Holy cow did you guys have questions about the whole selling/moving/buying process since yesterday’s little announcement! So we decided an FAQ post would answer as many as we could. We originally planned to share it tomorrow but you guys are still sending questions our way so furiously that we decided to share this guy today and our regularly scheduled DIY post will go up in the morning. So heeeeeeeere we go! #warningitslong
Q: Will you sell your current house by owner like you did with your first house?
Since it worked out so well for us last time, we’d love to! So other than possibly paying a few hundred dollars to have it listed on MLS again, we’re planning to market it and show it ourselves (we’ve actually already had three showings, so our fingers are crossed). We don’t even have a For Sale sign out front yet since we have been doing private showings to realtors and interested locals who are contacting us directly, so it’s kinda weird. Haha!
Q: Did you consider renting out your current house instead of selling it? We did! But we talked to a few realtors who said that a few homes in our neighborhood that were for rent were having a hard time holding tenants since the lots were so big (renters in our area typically want very small yards so there’s less for them to mow/maintain). So we shifted our focus to selling since things in our neighborhood seem to be picking up in that department (many homes are selling fast nearby, so we’re hoping ours follows suit).
Q: When will you move in?
We have to sell our current house first and think showing it with furniture will help that process (plus we don’t want to move all of our furniture to the new house and then have the sale fall through). So our best guess would be that we’ll (hopefully) move into our new house in June, although it really all depends on when we sell and when our closing date is. But we’re already working on the new house as well as finishing things up around here, so along with all the staging/showing/selling posts about our current house, there will definitely be new house projects, plans, and pictures working their way into the mix. Ahhh, it gets me so excited to type that!
Q: Wait, are you selling your current house fully furnished!? Sorry! I made a comment about wanting to keep our furniture here in order to sell it faster on yesterday’s post and it sounded like we were selling it furnished but I quickly updated it in the hopes of squashing that self-started rumor. Haha! We’re not selling it furnished, we just want furniture in the house when it’s for sale (since empty houses traditionally sell slower and for less money) – but although we’re bringing our furniture with us a lot of things will be in different places in the new house since the layout is so different, which should be fun to play around with!
Q: How many square feet is it? How can it be the same square footage as your current house when it looks so much bigger?! It’s almost exactly the same square footage of our current house, which we love (it’s around 2,500 square feet). It’s just that our current house has an 1,000 square foot addition hiding in the back that you can’t see at all from the front, so that’s why it looks almost as small as our first house (which was half the size). Meanwhile the new house doesn’t have anything hiding in the back and instead has a second floor that’s in plain sight from the street, which makes it look a lot bigger.
Q: Your new house is so pretty on the outside you won’t have a thing to do to upgrade it! That’s the funny thing about cropped photos. Below is a panned out shot that shows that there’s definitely work to be done. So we think the outside will keep us nice and busy too…
Q: Tell me more about what made you love this house in this neighborhood. Would you have taken any house in that area, or did it have to be the right one? We definitely wouldn’t have just taken anything in our budget because we always want a house that works for our family (right house in the wrong neighborhood is sort of the same womp-womp as the right neighborhood but the wrong house). So the sweet spot was finding both. And when we pulled down the street and saw this baby at the end of the cul-de-sac (zero through traffic! a spot for Clara to ride a bike! a bug-hunting mecca for Burger!) we were completely smitten. And when the layout inside didn’t disappoint, we practically lunged for the offer papers. She might not look like much right now, but we think she’s going to clean up real nice :)
Q: How did you keep this a secret?! This was BY FAR the hardest part for us! There were so many moments I wanted to over-share every detail with you guys as we went! This house sort of came out of nowhere, very quickly. We were very casually looking since we anticipated not needing something ’til this summer (or later). Then we saw it we had that moment of “we either go for it or be okay with losing it!” And we realized we weren’t okay with losing it. We actually closed on it in the fall (now can you see how hard this secret was to keep?!?!?) but we had a million balls in the air (a book tour in progress, a bunch of projects for our current house that we wanted to finish before we announced/sold, and a few immediate upgrades to deal with in the new house like a leaking roof, a bad furnace, an alarm install and an opossum in the crawl space (all of which we can’t wait to post about in detail for you guys).
