Introducing Our Sneaky Sneak Project: We Bought a House!

For the last five years, we’ve been searching for a house that felt like the one. A big old house with character, charm, a little quirkiness, and enough land for our animals to roam. A place where our kids could grow up, where we could host holidays for years to come, and where we could eventually watch our own grandchildren run through the halls.

We had a pretty specific vision, which, as it turns out, made finding the right house a little difficult.

For me, I wanted a house that reminded me of the one from The Family Stone, one of my favorite movies. You know the house I’m talking about, right? The big white house with a red door and black shutter, and a welcoming entryway with the living room just off to the side and the rooms that feel like they’ve collected a lifetime of stories, and all the charm that comes with an old house that has seen a thing or two. I wanted a house that felt like Christmas morning (specifically Home AloneI), Sunday dinners, and a hundred little memories waiting to happen.

PJ, on the other hand, had a slightly longer list. In addition to the character and charm, the house needed acreage for our farm animals, updated HVAC, new windows, electrical, plumbing, and a new roof. Basically, I wanted the house from my favorite movie, and PJ wanted that same house to have the infrastructure of a brand-new build. Naturally, we were looking for a unicorn.

Over the years, we toured so many houses. We even made offers on a couple that we never told you about! But something was always missing. There was always a compromise somewhere, something that didn't quite fit the picture we had in our heads. Looking back, I’m grateful those houses didn’t work out, because neither of us ever felt that unmistakable feeling of this is it.

Eventually, we started to think the house we wanted simply didn’t exist.

A few months ago, we even met with a builder to discuss building a new house on our farm. We thought maybe that was our answer. We could design everything exactly how we wanted it, have all the modern amenities PJ was looking for, and finally create a place that checked every box. The one thing we couldn't quite get past, though, was the distance from our kids' school. Our farm is almost 30 minutes away, and we loved the idea of staying closer to town.

And then, as these things sometimes happen, a house came along that changed everything.

It popped up for sale, and PJ, who knows the realtor, texted her to ask if we could come see it. About a week later, we were walking through the front door, looking around at all the rooms and hallways and little quirks, and falling in love with a house that we had actually seen for years and wondered what was going on with it. What’s wild is, about a month before, we drove past it on the way out to a friend’s house and I turned to PJ and said, “I’ve always loved that house. I wonder what the story with it is?” And then a month later, we were oooo-ing and ahhhh-ing as we made our way through it.

We made an offer that very same day.

We went under contract on the house we had been dreaming about for five years, and we have been chomping at the bit to tell you ever since. If you’ve been following along, you may have noticed a few little hints about our sneaky sneak project, and now we can finally let you in on the secret.

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE, AND WE'RE MOVING!

It's a big, old, wonderfully quirky house with additions, hallways that seem to lead to even more hallways, and more rooms than our current home. It has the character I always hoped we would find, the land PJ wanted for our animals, and the kind of setting that makes you immediately start imagining what life could look like there.

Most importantly, it feels like a place where we can stay.

We can picture our kids growing up here, riding their bikes outside, playing basketball and soccer, and having friends over. We can picture holidays around the dining room table, birthdays celebrated with too much cake, and the kind of ordinary Tuesday evenings that don't seem particularly special until you look back on them years later. We can picture our children eventually bringing their own children home to visit, walking through these same rooms and making memories of their own.

There is something really special about finding a house that allows you to imagine not just the next few years, but the next few decades.

And for the first time in a long time, we could see it. We could see our family there, growing and changing, with enough room for all the different versions of life that are still ahead of us.

When we told the kids about their new house, I started to tear up because I could see how happy they were. Watching them run up the staircase to pick out their bedrooms, imagining where they would sleep and play and grow up, was one of those moments I wish I could bottle up and keep forever. It made everything feel real in a way that signing paperwork never could.

This year has brought some difficult chapters for our family. We've experienced loss, navigated some hard situations, and had moments when life felt heavier than we would have liked. I think that's part of why this new house feels so meaningful to us because it feels like the beginning of something new, something hopeful, and something we get to build together.

Not that a new house magically fixes everything, of course. Life will still be life. But there's a comfort in having a fresh project in front of you, a place to put your energy and creativity, and a new setting for the everyday life you already love.

We're looking at this as our forever home, which means we're in no rush to make everything perfect overnight. We'll take our time, make thoughtful decisions, and slowly bring the house to life in a way that feels like us. We’re going back to our roots, in a sense, as The Property Lovers. There will be renovations, decorating decisions, projects that take longer than expected, and almost certainly a few things PJ will want to change that I thought were perfectly fine. Some traditions are too important to abandon ;).

We cannot wait to bring you along for all of it!

Ten years ago, we started fixing up the house I grew up in, and it became such a meaningful project for us. That house will always hold a very special place in my heart. It's the house I came home to as a baby, the house where I grew up, and the house we brought our own children home to. It holds so much of our family's history that I don't think I'll ever be able to walk through it without feeling something.

In many ways, that house represented who we were in 2016. We were younger, our family was just beginning to take shape, and we were figuring things out one day at a time. Over the years, we poured ourselves into that home while our family grew and the rooms filled with new memories. It became a reflection of the life we were building.

And now, this new house represents who we are today.

We're parents to three growing children who need more space to spread their wings. We have animals, a farm, and a life that looks different from the one we had a decade ago. We've grown together, built a business together, weathered difficult seasons, and learned a lot about what home really means to us. We're at a different stage of life, and this house feels like a place that can grow with us into whatever comes next.

I love that we get to do this again. I love that we get to take an old house with its own history and give it a new chapter, adding our own little stories to all the ones that came before us. I love that our kids will get to experience the excitement of making a new house their home, just as they did when we first brought them home to the house I grew up in.

And I love that we get to share the process with you.

So, welcome to our new house! Our next big project, our next chapter, and hopefully the place where we'll make some of our favorite memories yet. We can’t wait to officially show you around and share everything we plan to do to it. We’ll be documenting it all here on the blog and over on Instagram as well.

Thank you for being here, for following along through all the changes, and for caring about the little pieces of our life that we share with you. It means more than you know to have you along for this next adventure.

Now, let's go make this old house a home.

PS: you can watch the entire journey from start to finish here, because you know we vlogged the whole thing!!