When you know, you know!
I’ve never felt that more true in my life than when we walked into that country house with the purple shutters on January 1st!
but wait…I am getting ahead of myself…let’s go back a bit.
Let’s first start by going down memory lane…because for me, it’s important to connect all the little pieces to see just how miraculously all those pieces have fallen into place.
READ this post to hear about our first UTAH home!
AND THEN, if that post doesn’t blow your socks off…READ THIS ONE NEXT! …all about how we were perfectly placed in the little green house.
I’ve kept up to date with home renovation updates and magical home things on my instagram (you can go watch some fun behind the scenes of the remodel on my INSTASTORY HIGHLIGHTS: remodel and remodel 2) but I’ve been slacking over here on the blog. Honestly I thought I would have time to compile all the renovation posts in a timely matter, and then before I knew it…even before the remodel was over, I was feeling the pull.
The pull to move.
To be honest, I felt it before then.
Our little home was so good to us but I’ve been wanting more space for a while.
We knew we wanted to update our home, not just to gain equity when we did decide we could make the move, but to enjoy the home and space more. We thought we would finish the remodel and enjoy it for a year or two. In fact, we were planning on that. We loved the area. The school was beyond incredible and we felt lucky to have what we did.
That was until the pull to move was getting stronger and stronger.
I kept pushing it away…
“How could I move?”
“The basement was still ripped apart!”
I had to fight the thoughts streaming through my head about the idea. I needed to stay present and appreciate what I had. BUT, in the same breath, I HAD been manifesting a bigger home. Abundance. Space.
So why was I fighting so hard against it?
One night, I was talking to my dear friend Monica (who ended up being my realtor) and I was sharing with her this deep pull to move.
I WANT COUNTRY and I want to stay close to the city…
“How could we afford that? Don’t we have to sell our home first? Where would we live amongst all of it?”
“SADIE!” She looked at me with a sweet grin on her face, “There are ways! Let’s just start looking!”
SO, let’s what we did.
We started to simply browse the internet in the Fall…let’s remember…our home renovations still weren’t done, and yet, we decided to start checking out some of the homes. We knew if we wanted to buy it would have to be contingent on selling our home…which was risky but apparently much more common than we realized.
We first went and looked at a house in Heber and then decided it was just too far from downtown SLC. Jeff and I have big plans for his career and mine this year but until we make those dreams a reality, we wanted to make sure to stay within 30 minutes of SLC for Jeff’s current work. I liked the idea of staying on the east bench aka around where we already were but realllllly wanted some land and space. (how many times do I have to say that #ha) I didn’t have many requests…I thought…
I just didn’t want to go south of SLC and I didn’t want anything newish. I really craved some character!
We learned very quickly that Jeff and I had very very different taste!! I like character, even if it was old and smaller. Jeff wanted big and newer but pretty much no character. (or so he thought…)
During the Christmas break, Jeff found this property in Davis County that had a magical yard but the pictures of the inside of the house made us question a bit. It looked like it all needed to be remodeled. Jeff was really passionate about getting a home that didn’t need a lot of work done, I think he was pretty burnt out. Even still, we were both very pulled to go look at it.
On January 1st we decided to spend the day looking at homes, including that curious country one…we had looked at 7 other homes by the end of that day, and we almost didn’t go look. I remember very clearly having a mental fight within me. The kids are tired. It’s not worth it. Don’t go look. We’ve had no luck and we can’t agree on something we love, why would this home be any different? Ultimately my intuition won and we drove up to see the house.
(In total…it was the 11th house we looked at! Which is a very special number to me.)
We walked into the home and immediately felt something different about it.
I almost didn’t recognize the house when we walked in. It looked completely different than the pictures online. I mean, I am just going to be honest…the pictures online were awful and did the house NO justice. I think God was just disguising how amazing it was for us! He was hiding it. Waiting for us to finally listen to that pull to go see it. Interesting how I felt pulled to start looking at homes around the time that this specific home came on the market. The house was truly calling to me.
Tears welled up in my eyes as I stood in the kitchen and watched the sun stream through.
The owners were there, even though they technically weren’t suppose to be and immediately I knew their story just by walking through the house. Not because there were pictures and stuff (most of the stuff was gone) I mean this home had been on the market for 200 days. As crazy as it sounds, I truly felt like our angels were talking to each other. It was like I could hear their story in my mind while we talked about the home. They had built the house and were downsizing to live by their kids. Turns out they built it for their family of 7 and bought the land for 11k per acre! AND there were 2 more acres they were selling right behind their home. (which we would have never known about if they hadn’t happened to be there)
I could feel how special the home felt and I could feel the sadness in the owner’s souls. I wanted to hug that sweet woman and tell her I would take care of it and love it!
It felt so perfect and right. Jeff felt the same.