We actually debated spilling the beans about things a lot sooner but we worried it would make us feel torn in half (wanting to stay focused on finishing and selling our current house, but knowing many of you would’ve mentally “moved on” to the new house). We also had to think about things like safety (we just weren’t comfortable telling the entire internet that we had a new house that would be unoccupied for a big chunk of time). So we made the call that waiting, as challenging as it was, was best for our family, this blog, and our new house’s safety. And that way we could focus and knock out what we needed to do here before shifting into “new house mode” when we were ready. Boy does it feel good to be in that mode now. I ran around the house singing this song.
Q: Last time you closed on your current house on the same day that the new owners closed on your old house, but this time it you bought the new house before selling your current house. What went into that decision? Once we were 100% sure that this was The House, we knew putting in a bid with a contingency that we had to sell our current house would weaken our offer. And we didn’t want to lose that house! There was actually another offer on it, so we knew we needed to have a strong and compelling offer to get it and we didn’t want to offer over asking price, so we decided that going into it without a contingency to sell our house would make for a compelling offer. We were so glad that the bank finally recognized us both as full time self employed people (we’ve been doing this blog thing full time together for nearly 3 years), which was a very different situation then when we bought our first and current house (more on that here) – and it was amazing to get the “you guys got it!” call.
Obviously carrying two mortgages for any period of time isn’t fun. But we triple-checked our savings before bidding to make sure we could handle it and found other ways to save. For instance, if we’re able to sell our current house by owner like we did for our first house, we stand to save ourselves more than all the extra mortgage payments that we’ve been making combined (since we won’t have to pay a seller’s agent commission). Plus, those overlapping mortgage payments are helping us pay down our loan (yay equity!), so it’s not like money going out without a return (like renting or writing a seller’s agent check).
Q: I need more details! We know, and we’re itching to give them. But please understand that we won’t be discussing certain identifying details on our blog (like what neighborhood it’s in or specific info about our closing) because we want to keep some semblance of privacy intact, so we’re resisting the urge to over-share in that regard this time! We know that you guys understand that we need to keep some personal details private and we appreciate all of you who respect that. We’d be naive to think someone couldn’t dig up the info if they really wanted to (real estate is public record), but we’re not going to hand anyone anything on a silver platter over here. Haha! Thankfully our current address was leaked even before we moved into this house back in 2010 and we haven’t had a single issue and our alarm system gives us amazing peace of mind (let’s just say it talks to us and has eyes for us). And then there’s our ferocious guard dog…
Q: When was it built? How many bedrooms and bathrooms does it have? It was built 32 years ago and it has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms (so there’s actually one less tub for me to clean). The main bathroom on the first floor is a half bath, which I’m already dreaming of redoing… once we strip all the wallpaper!
Q: How much do you think you’ll make selling your current house thanks to all the improvements you put into it? That would make a fun post! Just like this post that we shared when we sold our first house, we’re definitely excited to see how it all pans out and spill all the details about how much we put into this house in home improvements vs. how much those upgrades affected the sale price. Based on the interest in our current house (we’ve had three showings!) realtors seem to think that our listing price is good so we’re hopeful there might even be a smidge of profit in there this time!
Q: Is it sad to leave Clara’s big girl room without her moving in? From the moment we moved in back in 2010, we always intended for that room to be a playroom (even though it somehow turned into a junk room for 2 years, oops!) so it has been awesome to finally enjoy that space and use it the way we always intended. Even if Clara isn’t quite ready to sleep in there yet, she has logged lots of play-time in there and if she had moved in there we’d have an empty nursery, so either way we knew she couldn’t sleep in both spaces so one would be a playroom while the other serves as her bedroom. The nice thing is that everything comes with us except for the walls, so since we didn’t do anything structural in there (like add a built-in accent wall or bunk-bed system) or cover the walls with anything fancy that stays behind (ex: cool wallpaper or a big wall mural) it can all end up at the new house with us.
