Moving is always rough, it takes more out of me than I ever expect. Especially if there’s remodeling involved, too! Our family has moved many times and each time I vow it will be the last. I still think if I was to name my ultimate dream when it comes to a home, it would be to have one I can live in forever.
Over the past three years of living here, we’ve been able to make some improvements which made a HUGE difference in how “at home” we feel here. Considering that it seems to take us 3 years just to figure out how to function in a new place, I’m feeling good about our progress!
I shared many of those home improvement projects yesterday.
While I love being done with quite a few projects, I also love that this house still has so much more potential! There are so many more things we can and would love to do to continue improving this house. The bathrooms, the laundry room, built-ins, adding more character and more exterior and landscaping work …all things on my “to do” list. I am excited to get back outside enjoy our deck and side yard this spring.
We moved into this house in the city of Seattle the fall of 2015. That was just a little over three years ago. It feels like a lifetime ago, but barely a minute at the same time. Funny how fast…and slow…time passes, isn’t it?
So much has happened and changed in that time, both in our home and our life. This house wasn’t necessarily our dream home, but with the market in Seattle such as it was, we quickly came to realize what mattered most to us in our house hunt was finding a place to bring our family together.
Our son was entering high school and his sisters and our son-in-law already lived here in Seattle, so moving across the water to bring our kids closer together was the dream.
Ironically, even though this house might not have started out as our dream house, we love so much about it. It’s bright and light. Clean and cozy. Solid and comfortable. Quiet and inviting. The view across to the Puget Sound, mountains and sky is endlessly inspiring. The yard is perfect for our pups. It’s conveniently located and we enjoy the area. We of course are very grateful for the improvements we’ve been able to make. It just feels right to us.
We’ve been living the life we wanted for our family these past three years, so the move we made here is without regret. It hasn’t all been easy. Everything hasn’t been perfect. Some things have been better than we ever dreamed, a few … not as much. But we’re still here! We made it. We’re happy.
I can hardly believe that this June, our son Luke will graduate from high school and this fall he’ll head to college (gratefully, nearby!).
Just like that, this four year chapter of our family’s life will close and a wonderful new one will begin.
Some things will likely feel the same going forward, but other things will feel…different. That’s just how life is.
Will we live in this house forever?
We do really love living here and can see ourselves in this house for a very long time. Yet, there’s always the possibility that as we transition to being empty nesters in 2019, we’ll find ourselves on a path that leads to a new home. In fact, I’ve stumbled upon three “dream houses” over the past year that tugged at my heart. :)
But each time I begin to envision a new dream, I return home to the comfort of knowing that in this season and for the foreseeable future, this cozy house full of pups and family is still where we belong.
It feels like home.
Happy New Year from our home to yours, friends! Thank you so much for spending another year here with us. Here’s to more home adventures in 2019!
