What made you choose THIS home over all the others 10 years ago?

For us, the neighborhood sold it. The home is on a corner lot, across the street from a wonderful park.  While the home had features that I hadn’t envisioned (a rather small kitchen and only one bathroom), we knew that those features were changeable.

Features like a big, flat, fenced-in yard and the view of the forest across the street weren’t things we could add to another house that checked all the boxes for interior features.

 What do you love most about your home, the area, the neighborhood?

We’ve loved having Double Rock Park in such close proximity. We spend a ton of time hiking the trails, utilizing the playgrounds and just generally enjoying it as an extension of our own backyard. The neighborhood has also changed significantly since we bought the house. When we first moved in, it was mostly the original owners of the 1950’s homes.

As those original owners have moved out, there has been an influx of young couples and families. Our kids have tons of neighborhood friends to play with and we have made our own adult neighborhood friends as well. Nowadays you’ll often find us enjoying “front porch happy hour”  or roasting marshmallows in the backyard with them.

 If there was one thing you could change about you home what would it be?

Honestly… nothing comes to mind! We have made renovations over the years. We reconfigured the kitchen to increase counter space and add a dishwasher, added a second bathroom, spruced up the basement into a semi-finished space for the kids. Then we added a back door and deck. We did all of these home improvement projects slowly over the years, prioritizing each one as our lives changed.

Not only have these renovations made the house a perfect fit for us, we know they will increase the resale value when we do eventually sell the house.  

Has you home been everything you dreamed for you and your family? If not, how has it been different?

Yes, it really has. This home has been with us through a lot. This was the first house we bought as a married couple and it was the house that we brought both our babies home to.

We came close to moving once for work and to get closer to family (we ended up staying, obviously) and I can still remember how painful it was to think about leaving this place behind.  

What is something that surprised you about your home?  (for me it was that I thought I needed a dining room and have survived 17 years without one).  

When we bought this house, we envisioned it as a “starter home.” It’s small by today’s standards (1,200 square feet) and I thought there was no way to raise two kids here. We planned on eventually buying a bigger house and I’m so glad that we never did.

It turns out that this was the perfect amount of space for us. We have a small living room and eating area that allow us to spend time together as a family. Each of our daughters has a small bedroom. We have a moderately sized master bedroom that allow us each of us to have some individual space when we need a bit of “alone time.” We did clean up the basement and add some foam gym mats a couple years ago. The kids use that space to expel extra energy in the dead of winter or on rainy days, but most days you’ll find them outside in our amazing backyard.

I don’t know what we would do with extra space. We have less to clean, less space to furnish and, most importantly, a smaller mortgage. A bigger house would have left us with unused space that we were paying for but not using. 

If you could offer advice to other buyers about the selling and buying experience what would it be?

Be flexible and have vision. You have to look past things like outdated furniture or an ugly paint color and imagine what can be done with a space. It’s unlikely you’ll find a house that checks off every single box on your list (this house didn’t originally do that for us). Remember that you’ll be able to make changes and make the house your own as you go.  

Freestyle – anything else you’d like to share.

Staying in a smaller house has opened up really wonderful opportunities to us. Because we chose to keep our smaller house (and smaller mortgage) we’ve been able to save and invest our money.

This savings is going to allow us to retire MUCH earlier than we would have, had we gone with a bigger house. Modern culture tells us “bigger is better” and I don’t think that could be further from the truth. I know that our family would have congregated in the same few spaces regardless of the size of our house and those extra rooms would have gone to waste. I couldn’t be happier with our “small house” and I’m so glad that this is where we landed. 

Our family is actually going to be leaving this home for a reason that we never envisioned when we bought it ten years ago. We’re planning to go on an epic road trip adventure, leaving this home in favor of a tiny house on wheels. We’ll use that tiny house to travel the country and see all of the places that we’ve never seen. You can follow our journey at our blog http://www.retiringtotheroad.com

I know that moving out of this home will be the hard but I am looking forward to our next chapter and to passing this space on to another family who can love and enjoy it just as much as we have. 

If you are interested in buying or selling a home, contact Gigi to set up a time to discuss your plans.