Q: What about all the things that you did to this house that you can’t take with you? Like the penny tile and the new fireplace and the pergola? We love love love those things, and will definitely be sad to leave them, but we did them ourselves – which means we can always tackle them again (and alter them in new ways) for the new house if we want them there. We’re just suckers for showing a house some love, so we would never want to live anywhere and “hold back” on doing things just because we can’t take them with us (for us, doing them is half the fun sometimes). So it’s nice to spend the time that we have with those beauties while we live in the house, and know that they’ll live on. I’m deeply comforted by the fact that we can always drive by and wave at the pergola. Yeah, that’s definitely going to happen.
Q: I’d love to see a post talking about which of your recent projects you did for resale value and why you chose them. Nearly everything we’ve done recently has been on our to-do list for over a year. So they weren’t things we added to our roster for resale – they were just things we knew we’d love to tackle, many of them from the day that we moved in. So it was less about which projects we chose to do for resale (none really) and more about which projects from our to-do list that we decided to move ahead with. For example, converting a storage room into a useful playroom and upping the curb appeal wouldn’t hurt, but double siding the fireplace (which would involve a mason and a contractor since it’s load bearing) felt like more of an “if we were staying longer we’d love to do it” item. So there were a few things that we didn’t think made financial sense to do right now but we did pretty much everything else on our to-do list that we hoped to do. We’ll share a final rundown of Listy McListerson with everything checked off, and at the bottom we’re planning to put all the “would have been nice” items that we skipped – but secretly hope the new owners end up doing so we can house crash them. Haha!
Q: Will you guys miss the convenience of a ranch and having everything on one floor? We think it’ll be fun to try out a completely new house layout since our first and second house were pretty similar to each other. And I’m sure there will be tons of things that we miss about having a ranch, but we’re excited to see how a two-story house works for our family. We love that the laundry room is on the second floor with all of the bedrooms, which was one thing we really liked about ranches (not taking piles of laundry up and down stairs).
We also secretly hope that the upstairs will help us with separating work from family stuff, so we think we’ll institute a no-laptops-upstairs rule. Since we’re only twenty steps from our office when we step out of bed in our current house, it’ll be nice to be a whole floor away from it in our new house. And it’ll be awesome not to have to clean the whole house when people come over (if they’ll just be on the main level, we can shut the bedroom doors upstairs and ignore the mess like we did when we grew up in two story houses, haha).
Whew! So that should do it! Hope that helped guys. And we can’t wait to share a floor plan and all the crazy wallpaper-and-blue-trim-laden before pics with you guys while we finish things off at our current house and get this baby sold. Fingers crossed…
Aubrey says
You guys ARE good at keeping a secret. Holy cow! Your new house is the size of almost 3 of my houses put together!!
YoungHouseLove says
The new house looks so big but it’s the same size as our current house! There’s just something about a second story (and a not-hiding addition in the back like our current house) that looks way bigger from the curb though! Haha!
xo
s
Taya says
So glad to follow along on this new adventure! Good for you!! Can’t wait to keep reading!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Taya!
xo
s
caroline says
Wow wow wow. I can’t wait to see you tackle the new house!! And to see what’s it’s really like at the moment.
In a strange and slightly scary way I’ll miss your old house though!
Best of luck for the sale !!
xx
Caro
Kate says
Thanks so much for sharing – I can’t wait to read all of the new house posts!! :)
Are you going to splurge for a packing company or bribe friends/family/3rd cousins/strangers-off-the-street with pizza to help you move?
YoungHouseLove says
I think we’re going to try to DIY it as much as we can (and there might be pizza bribery involved, haha!).
xo
s
qs777 says
Congrats! Can’t believe you held on to that secret for so long!
Thank you for the FAQ. I must admit I was kind of sad that your earlier post today didn’t have anything about the new house on it. Crazy, I know. Good luck on the wallpaper stripping. Here’s hoping it all comes off very easily! :)
Totally can’t wait to see what you do for the holidays at the new house. There’s just something about a decorated colonial that says “Merry Christmas” to me.
duffymrs @duffydigs.wordpress.com says
I’m just so excited for you guys! I don’t know how you continued to work on your current house when you knew since last Fall that you’d be leaving soon. I’m having a hard time tackling ANYTHING in our current rental and we haven’t even found our new home yet!
