As of this weekend, we are officially moved into our new home. There are still (quite a few) unpacked boxes, but we packed up one house, moved all of our belongings to a second house, and have unpacked a second house so that it’s in a livable condition.
It wasn’t the easiest process, so I thought I’d share everything I’d learned, plus a few extra tips and tricks I picked up along the way, but first, I wanted to share the story of our move.
All last year, we worked with architects not to move, but to add an addition onto our old house. Inflation soared. So did interest rates. By the time our plans were complete and contractor bids were in, adding onto our house no longer made financial sense.
It was such a difficult decision to abandon those plans. We’d spent so much time, energy, and money on them. We’d attended a half dozen in person meetings, sent hundreds of emails, picked out dozens of finishes. It was hard to let go of the project, but the quotes from the contractors were literally $100k over budget before work started and it just couldn’t realistically be done.
So, in April, we made the decision to sell.
Because our house was inherited, we reached out to family before putting our house on the market. Immediately someone said they wanted to buy it and by the next day, we agreed on a price. Another family member with a real estate license agreed to mediate the deal. We were so privileged to not have to list our house and the private sale saved us so much money, effort, and stress. If you want some advice on selling, however, I recommend Young House Love’s Podcast and their staging advice.
While my family member prepared their house for sale we started work on moving.
On the “New House” side we made a plan and figured out a couple of different things:
What we were looking for in a new house. Square footage, # of bedrooms, # of bathrooms, etc. Our necessary item list included two living spaces, 3+ bedrooms on the same floor, 1 extra study/bedroom, a small yard, and a driveway. Our wishlist included a specific layout (which our new home has), an extra study/bedroom space (which our new house has), lots of storage (yup), and a fireplace (which is the one major item we didn’t get).
What locations we wanted to buy in. We singled out a couple of locations in a few different areas that we liked.
Our max monthly budget. In real estate apps, we didn’t focus as much on the sale price, because taxes and insurance weren’t standard across the locations we were looking at and changed what was “affordable” or not in different locations.
The current state of the market. We looked at what kinds of houses were for sale for what prices in various locations and at past houses that had sold recently and how long they’d been on the market.
On the “Old House” side, we also took care of a number of tasks:
We made a list of all of our major furniture items and marked whether we were keeping or curbing them (we didn’t have the energy to marketplace them, and our neighborhood got a lot of traffic so anything good that we curbed found a new home instead of going to the dump, sometimes before we got back inside!!)
We rented a storage unit. We knew we would be selling our home before moving into a new place, so we thought a storage unit would make things easier. If you’re only planning on using one for a short time, a lot of units have great deals. We utilized both a 50% off for 3 months deal (on a unit we had for 2 1/2 months) and a first-month-free deal (on a second unit we had for less than a month).
We started decluttering and donating. We went through our wardrobes and storage areas and ruthlessly decluttering so that we didn’t pack items that didn’t, as the great Marie Kondo would put it, “bring us joy.” It was both freeing and emotionally taxing, but worth it once we’d finished.
We started moving items not currently in use into the storage unit. This included out-of-season clothes, holiday decorations, books, board games, and more.
Our original plan was to wait for my family member’s house to sell so he could buy our house, sell our house, and live in my parents’ mother-in-law apartment while we comfortably house shopped while our money from the sale grew in a high-yield savings account.
In late May, however, we decided we were in love with a house that had been on the market for over a month and were getting worried about it selling before we were ready to buy.
So we abandoned the smart plan and put in a contingent offer.
From there, events moved fast.
On May 27th, we toured the house and put in an offer, contingent on the sale of my family member’s house, so he could buy our house.
On June 1st, after a few counter offers, everything was accepted by both parties.
On June 5th, my family member’s house was listed for sale.
On June 6th, my family member’s house sold. That week, the new house was inspected and we renegotiated the sale price a tiny bit so we could fix some items the investigation found.
On June 10th, we held Charlie’s 1st birthday party on his birthday.
On June 11th, we moved out of our house into my parents’ apartment. We spend a week finishing packing our house, taking off of work some days and packing late into the evenings on others.
On June 14th, I turned 30. Not that it’s relevant. But it still felt like a big part of a big month.
On June 17th, movers moved our big furniture into our storage units.
On June 21st, we finished packing everything up at the old house (clearing out the back shed and packing the kitchen took the longest).
On June 22nd, we had our old house deep cleaned .
On June 23rd, we closed and officially sold our house about two months after the decision to move.
On June 30th, we closed on the new house after a strange but relaxing week where we were no longer home owners. Immediately after closing, I placed orders on a large number of furniture items I’d been eyeing all month.
On July 1st, movers moved everything from our two storage units into our new house. We spent the rest of the day unpacking into the night.
For the past two weeks, we’ve continued setting up the house, unpacking boxes, getting furniture delivered, putting together furniture pieces, placing orders for more furniture, etc. etc. Two weeks after closing, on July 15th, we officially moved into the new house and it is a dream come true.
Love,
Julia