As we drove home that night Jeff said,
“Well, I guess we are just meant to make homes feel happy!”
I knew it wasn’t in our nature to buy something new, for whatever reason we are meant to care for old homes, give them our love, and transform them.
We put an offer in that night!
…with a 60 day contract contingent on us selling our home. We prayed that they would accept.
I wanted to write them a letter and our realtor recommended it. She mentioned that she had thought it had been on the market so long because not many people were willing to take the time to update a home that big nor were they willing to take care of the land. People want instant gratification. And the sellers want someone who will appreciate the land, I could tell. I wanted to tell them that I could feel the love they had put into the land and home and the energy I felt and all the things. So I wrote a letter.
When they came back with their counter offer they WROTE A LETTER BACK TO US!! Monica told us she’s never seen that happen in the 17 years she’s been a realtor.
Within a week we had agreed on a price and they gave us till March 8th to sell our home. During that same week we went crazy and finished putting our home back together to sell!
We put our home on the market pretty much two hours after finishing the remodel.
It all had to literally work out perfectly. The price. The timing. The inspections and the appraisals. It was going to be a miracle if all the pieces came together.
We put our home on the market on January 16th, had it sold within the week, and on March 1st, we said goodbye to our little green house.
It was insane how it all worked out and I have no doubt that it wouldn’t have been possible without Monica! She encouraged and eased our minds and gave us the courage to take the leap of faith. She knew that the pieces would fall into place.
She wasn’t just a friend and realtor, she was a neighbor and the mom of my kids’ best friends. She also just happened to live exactly where she did to help assist us in the next stages of our lives. She was a piece of that puzzle. We were both placed in those homes for each other. Just like the Cottonwood house, just like this little green house, and I suspect, just like our new country home. Each home will never be “just a home”. They are beacons of connection; to people, to my purpose, to something greater.
Saying goodbye to the house was harder than I had expected.
Every emotion was felt.
I wrote this on the morning of the kids last day of school and paired it with a picture that I posted on instagram.
After I sent the kids off to their last day of school I walked into the house to a disaster of boxes and toys. Dried up wipes, electronic cords, and cereal on the floor.
I took a deep breath and looked around me. Like really looked. Immediately I felt overwhelming joy for each toy car and sticky spot and sock, which I can promise you hasn’t happened before. It’s been a beautiful mess living in such a small space as a family. We’ve grown more in these last 4 years than we ever had before, and today I finally saw that.
I saw what was really in front of me maybe for the first time ever!
These messes are memories that I will not have in this home ever again.
Each misplaced thing or food stain or pen mark has a story.
So this morning, I sat in those stories one last time before Jeff walked in on me and snapped this picture.
Another memory I will forever cherish!
Cherish your messes before they become faint memories!❤️
That was just one example of how the little green home pushed me. Served me. Moved me and my family.
Saying goodbye is never easy, but closing chapters makes space to write new ones and we are ready for this new chapter!
This will be our 3rd home since moving to Utah almost 5 years ago and if I’ve learned anything, it’s TO LISTEN.
To listen to promptings outside of voices and perspectives.
I know without a shadow of a doubt that our homes have souls. They have energy. They want to be loved and cared for.
I am so glad I listened to that pull and I am so glad this country home called to our family.
Before we focus too much on this next chapter, scroll to the next posts to check out all the home renovation and room spotlight posts from the little green house!
Dear little home nestled up against the mountains in the suburbs of Salt Lake. You were perfectly placed in SugarHouse with your green paint and your white shutters and your tiny space. Thank you thank you thank you for everything for all of the memories for all of the food color stain wood spots, pen marks on the wall, and sticky doorhandles from kids running in and out all summer long. Thank you for your perfect light streaming through in the mornings. The hot walls in the summertime and the freezing walls in the winter time. The constant open windows and open doors flooded with laughter and crying and fighting from kids who ran amok around the neighborhood. Thank you for being a space of healing for me and my family, for being the perfect amount of space for us so that we could grow together, live together, experience life together, and pray together. I will forever be grateful for all the toys scattered all over that little kitchen and it being the space we always needed even when we didn’t know it. When others thought it was too old, too small, or it didn’t make sense you were exactly what we needed. You brought our family together, you brought our family home, you reminded us of what’s important, what’s necessary, what’s needed, what’s sacred. You let us rip down your walls and rebuild them cultivating new life on a foundation that has seen so much. For such a small home, you opened up a space with so much love, it was always just enough and more. I know every corner and space within you, painted and loved and made messes and cleaned them up and cried and fought and above all, we started to live our dreams and our goals and really truly start living for ourselves. And cultivating a life that we want! We rewrote our legacy within your walls and we will never forget what you brought our family! Thank you Filmore house! We love you. We will miss you!