Kudos to you guys – I bet the house will sell super fast. Can’t wait to see what’s next on the blog!
Amelia says
Congrats! Super exciting! I’m wondering if you guys might ever consider contacting the new owners of this house and the previous house for a house crashing? Of course they might say no way, but it would be very cool to see the space that we were once all so familiar with re-envisioned if the new owners were into it!
YoungHouseLove says
The previous owners always knew we’d love to crash them but I guess they’re private people since we waited by the phone but no call. Haha! It actually was on the market recently (I think it’s down now because I believe it sold yesterday) so it was fun to see the pics on MLS (we asked the agent if we could post them but she said no, boo!). As for this house, we’re definitely going to beg to come back someday and see how our baby is doing! In the least creepy way possible I hope! Haha!
xo
s
Katie says
I think it’s funny that the agent wouldn’t let you post the photos of the house online when they certainly had no issue using you guys to help sell the house…specifically mentioning it was the first home of Richmond’s most famous DIY bloggers! They could have considered the photos your cut of the commission! :)
YoungHouseLove says
We totally thought they’d be happy for us to share since it would drive traffic (and maybe even a buyer!) their way, but they were shy. Oh well, as long as someone who loves that house gets it we’re ecstatic. Not that we drive by and check on it every season or so (ok, we totally do).
xo
s
Constance says
You are becoming house flipping (okay, “slow” house flipping) pros! I know there is no way to foresee the future, but I’m interested if you see yourself continuing that process or starting to “fix-up and flip” other rentals or houses you don’t live in, etc.
Please ignore is this next question if it is too private, but while I’m with you on how you are adding equity to either house that you will get back while paying two mortgages, having a downpayment to buy a house w/o the benefit of rolling over the profit from the existing house is impressive. I don’t see much on downpayments on your Project page (which I have been enjoying!). With all actual dollar amounts aside, do you have or plan to share the approach you took or philosophy you have related to downpayments? I’m all ears on your wisdow about what you’ve found to be a wise strategy.
YoungHouseLove says
We’re all about a larger down-payment whenever you can afford it because you’re a strong offer and you have less interest since you can cut down on a loan amount (and get better rates). In this case we had been saving for seven years to get into this neighborhood (our first house was crazy cheap and we were there 4.5 years and our current house was also very affirdable) so we didn’t just squirrel away money recently towards this goal, it has been an ongoing thing since 2006. Then when we found this house and decided to pull the cord (ahhhh!) it was just about balancing what we wanted to put down, and what we wanted to keep in the bank to feel secure since we’d be carrying two mortgages for a while :)
xo
s
Amy L. says
In your current office you have the built in desk, will you take those will you or leave them as built-ins?
YoungHouseLove says
They’re built-ins so they convey (along with the built-ins in the laundry room and the dining room).
xo
s
Monika says
I really hope you do a video tour of your house in staging mode…and I can’t wait for a video tour of your new house!!! (Can you tell that I’m a visual person and I like video tours???)
Michelle Kersey says
I’m impressed you all could keep it a secret for that long! Whoa. All I can think about though is the blood, sweat, and probably under breath curse words put into the deck building…. Gosh, that’s was such a huge task! Hope you all can log some serious hours on it before you leave!! Go grill out. TONIGHT!
Steph Nelson says
Since the FALL!!!! Wowza, master secret keepers! But you guys are smart, we readers would want you to start with the new house! Who cares about that ole ranch now!!! HAHA!
One question you didn’t answer but I am sure you will, but how do you even begin to know where to start? Besides leaking roof, crazy critters and what not. I said it before but this house from the snippets looks to be a total redo. No pretty vintage yellow tile or wood floors to work with.
