'd eventually need a bigger house. Something made me email Susan and tell her that if she and Richard ever wanted to sell their house, then we would be interested in buying it. I said this without ever being inside it...I just liked the way it looked from the outside and it looked bigger than our current house. She responded that that was an interesting idea when the time came for them to downsize, but then it was dropped and we all went about our normal lives.

Until she emailed me three years later...apparently the time had finally come for them to downsize and did we want to come see their house??? Of course we were not in town at the time and neither was Brian. He was in Indiana at the State/Notre Dame game. I assumed we could not afford their house, but he said it was worth taking a look.

So when I got back from Hickory with the kids, I took them and we went and saw it. And I fell in love with it immediately. It had the fifth bedroom we needed, a playroom in the back of the house off the kitchen, a breakfast nook, and a wonderful flow and feel to it.

Brian went to see it the next morning when he got back and liked it, but wasn't as convinced as I was that it was the right house for us. After all...we weren't even looking to move!

So over the next few months, we were able to take our time and think through the decision and work with the Rogers on potentially buying their home. Finally in January, we made the decision to make an offer and they accepted! They were wonderful to work with and everything kind of just fell into place making me feel like it was all meant to be.

I love that Brian played in this house when he was little, that a nice family of five was so happy here, and that it was well loved and taken care of over the years. It just feels right, and I am grateful for the way everything unfolded.

Moving Day

On Monday, April 9, two very large moving trucks showed up first thing in the morning. Donna and Marty took the kids for us which was extremely helpful because Brian, Alli and I had some major work to do.

You would think if you hire movers, you can just sit back and direct them to do the work. Not so much- we took about 100 loads of small things across sweet Betsy Payne's yard to the new house while the movers took all the big items. We worked like dogs for about 7 hours (and stopped for about 30 minutes to close on our new house- needed to take care of that minor item of business) and then finally we were out of 809 and into 801. Yes- we only went two doors down- and I'm sure it was just as much as a headache as moving across town.

Once we were out of 809, I realized there was still some major cleaning to do so I hopped on that. Then Edilea came in and finished the job for me. When she was through, she handed me this card that she found stuck behind the changing table in Luke's room...the last remnant from our old house and it was a doozy. 

She had found a card that Baba had sent Collins apparently right after she was born because it was signed from Baba and Papal. When I saw the signature, I got chills because Papal died a few months after she was born. How we all miss him and how special to see something from both my grandparents sent over seven years ago. It choked me up to find that card, especially with it being the very last item to come out before we closed the chapter on 809.

So after a very long day of lifting and running and directing, Brian thought we should take a break from the work and the show the kids their new house. So he went and got them from his parents, and what a fun moment to see them run up for their first peek at their new house with their stuff in it!

Collins got a big surprise when she found out that her new room had already been painted purple!

Addie approved of her new space...(we call it the tree house room because you look out the windows and all you see is trees) and had to do some dancing.

After we hung out and showed them around (they had been in the house many times but the Rogers' stuff was always in it), Collins asked if we could go see our old house one last time now that it was empty. I wasn't sure this was a good idea for Addie because she had been so hesitant about the move, but we agreed and I needed to drop the keys off anyway.

So we went in, and they had a big time yelling (it echoed without anything in it) and running around in it.

It looked really strange empty...

then it was time to say goodbye. I left our house keys in the kitchen for the Whitfields and slowly closed the front door one last time. That's when it hit Collins. She had always been the one in favor of our move, but in that moment it hit her and she started crying. Then I started crying. Then Brian started crying. And Addie (the one who was opposed to the move) said, "why is everybody crying???" :)

We had a group hug and a group cry, and that was the closure we all needed. We were ready to move on to 801. New house here we come!

Go Time

After months of speculation, excitement, anxiety, and stress- it was finally go time. Time to sell our house. We closed on 809 Blenheim on Friday, April 6, and it was a day filled with emotion. I cried wondering if we were doing the right thing, but after we finished the deal and signed all the papers, a peace came over me. That was the closure I needed to move on.

We sold our house to a lovely family- the Whitfields- and they were kind enough to let us stay the weekend until the Rogers were able to get out of our new house. So we spent the weekend packing (also known as playing)...

and gawking at the scene that was the estate sale at our new house. The Rogers had A LOT of stuff to get rid of and the masses came out (in the pouring rain) to buy it. We actually ended up buying two neat things from their (our) home...a new bed for Collins! We got the headboard, box springs and queen mattress for a steal...how cute is this for her room?

 And Donna was so sweet to buy us this neat sideboard- the perfect piece for the den!

Our final meal in our house was fittingly brats. In the morning, the moving trucks would arrive bright and early!

  

Easter at the Beach

Perhaps appropriate for Good Friday, our Easter weekend started with the most sinful doughnut I have ever eaten. I mean, look at these things...

 Birds nests for Spring...almost too sweet too eat!

We got to the beach Friday afternoon and headed straight for the ocean...we had not been to Wrightsville since last summer so there was some exploring to do!

 

 

The last time Luke went to the beach he was pretty tiny, so it was like he was seeing the ocean and the sand for the first time. And it kind of freaked him out until his Dad did this...

 

 

 

 

 And of course, we were not shocked when Collins headed straight into the freezing water...

 Saturday morning, we headed to the Easter egg hunt at the park...

 Once again, the girls were aggressive...

and Luke was not.

 But the Easter egg hunt they were really excited about was Gigi's back at the beach house...

 because Gigi goes all out and some fun treasures were to be found!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Later that day more beach time...there were holes to dig and people to bury.

 

 

 

 Brian tried something fun for dinner that night...seafood nachos!

The next morning was Easter and much to the girls' relief, the Easter bunny does travel to the beach...

 

I was a bit bummed because I wanted to go to the sunrise service on the beach, but it was too logistically hard with the kids. But when I woke up, I rushed down to the beach just in time to see this...

 Addie was already there with her Daddy and caught the whole thing! Glad she got that experience.

 Seeing the sun rise over the ocean, that was my Easter moment right there...

We did rally the troops and go to Easter service at the Little Chapel on the Boardwalk on WB. While the rest of us worshipped, Luke and Brian went and threw rocks in the water...

 Then the perfect Easter lunch...Tower 7!!!

 We had gorgeous weather that day and enjoyed the rest of the day outside...

 

 

 

 

Come Monday morning, Brian headed into work in the Wilmington office and we headed to the park...

 

 

 

 

 I love days spent outside climbing trees...
 

 and eating ice cream. Makes me excited for summer!

 

 

 On this trip, the kids were obsessed with blueberries...

 

 cartwheels...

   

 

 bubbles...

 

 

 

 and t-ball!

 

It was a super fun holiday week at the beach! But now it was time to get back to Raleigh because it was finally time to do this move thing!