Well, we have a little bit of news….
We’re moving! 
Actually, we already moved but more on that in a minute.
We loved the house that we renovated two years ago and it will always hold a special place in my heart – mostly for the memories, but also for the amazing light fixtures that I’ve left behind – but we fell in love with a new project and just couldn’t pass it up. I know what you’re thinking (“uh, are they crazy…”) and the answer is “kinda!” but we are so looking forward to turning our next house into our home. So here’s whats been going down over the last few months:
we sold our house to an amazing family who will love it as much as we do
we bought another home that is in our same area (but in a different elementary school district) and has amazing potential
we moved into a temporary apartment so that we could do work on the new house without living through the nightmare that is home renovation.
I will absolutely be sharing the plans for the new house but for now, the previous owners are living in it for a few more weeks, so you’ll have to hold tight to see the before photos. This house will be different from the last in that while we are doing another renovation (eek!) we aren’t starting with the horrificness (totally made that word up) that was our old house pre-renovation. The new house will bring new-to-us challenges – mainly in the form of turning a garage into a master bedroom suite. I’m still wondering if we’ll really pull that one off, but if we do, it will be an amazing luxury to have a true master suite (hello, closet space).
We’ll also make some changes to the kitchen that will look pretty dramatic – creating an island by chopping down some cabinets, raising a ceiling or two, adding new lighting, swapping some appliances around and, of course, hunting for more white granite. The kid’s bathroom will get a make over, I’ll bring new lighting into all of the living spaces, paint every single wall and attempt to create a play room space. And of course, I have a nursery to design! The nursery will be my One Room Challenge space for the Spring so I get to start working on it first and I am oh so ready to nest. 
Speaking of baby, I’m sure some of you are trying to figure out how pregnant I am, where exactly we’ll be living when the baby arrives and if I’ll be able to keep my hormones in check (because I would so be wondering all of those things if I were reading this about someone else). The answer to the hormones question is probably a big fat no and we are going to be in the apartment for the next 8 or so weeks so that the kitchen and main living spaces can be updated. We’ll then move into the new house when I’m around 34 weeks pregnant and we’ll get settled and ready for baby. If anyone super loves to unpack boxes, go ahead and hit me up because I will be in desperate need of your services by then. The master suite renovation is currently being called “Phase Two” and the start time of that work is currently TBD/ASAP. We might be able to pull it all off before baby comes, but if we don’t, it will all be ok, we’ll get there eventually! 
And yes, I cross my fingers and say my prayers every day that I don’t go into preterm labor again this pregnancy – so far, we’ve only had one little scare that was probably a result of me doing too much during the packing phase of moving. I spent the actual moving weekend doing nothing and feeling really guilty about it but baby’s health comes first and my husband did an amazing job handling it all. 
I have to take a quick second to say thank you to both sets of our parents who have really made this process so much easier on Gray – my in-laws took him for a weekend so that we could pack and my mom was here during moving weekend so he didn’t have to spend the day with us watching the movers load the truck. He’s adjusting well and loves that our apartment has a pool and two playgrounds although I’m sure the neighbors below us are not as thrilled with his new jumping obsession (sorry, neighbors!). 
I have some home staging/moving posts coming up that I’ve been waiting to share and then it’ll be all about those inspiration boards as my plans for the new house take shape. If home renovation is your jam, you can see all of our previous renovation before + after spaces here and hold on tight because this renovation ride is always a wild one!