The Farmhouse, Moving, and New House Update

Eeek!  Today is the day!  I cannot believe it has finally arrived.  If you are reading this, it means that we closed on our farmhouse AND our new house.  There have been some bumps, turns, and even unexpected blessings these past three months.  {I think this is typical of any home sale and purchase experience though.}  Today, I’d like to share a little bit of what has been going on…along with a few pictures of the new house {since we now own it!}.

We have sold our farmhouse on our own {For Sale by Owner…FSBO for short} and worked with a real estate agent on the purchase of our new home.  I shared previously the reasons why we decided to move from our farmhouse and we still feel strongly about those reasons.  {Click HERE to read that post.}  We are excited and nervous…all at the same time.

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Previous to moving into our farmhouse, we were living in the suburbs in a sweet little Cape Cod on 2/3 of an acre.  Moving here, we gained more square footage and a few acres.  And now, this current move is bringing us back to the suburbs, a smaller home, and much less property.  We have weighed all of the pros and cons and in our current season of life, we feel so confident that this is God’s will for our family.  I’ve been asked if we may ever move back to the country.  And you know what?  I don’t know.  Honestly, I’d rather not move again {doesn’t everyone say that?} so the thought of thinking too far in the future isn’t in our minds.  We have a lot of living to do in our current season of life and we plan to do just that…live and love this season.

Back to today.  Did we really close on both houses today?  Yes, we did.  Are you wondering where we are living?  This is where the story gets great, friends.  Since the original contract on our farmhouse {back in August}, we were hoping to rent back from our buyers for 1-2 weeks.  This would allow us time to work on the next home and slowly move.  About a month ago, we were at a tough spot in the whole process and I threw my hands up in the air.  We thought for sure that we would be able close on our farmhouse this past Thursday or Friday.  We were just going to move a day or two after closing because we were so ready to just move on with life.

Are you ready?  God surprised us in the most unexpected way and has granted us 12 days between closing day and moving day.  That’s right: we are able to stay in our farmhouse until two Saturday’s from now!  What does this mean?  Well, it means that we are able to tackle some pretty big and messy projects at our new house…and not have to live there through it!  Wow!  What a wonderful blessing!

It also means that we are living in a house full of boxes for another two weeks.  We had been focused on moving this past weekend, so most things are already packed up.  That’s good…and bad.  Good that the house is mostly packed, but bad because we’ve had to dig things out of boxes.  Wanna see?  I’ve got some photos to give you a glimpse of some rooms and what our current living situation looks like.

{Click HERE to see all of these rooms in their glory.}

Yes, my floating shelves are empty of pretty decor and filled with paper products.  And…just ignore the crooked lamp in the corner.  😉

This had been one of my favorite views to photograph: looking from our dining room, through our entryway, and into our living room.  It’s a little bit of an eyesore now though.  {The shutter coat rack and bench will be staying behind and not making the move with us.}

The living room has become a storage room for all the things.

I did leave the two comfy chairs out so we have somewhere to sit and relax…and read.  And yes, that is the living room rug perched atop the bookshelf.

We have been placing boxes in our family room that we would like to move on our own and not place in the U-Haul.  We haven’t had much downtime to spend in here lately.  It’s become a drum studio for our youngest kiddo…can you see the drums tucked in the back corner?

Our homeschool room is looking quite bare.  This floor can be chilly in the morning, so we’ve kept the rug in here for now.  All of the “extra” homeschool supplies and books have been packed up.  At this point, we only have out the curriculum we need on a daily basis.

Did you notice something missing in here?  Our piano is gone.  I was sad to see it leave {free on Facebook Marketplace} but it is going to a good home and we have loved it for seven years now.  We weren’t sure where it would fit into our new home and in the meantime we’ll look into a keyboard for our daughter.  I secretly would love to find a vintage upright piano in the near future.

The kitchen: it has to keep functioning for 2 more weeks, but we are down to the bare minimum needed.  Nothing pretty or fancy.  Functional…and clean is my goal.

The basement has even been packed up…along with the garage and shed.

I have pared down my decor tremendously.  Many pieces of furniture and decor items have been sold {at our yard sale and online} or given away.  I am only bringing items that are utilitarian in nature.  This pile has made the cut…

Our cute little reading nook is gone now and is a storage area for dressers, a rug, and baskets that don’t fit into boxes.

The kids bedrooms are quite bare now too.  We packed away anything they could “live without for a few weeks.”

Obviously, the 10 year old needs more than his brother. 😉  Since we are moving just 30 minutes away {instead of the 4 hour drive when we moved here} I don’t plan to pack up all his toys.  We’ll just drive his toys over in the minivan in the bins they are normally stored in.  Fingers crossed I don’t end up with 9,836 Lego’s strewn around my van.

Anything extra…even bedskirts…have been removed, washed, and packed away.  Obviously, dirty laundry getting put away is currently optional now too.  Ha!

Now for a few photos of our new house.  I wasn’t able to share more than a few snippets in a previous post {click HERE} since we did not own it then.  But, now…we own the house.  I do want to preface these photos with: these were taken when we walked through the house this summer so, none of the furniture is ours.

This house was literally the very first one we looked at when we began our home search this past summer.  It has been over three months since our very first walk-through and we were smitten from the beginning.  And now I cannot believe that this house is now ours.  We have plans though, friends.  To bring her back to her full beauty and I am so excited to share it all with you.

♥ Leigh