More Details About the Big Move!

Friday's blog revealed one of the big secrets I've been hanging on to: WE ARE MOVING.

GLORY.

Y'all, I just can't tell you how happy I am. I'm so, so thankful. We've been looking for awhile. We've been in this sweet house for over 5 years, and I am so thankful for every single one of them. I know that we can stay here as long as we need to, but we've been searching for a different floor plan for quite some time. 

Houston is a tricky city when it comes to real estate. For a long time we couldn't decide where we wanted to go. There are many cities within the city, if you know what I mean, each with their own pros and cons. From prices to school districts to square footage,  you run into some challenges wherever you go. 

Grant doesn't have a daily commute, so we weren't dead set on having an easy drive into the city. What it came down to is that we wanted a home in an excellent school district that also had the best layout for our unique living/work arrangement. We need something where Grant can be somewhat sequestered. We needed space. We needed to have the ability for Grant to be able to speak at a normal volume level without waking up our child. He needs to stop sitting in his car for conference calls. I need to be able to have a friend over without telling her and her children to talk quietly. 

Our solution came in the form of a very cool layout. We went to an Open House several weeks ago, and and when I walked in I was frustrated as soon as I walked into the front door. The study is right by the front door, just like every other home we see. This is how our current home is, and it's just not a good spot for Grant's office. We decided to look at the rest of the house since we were already there, even though I assumed this wasn't going to be "the one."

Loved the living room. LOVED the kitchen.

It's too bad this isn't going to work for us, it's such a pretty house.

We walked into the master bedroom.

Oh, this is pretty.

We walked into the master bathroom.

This is a great bathroom. I like this. Nice closet. Good cabinets. Oh, wait, what is this door?

"Grant, where does this door go to?"

We open the door. Walk in. We are in a 12x12 room. With a window.

Um... what is this room? It looks like the current owners are using it as an office or a craft room of some sort... and there are no other doors... So, wait... you have to go through the master bedroom AND the master bathroom to get into this room? Are you telling me that there are THREE doors between this room and the living area?"

We make eye contact.

"Grant, this is your office."

After walking through the rest of the house and loving the rest of it, we ran out to the car and called our realtor. Actually, I had run out to the car earlier in the tour process as Ellie was sobbing because I wouldn't let her play with the toys in the bedroom of the little girl that currently lives there. So I ran through the house rapidly while telling Ellie to hush as she yelled "MY PONY! MY PONY!", and then I went out to the car. Grant took a peaceful stroll through each room and came out later. It was that kind of day. He actually told me that I missed an entire bedroom upstairs. Anyways, just knowing about the "secret office" was enough for me to know that this would be a good fit for us. 

The house is something we can live in for a long, long time. It's zoned to a great school. Great yard. It has a pool, which is something we weren't really looking for, but I'm not complaining! It has a nice play room for the kids. I feel like I need to stop right here and right now and clarify that when I say kids, as in plural, I am referring to hypothetical plural children. I just didn't want y'all to get all up in a tizzy in the Facebook comments again. 

For those of you who are familiar with the Houston area, we are moving further into Katy. For those of you who aren't familiar with Houston, just know that we are moving out about 15 minutes from where we are now. 

We are closing the last week of February and probably moving the first week of March. Eek! I'm 90% thrilled that it's happening so quickly, while also being 10% overwhelmed. We have to get this house packed up and get it ready to sell. Oh, yeah, did I not mention that we haven't even listed our house?! YIKES.

My #1 goal right now is throwing things away. I am bound and determined to move into the new house bringing only about 50% of the things that are in this house right now. Words can not describe how much unused, untouched junk is just sitting in closets and drawers throughout our home. It is time for it to go. New houses bring a clean slate and a big, giant do-over.

In the meantime, I'm going to just scour Pinterest for things that are absolutely unattainable and DIY projects that will look horrendous even if I follow the directions explicitly.