It has been 3 months since I have been able to write. Life has been insane and I have been trying to grapple with the many emotions that have come with our decision to move. This is also the first blog that I am sharing on social media, so if you are curious about this whole process please scroll back to the beginning 🙂 As we have started to announce our move to family and friends I have found that we definitely are not alone in this decision and many have reached out for advice. My hope is that I can help others with the details and also inspire those who are on the fence to take that leap of faith!
So How Did We Even Get Started?
We had no idea how to even begin this process and we had so many questions. Should we try to get jobs first? Should we rent? Could we buy from California? We really wanted to buy, but had no idea how we could even make that dream possible. We reached out to a local lender in the Knoxville area (Paul Eldrigde from Keystone Mortgage) and he was able to give us the details about how to purchase a home from California. We were told that in order to use our California wages that we would need purchase a house in Tennessee as a “2nd home”. This would require 10% down. On Feb. 26th we were pre-qualified and got in contact with a realtor (Nicole Brown and Sasha Logan Hall from Southern Home Group -Keller Williams). A few days later we were pre-approved and had a meeting with the realtors to discuss what our wish list was. Unfortunately, due to being so far away it was much easier to look at homes over a zoom meeting. We definitely couldn’t fly out to Tennessee every weekend so we had to settle with viewing homes virtually. Thankfully we had two great realtors who we worked with who made this process as easy as possible. They were very thorough when walking us through a property and answered every single question we had. Chad and I toured a total of 2 homes before we found the one we loved. Home tour #3 happened on March 10th and we put an offer in around noon. I was expecting to hear back in a few days, but 2 hours later we got the call that our offer was accepted!
Flood of Emotions…
It. got. real! I felt this overwhelming feeling of happiness that we were able to make our dream come true and then complete and utter sadness realizing that we would be leaving our family and friends behind. I remember going to the daycare to pick up Braxton and Jaxon and I sobbed as I told my mom and sister that our offer was accepted. I didn’t want to leave them! How could I pack up our home that we have lived in for 15 years and had so many wonderful memories in? Nothing would be the same. There have been a lot of tears throughout this process. Change is hard. I have had many moments where I thought I couldn’t go through with it. So much doubt and worry that we were making the biggest mistake of our lives. So many moments that I wanted to back out and stay safe in my home and comfort zone. But on the flip side I have felt so much excitement as I start to imagine our family in our new home, planning how we will arrange the furniture and making plans for landscaping and decorating. I think about how this can really connect us as a family of six and create a special bond between us as we have to all navigate being in a new environment. As a mom I am so worried about my kids adjusting, but I know all of that will start to ease with time.
So what now…? JOBS!
A big piece of our anxiety was purchasing a house without jobs. It sounds absolutely insane I know, but we did have a plan B if we didn’t get jobs in time. We were taking the biggest leap of faith and really trusting that God would provide. I had applied for my Tennessee teaching credential back in January and was approved before we put the offer on the house. I had begun the process of applying for teaching jobs mid March and finally got an interview a few weeks later. Luckily I was hired after my first interview as a third grade teacher in Knoxville. Chad also had some leads in the boat industry. He has a pretty great reputation and after applying to a few jobs he landed a great opportunity which will allow him to work from home a few days a week. We are both very excited about our new jobs and also loving the fact that Chad will have weekends off for the first time in 18 years! Things have started to fall into place.
The trip out to Tennessee for Closing
Chad and I were set to close mid April and scheduled a trip out to our new town for a long weekend. Long story short… a few days before we planned to go out, closing was pushed another week. We decided to keep our plans and take the time to really explore our neighborhood and new town. I’m not going to lie, this trip was not as relaxing as I thought it would be. We did a lot of driving trying to time out our drives to our new jobs, the kids schools, the nearest grocery store, and places for recreation. I started to FREAK out. Everything was at least 15 minutes away and all of the close amenities that I was used to (Target, Home Depot, Trader Joes) were no longer a short 5 min. drive. I was struggling with imagining our daily life in our new town. As we spent more time in the area though I discovered that the distance from stores and downtown was exactly what we wanted. We have always wanted to end up in the country and country life means being “out and away” from the hustle and bustle. I also really loved our neighborhood. There were quiet country roads, but also a ton of evidence of kids all around. When we were able to do our final walkthrough of the property all of my excitement came back. I am so excited to show the kids all of the fun places we discovered. I can’t wait for the older boys to get their own room. I am looking forward to meeting our neighbors and watching the boys make new friendships, but I am most excited for our friends and family to come out and visit so we can share all of the reasons why we fell in love with Tennessee.
Talkin' Tennessee 