So Many Homes, So Little Time
Why I’ve Moved SO Much
I began taking pictures of my home and sharing them for just over two years ago, in January 2020. Since then, I’ve shared many photos of at lots of different houses and I’m realizing it may be a little confusing to follow, especially given that they’ve been all over the country. So I thought I should take some time to provide a little background.
In July 2017, I started my career with the company I still work for full time. My position quickly turned into a traveling role, but not what one typically thinks of when imagining a traveling position. With this new role, I moved once a year around August. It was through this journey (and company) that I met my boyfriend of the last 4 and a half years, who also relocated around August each year. Up until this point, I’d already lived in at least 14 houses or apartments between the 5 childhood-high school homes, and the 11 from college until I was 25 years old.
Raleigh, NC
After a year of long distance and another apartment for me, my boyfriend and I decided to move in together in our first rental home in Raleigh, NC. That’s really when I discovered my passion for finding affordable ways to style my home and taking some photos along the way. We lived in this home from around August 2018 until July 2019, the when we made the big move to Moscow, Idaho.
Favorite parts of the Raleigh house:
Indoor shutters on all the windows
Large screened-in porch with a doggy door for Coop to get to the back yard
Large, private, fenced in back yard
Fireplace
Master bath layout - dual sinks and separate room for toilet and shower
Finished, walk out basement with partly finished room in the back for storage
Garage
Cute front porch
Great location and neighborhood
Moscow, ID
In August 2019, we completed a 5-day move across the country from North Carolina to Idaho. Our new home was right on the border of Washington state, where we both worked daily in the small town of Pullman. So small that we couldn’t find a rental house, which is how we wound up living in an entirely different state (although it was just a 7 mile drive). At this time I was also traveling one week out of each month to work in Corvallis, Oregon as well.
This was a wild year for us. Not only were we across the country from our friends and family, we we 3 hours behind them, and then to top it off, the global pandemic started during our time there. While we did escape for a few weekend to cabins on the lake and river and took a couple of hikes, I wish we made more time for exploring and adventure. The PNW is so big and beautiful and we spent such little time adventuring. We were career focused almost to a fault at this time in our lives. Fortunately, since then we’ve made efforts to better balance work and actually enjoying the life we’re working to provide for.
Favorite parts of the Moscow house:
Overall, super unique style of home - unlike any place I’ve even seen on the east coast
Sunroom with giant floor to ceiling windows
Tons of windows and natural light in the living room
The view - while the houses immediately behind us were run down college houses, our home overlooked the whole tiny town and the sunsets were unreal
Kitchen fireplace
Walkable (~1 mile) to the adorable downtown
Slower pace, despite the chaos of the world, we were surrounded by so much nature with forests and the Palouse
Athens, GA
In August of 2020, we made our second 5-day journey across country to land back on the east coast in Athens, Georgia. We lived in a smaller rental home than what we were used to that year, but it was plenty of space for the two of us and had just been nicely updated by the owners.
This was the year we decided to settle down. I had moved 4 times for work, my boyfriend was on move 7, and we decided we were done. So we decided to buy our first home.
Favorite parts of the Athens house:
Large kitchen island with space for hidden microwave
Dramatic stainless steel range hood
Nicely updated bathrooms
Cute neighborhood and walkable to shopping center
Watkinsville, GA
We began our search for a home in late 2020, right as the housing market started to be insane. People were putting in offers way over asking, all cash, or both, and houses were being taken off the market the same day they were listed (still are, really). We put in 7 offers before finally getting our home in Watkinsville, just outside of Athens.
We closed on the house in April, and immediately got to work. We had the entire house painted including the kitchen cabinets. We even knocked out a wall in the closets ourselves to combine the two smaller spaces to one larger room. We moved in mid-May 2021 and loved everything about being home owners. It was so strange to finally be able to make changes the house in which we were living, to make home improvements. Over the summer we worked rain or shine in the yard, cutting down debris and trees of all sizes to create a space we could enjoy. We even added a fire pit area.
Just when we were getting settled, life threw us a curveball. My boyfriend had still been traveling way more than anticipated for work (day or overnight trips). It wasn’t the work/life balance we were wanting at this point in our lives. So after 7 years with the same company, he accepted a position at another company in Charlotte, NC. Fortunately, my position was able to transition to a remote role, so we were on the move… again.
Favorite parts of the Watkinsville house:
We owned it and could make it our own
Great location and neighborhood
Great school district
Large, private, fenced in back yard
Great wooded view from a large back deck
Large master bath with walk in closet and toilet closet
Bonus loft space we used as a theatre room
Charlotte, NC
In September 2021, we moved to our current rental house in Charlotte. It’s been 6 months and we like our new city and work schedules. We’re ready to put down roots and so we’re starting back on the house hunt and can’t wait to find our next home, where we can hopefully, fingers crossed settle in for a nice, long while.
Favorite parts of the Charlotte house:
Cute neighborhood backing up a green way, great for walks