Crossing my fingers for you!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, it’s a total redo. So there are just things that should be done first (ex: we don’t want to move all of our stuff into the second floor on the old scary carpets, so we’ll tear those out and hopefully get a new floor down before moving day). Meanwhile there are just “that will feel good” things that we cant wait to get to. Like taking down all the old dusty curtains and random doors that block things off. It’ll be fun to strip things down with a few easy projects amid all of the bigger stuff like new flooring on the second level!
xo
s
Leah says
“old scary carpets”………..*shudders*
YoungHouseLove says
Seriously scary!!!!! Haha.
xo
s
Corrie B. says
Ok, seriously, I live in Henrico & my fiance & I are currently house looking. Could you email me the information? I’d love to put it in consideration for us.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Corrie! Feel free to email us for a flyer and when it’s on MLS (it’s not there yet) we’ll let you know!
xo
s
Maureen says
Laundry room on the 2nd floor? Can I move in with you? That’s my dream house right there!
YoungHouseLove says
Isn’t that awesome?! That was half of my reason why I love a ranch. Poof, no more argument when I saw that. Haha!
xo
s
Abbie says
You settled in the fall?! It’s like I don’t know you at all anymore….sighhhhh.
Hahaha, jk, jk!
Reenie says
WOW!! That’s a loooong time to keep a secret ~ especially one that y’all are so excited about… I don’t think I could have done it.
Happy for you guys ~ and can’t wait for the tour of your newbie :)
(my prediction…. you’ll sell your house within 2 weeks)
Brittany says
First off, congrats and way to keep such a huge secret! I was wondering, (mostly because I’m a huge sucker for DIY and the before and after of a house in need of some lovin!) do you plan to/have you done a “before” video tour of the new house to share?
Good luck selling, hope it goes as smooth as possible!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s on our to-do list! We hope to have that for you guys for next week!
xo
s
Roxy says
Bonus: Two stories are a great natural workout for buns and thighs! Hahaha — Not to mention the possibilities with mattress surfing or sleeping bag surfing on those fun stairs. I’m so happy for your new adventure. I was worried you might be running out of projects for me to drool over :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh yeah, mommy needs to tone up!
xo
s
Sarah B says
I am so excited for you guys!! I am ever so slowly getting ready to sell my house and knowing you are doing the same has me even more motivated! I don’t have a new house to buy yet, but am trying to focus on selling. I am lucky and can stay with my folks during the search after selling (and save up some more for a new down payment!). Can’t wait to read more about the new place and see how you wrap up your current home! I’d LOVE if you’d share any staging tips or things you have found to be “musts” in preparations for selling!
YoungHouseLove says
Will do! We can’t wait to write about this process! We had two showings today so we’re getting pretty good at it! Haha!
xo
s
Jessie G. says
my oh my!
I take a couple of days off in “YHL Rest mode” and i miss thie big announcement!
This is great you guys! how exciting! yet another adventure awaits!
Saving pays!
Frances says
Wow. People actually leaked your home address? What the heck is wrong with people! I love the new house, I hope your move goes well!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Frances! And I think it’s funny too, like who are we? The Kardashians? I’m just Sherry from the blog.
xo
s
Whitney Dupuis says
You guys are so generous with answering all of these questions! I am amazed that you have had this secret since the fall. That is a HUGE deal. Congratulations!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Whitney! It was haaard to hold in. I think I almost burst a few times…
xo
s
Christi says
Congrats! I am so excited for you guys! One question… Can John move the deck he built! Lol! That was my first thought when you posted yesterday!
I am so excited and jealous since finding a home like that, on a cul- de-sac with trees in Phoenix is pretty much impossible! We are looking to buy in August so I cannot wit to see your new ideas and creations and use some in our new place! Also, Mr said when we close I get a copy of your book as a gift!
Congrats again for shaing, as always you guys are awesome!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! Thankfully the new house has a big deck! It needs some love but it’s already built (no permits! hurrah!) :)
xo
s
Shannon says
I can’t believe you’ve had it for that long! Crazy! I have another question. Sue the napkin was such an inspiration to your current house and a big color change from your first house. Are you sticking with the bold Sue colors or going in another direction for the new house? By the way, the new house looks amazing. Is that section in the panned out photo the garage?
