It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I wrote this post. Only a few weeks ago, we found ourselves in that exact same place. We have continued to look at houses and even liked a few of them, but the market in our area is tricky. Everything is either similar in size and price to the Rock House, or it’s a huge home on acreage with a matching price tag. We began seriously discussing whether we wanted to tie up all of our money into a house and land. We’ve looked at floor plans and Pinterest and we’re constantly batting ideas back and forth, trying to decide what feels the most like us. Build, buy, stay? At the end of almost every conversation, we come back to the very same place.
To make a very long story short, my parents have been talking about down-sizing for years. Their house is too big for the two of them and my mom has been dreaming about selling just about everything she owns for as long as I can remember. They live on nine acres and that’s a lot to keep up with for a couple on the cusp of retirement. Every time they mentioned selling the house I got a lump in my throat. It is so hard to imagine another family growing up inside of those walls. They agreed that it was a super special place and there is no way they could part with it. Sort of. Josh and I had talked once before about buying it from them (way back when we first started house-hunting), but hadn’t really considered what all that might mean. Since we were getting nowhere fast, we decided to seriously consider whether their house was right for us. We’ve spent countless hours in conversation with them, trying to decide if we could work it out for everyone. My sister and I have talked about if that was okay with them and whether or not it would be completely weird to come home and find it completely different. After many late nights spent talking, we couldn’t come up with a single reason why this wasn’t the perfect fit for us. All of us.
photo from K’s wedding, via Jessica Mattola
In the beginning, my mom was so worried that we wanted to buy it because of an emotional attachment, or out of a sense of obligation and they never wanted us to feel pressured into taking it off their hands. The reality is that (I do have an emotional attachment, but) it has everything we need, it is in great shape, on a beautiful piece of land and I’ve been redecorating it in my head since I was thirteen. It is the place where I fell in love with my husband and where some of my fondest memories were made. There is still a lot to be done before we start packing our bags, but just knowing there is a plan in place makes me so happy.
this is the side view, looking from the barn / the back porch is on your left and the front porch is on your right
For now, we’re purging and making lists and getting ready to put our house on the market. We’re talking through renovation and design plans and my parents are trying to decide what exactly they want from a future home. In the immediate future, they’ll be adding some living space to the party-barn and living just across the driveway. I have heard mention of RV living and tiny house building, but either way we’re excited about having my parents as neighbors. We are buying the house and five acres and they are keeping the pool, barn, and enough land to eventually build again.
photo from K’s wedding, via Jessica Mattola
It’s still very early in the process — we’ve only just met with our real estate agent to hash out the sale of the Rock House — but I am so excited to begin sharing our plans with you in a new blog series. The posts might be few and far between until we have a firm move-in date, but we’ll be blogging our way through the renovation and sharing every step of the way. I’m super excited to include Josh in the process and we’ll be sharing DIY projects, tutorials, and videos as we transform my parents’ 1987 log home into something we can call home.
Do you think it’s crazy weird to move back into my childhood home after almost 17 years? Do you wonder how having my parents as neighbors might work out? Maybe you have some projects or aspects of the renovation that you really want to hear about! I’d love to do a Q&A post in the next few weeks, along with our plans for the renovation and a few more details about what we have up our sleeves!