YoungHouseLove says
I think Sue will come along but she’ll no longer be the sun (as in everything won’t revolve around her). Should be fun to see what other colors and styles are added to the mix since this house is a such a different style :)
xo
s
KIm O says
So happy for you guys! I’m so excited to see what you’re going to do with the new house. I know it’ll be hard to leave your current home behind but home is where the heart is and you’re taking your hearts (filled with love) to show a new house some new love.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Kim!
xo
s
lori says
I would love to know what you are doing/did to prep your house for sale. We too are listing FSBO…any advice on that part would be great!
Marjorie says
Are you planning to leave a note to the buyers with a little info on how to visit your blog?? I’d love to see a house crashing in a year or two of this house! Just to see what they change, or how much (as we did) they keep the same tasteful rennovations you guys already did!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, we’re disclosing it to everyone so they know. And of course we want to beg them to let us house crash someday!
xo
s
KarinK says
Can I tell how how freakin’ excited I am about this??? Your new house has so many similarities to my current house! They’re about the same age, similar facade, size…heck – they could be cousins. Chesapeake to Richmond cousins. One feature my house has that drives me insane is the windows, and I am so curious if you have the same issue – I can’t tell from your interior pics so far. Our windows are set very low in the wall, especially upstairs, so that the sills hit you closer to mid-thigh than waist-high. Also, in several rooms, they put the dividing wall right up against a window so that it is impossible to hang curtains on one side and achieve any balance. I can’t wait to see where this goes!!! Congratulations you guys!
Shannon says
Mine are low too. It’s weird.
KarinK says
Now that I am home, they’re knee-cap height. LOL.
YoungHouseLove says
We actually do have some really low windows, although we haven’t brought in furniture to play around with them yet… but I can’t wait!
xo
s
Jen S. says
Is it weird that I’m a little sad about this? I feel emotionally invested in your current house from following along on all the renovations and improvements :)
Very excited for you guys though and can’t wait to see all the new projects you will tackle in your new space.
Emily says
I know this is silly, but I am really excited to see what color y’all paint the front door.
YoungHouseLove says
I’m thinking pink and yellow diagonal stripes, but still have to sell Sherry on the idea.
Kidding! We haven’t gotten to that discussion quite yet.
-John
Kate says
You have inspired me to finally move. We have been trapped in our too small house for years. My husband made an appointment with our bank for tomorrow. Of course he has no idea that it’s because of you guys. We hope to be able to pack up our crew(including Taco the chihuahua) and move on up. I fully expect your place to sell quickly.
DawnSC says
So excited for you! I LOVE your current house but I can’t wait to see what you do with your new one. I know the real estate market is picking up in many places so good luck that your showings go well!
Kara says
I am so excited to see what you guys do with this house! We have a very similar home in another part of Richmond built the same year and with many of the same features! I’ve been told that lovely blue trim paint is called Williamsburg blue! Our home’s previous owner paired it with a lovely mauve.
Anyways congrats! And hope the possum was alive and not dead. We had one that died under our kitchen once and it smelled like…something died.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh he was very much alive! And angry! Haha!
xo
s
Corey says
What a simply fantastic surprise! I seriously out loud said “Wait..What?! HUSBAND come see this! Our blog family is moving!”. We are so excited for you and can’t wait to hold your internet hands through all of the exciting new adventures and home improvements. Much love, Corey and Baby Oliver (who loved meeting you at the NYC book signing!)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks so much Corey! We loved meeting you too!
xo
s
JLM says
I stopped reading here a few months ago because I was bored with your content. Decided to stop by to read about your new house, but I am leaving again. I know that this blog is now your livelihood, but I think it’s so strange that you have bought a new house just so you will have new, fresh content. I don’t buy your “we just love to DIY attitude” anymore. Truthfully, you have turned your lives into a business. Best of luck.
K. says
Thanks for sharing? I just don’t understand posts like this. Go Sherry and John and thanks for letting us enjoy the ride!
Nichole K says
I totally buy their “we just love to DIY” attitude because that’s what they’ve said from the start. Their passions turned into their careers and they tell us how lucky they are to have taken this path almost weekly!
That’s just how they are – they share their lives (good, bad, ugly) with us and that’s incredibly brave. We know them in and out, but they don’t know us. And they’re still willing to do it all over again with a third house?!?
Love. Them.
Rant over :)
Carly says
JLM if you read the post you’ll see that this has been their dream neighborhood for years. I think almost all of us would jump at the chance to live in our dream neighborhood if the right house came along!
Jennie says
Hey there, JLM. I stopped reading this comment because I was bored with your content. Best of luck.
Michelle M says
Good riddance to grumpy naysayers.
Love you John and Sherry! You keep on being the sweet, awesome, talented people that you are.
JLM might be bored… But I bet their house is no where near as gorgeous or full of love as your current one, and that there are no prospects in their life as exciting as your next house! :)
Danielle says
Soo exciting! Congrats again you two! :)
Charlotte @ Ciburbanity says
Congratulations!!! My fingers are twitchy just THINKING about the list that must be growing! Our first house had so many boring, very unsexy, fixes that needed to happen first (new roof, fix broken chimney, waterproof basement, bla bla bla), that it took as a bit to save up for the exciting stuff like carpets and window treatments and design! Can’t wait to envy all your upgrades!
xo
Charlotte
heather says
I can’t even get over how much I am smitten with your new home. I think it’s truly going to be absolutely perfect for you. I also understand the need to jump on it when you see it. We have been saying for years we needed either a full cab truck, or a suburban type vehicle, for our lifestyle and we finally decided to get a suburban. Thing is, up here finding one that isn’t rusty and beat up is like finding a needle in a haystack, without a metal detector. So when a few Sundays ago we saw one listed that looked right, we went and looked that night, and the next day it was bought! We definitely weren’t expecting it now. We thought it would be at least another year, but when the time is right the time is right. We finished paying off the tractor and my school loans in April/May, so now even with the payment of the Suburban we’re STILL bringing in more money each month than we’re used to.
I totally get it. I’m completely excited for you guys and you know I have a big heart for you two. I honestly think I’m MOST glad (besides the house) excited for you all to have significantly more privacy. I think it’s so incredibly important, especially for where you are in your careers. There are certain things for public, and there are certain things for us. It’s been SO HARD for me to not ever say our last name on our blog, and I know it’s as easy to find as apple pie, but it still makes me feel better to give a very large general area to where we live in Maine, and to not say our last name. So good for you keeping this new local under wraps. Here’s to hopefully many more years in the house that “feels” like home…which I admit is weird to say because it’s not mine. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Heather! You’re always so sweet! And it’s so much fun for us to follow along with your house adventures too :)
xo
s
heather says
Aww thank’s, Sherry. You’re very kind. This is going to be a wonderful wonderful adventure. Share what you like, and not the rest. As for those who are concerned you might have bought the house just to keep your livelihood going, it made me laugh. I totally get why you would move both personally and professionally. On the professional side, there are so many people who do something similar for a living (I know a woman who’s been in 10 houses in 15 years or so), but they just don’t blog about it.
Ain’t no shame lady, do your thang.
Evan says
The new house sounds awesome! I love when you tackle big DIYs and buildy stuff so I’m excited for some big projects to come!
I grew up in an ooold colonial style house where the previous owners had done a late-70s/early-80s reno to turn the attic space on the 3rd floor and above the garage into bedrooms and a bathroom. Those bathroom shots you shared yesterday were giving me flashbacks!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, no way!
xo
s
Laura M says
I’m interested in what you decide to do with the new deck. Sad you guys didn’t get to enjoy it for long! I’m very excited to see what you do with the new house. The lot looks amazing and I know the cul de sac will be so much fun.
Jaime says
There’s something about an old Georgian that calls to me. I cannot wait to see what you come up with!
Gina says
Congratulations!!
We used to live in Richmond, in fact when we moved there we looked a house very similar to your new one…. When my husband got transferred, I moved kicking and screaming – did not want to leave Richmond. One of the many reasons I love your blog is so I can kinda pretend I’m still there :(
jordan says
Will the teal ikat curtains be coming with you?
YoungHouseLove says
We’re leaving almost all of the curtains, but those babies are coming with us!
-John
Liz says
I just want you to know that it is perfectly normal to contemplate divorce while stripping wallpaper with one’s spouse, so if it happens, don’t worry.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, good to know!
xo
s
Jennie says
Or while shopping at IKEA :)
GreenInOC says
You bought the house in the Fall? That is SO impressive!
I’m blown away that you were able to keep the motivation up on the current house with all the projects between then and now. I would love to think I could do the same but my motivation would crumble after 2 days.
I can’t get over all the work you did these past 6 or so months knowing that you would be selling! Yes, they will add to the appeal for sellers but so many of them seems like smaller payoffs (painting a perfectly lovely kitchen for example), and so much work for you.
Hope this is coming out right – I just can’t get over the work and how impressive it is!!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks! You’re so sweet.
xo
s
Cathy says
I can’t agree with GreeninOC more! There’s no way I would have put in all that crown molding, board and batten, the pergola or work on that fireplace having already bought a new home! Oh sure, it “may” sell the current house more quickly, but it’s hardly adding significant money to the equation.
This is their joy and their living, folks.
Enjoy your new home, Petersiks!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Cathy! I think there are just some people (with or without a blog) who are addicted to this stuff (we have friends who don’t blog but are doing projects every night after work!). So it must just be some weird thing that’s deep within some people’s genetic makeup or something. Painting is addictive to weirdos like us!
xo
s
Kristen says
This is very exciting! Your new house looks awesome and it’s wonderful that it’s at the end of a cul-de-sac for privacy and playing outside.
I just have to share my opinion on here though when you reference throwing money away or “money going away without a return… like writing a big fat seller’s agent check.”
I doubt it is your intention but to me you are disrespecting the Realtor profession and the services they provide. I see you use buyer’s agents (free of charge! woohoo!) but seller’s agents can provide a tremendous amount of value to a transaction as well. Oftentimes homes sold through Realtors sell quicker and for higher prices than those sold by owner. My intention is not to go into all of the MANY advantages of using a Realtor (and we all know you guys are extreme DIYers and have sold a home yourselves before) but when you only reference selling agents as what can be read into as a waste of money it seems disrespectful. Good Realtors work extremely hard for their clients and provide win-win situations. And of course they are working to earn a paycheck too – but there’s much more to it than that.
Anyway, congrats on the new place! We’re all excited to see what transpires there.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no, we meant NO disrespect to Realtors! We love our realtor (we always use a seller’s agent, and agree that a buyer’s agent can bring so much expertise and advice to the table!). In our case it’s just because we were able to sell our first by owner that it felt like the right road for us to try that again! We might paint a room ourselves but it doesn’t mean we don’t think that pro painters aren’t an awesome resource for others! And we might build our own deck, but totally agree that pro carpenters are amazing. It’s the same concept :)
xo
s
Sarah says
I wonder if NYC just creates an agent aversion haha. I hate brokers/real estate agents 4lyfe, and that’s even though my parents’ agents (in the DC area) were lovely when I was growing up. 9 years of NYC has just ruined the entire profession for me. I think I would always try to DIY when it came to selling my house; whereas buying requires seeking out properties, selling would be a matter of marketing it.
Megan says
I am super excited to see what you guys do with this house. I have a two story house that I’m slowly working on, and the stairs always seem to cause complications with painting, etc. Can’t wait for your advice.
Carli says
Loved your first house, loved your second, can’t wait to see the third one evolve and beautify through as a result of all your future unique and talented DIY projects. So excited for you guys!! And SOOO excited to get to follow along :)
Taryn says
I’m so excited for your family! (And not particularly surprised – I had been wondering why you had been working on lots of house projects recently!)
I am really looking forward to following your decorating journey all over again and getting even more inspiration!
With best wishes from London, England
xx
Diane says
Yeah, there have been too many house projects and NOT ENOUGH BURGER!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! MORE BURGER!!!
xo,
s
Natalie says
Congratulations on the new place!! I’m so excited to cheer you on as you share more about opening this new chapter, and how things conclude in the current one! And props to dealing with so many intrusive and condescending questions without getting defensive, how admirable of you both :)