New Home, Who Dis?

Tony and I had been talking about moving forever. A few years ago, we thought we might leave Cincinnati for a work opportunity for him, then we thought we'd buy a small ranch in our neighborhood and fix it up (i.e. add a second floor and blow out the back), but nothing seemed to come together. When the pandemic hit, we doubled down on our home and felt grateful that it allowed us lots of opportunities for outdoor walking and exploring, not to mention spaces for the kids to do remote school for over a year. 

With Samuel going into 9th grade, though--the boys really needed their own bedrooms!--the time finally felt right. We called the wonderful realtor who helped sell our house TO us (the realtor who represented us when we bought in Cincinnati has since moved to the west coast--we miss and love her!) and got down to business! The only problem? Nothing on the market. When we started, the realtor was literally speculating about what might come on the market; we even waited for an old lady around the corner to vacate her home...who knows if she ever will! 

What happened was that we'd wait for weeks and then a house would finally come on the market. We'd go see it and, most of the time, the homes were underwhelming. About the same size as our current home, but with a high sticker price. The neighborhoods weren't as nice as ours. The floors were squeaky. Folks did some strange things with their basements! We were pretty much resigned to the fact that we would (rather happily, but not ideally) be staying our home of 11 years for another year...

THEN! My good friend Niki messaged me that a home in her neighborhood (same school district--that was a non-negotiable for us--but different part of town) was going on the market as a for-sale-by-owner. Niki's neighborhood was a bit farther north than we wanted to be (adding to Tony's commute), but she couldn't say enough nice things about the neighbors, so we figured we should go check it out! This was the pic that went out with the data sheet that Niki and neighbors received...a light-brick Tudor (or "pseudor" as Tony calls it) with nice landscaping and curb appeal. 

Plus a spacious family room-kitchen combo...

Roomy bedrooms...

And Blossom's (and the kids') dream backyard!

"That looks perfect for me!" she howled!

That's when we went into "We might actually be selling our home soon!" mode. Our super kind and wonderful neighbor Kevin let us use his garage as a storage unit. We decluttered and packed around the clock when we weren't going to B'nei Mitzvahs downtown! 😉

Moving is always a wild ride--we found these brandy snifters in a box we never opened when we moved in 2012. We have ZERO idea where they came from!

As if the whole house hunting process wasn't nutty enough, selling our home ended up being just as bizarre. Everything in Montgomery was flying off the market in a matter of hours. The day ours hit MLS, we got 13 showings with 3 offers above asking price!! Tony and I picked the best one, signed the paperwork and then went to see Rick Springfield for our 21st anniversary--not a bad day!

Cheers to our home sale! 

Yay, for Rick!

He's still rockin'!

A few weeks later, we took one last family pic on our porch of 11 years and drove Samuel and Brie to sleepaway camp!

While we were busy moving, Brie and Samuel did their thing at camp!

For our big move weekend, Gammy and Granddaddy Rob flew in to help us: YEAH!! Of course we went and saw Sebastian at Wildbrook!

And we went out for dinner one night at a favorite spot. (See the empty restaurant beyond us? EVERYONE and their sister was at one of Taylor Swift's two Cincy concerts that week...ha!)

It was bittersweet to bid our old house farewell. It looked so wonderful in the listing pics...showing all of the love and work we'd put into it over the years. 

But the flipside was moments like this: Sebastian celebrating his new (and very own) bedroom!

Soon after, Brie and Samuel returned from camp and got to enjoy our fabulous new home, including the backyard!

Time to celebrate with a yummy meal out!

Now we're all moved in...come on down and visit!

P.S. We had a great spring and I don't want to leave out some of highlights! One of the best parts of third grade in Cincinnati?? The big field trip downtown. I got to chaperone the trip with all three kids--it's a blast!

P.P.S. While packing I found some pics of young me and enjoyed seeing how much they resemble young Sebastian. 😍

P.P.P.S. I just had to host dinner club (including Niki of the aforementioned finding-us-a-great-new-home fame) in our old house one last time! We will miss that deck and our forest view!

P.P.P.P.S. Sebastian celebrated turning 9 for a whole month (as usual). We went to Kings Island with Max...

And won some good prizes!

With buddies, we went and saw the new Transformers movie. It was really good!

AND...got sushi after! 😏

P.P.P.P.P.S. We're loving our new home...here's the living room now...lighter and brighter! We were able to get Stanley Steamer and the painters to come before we moved our furniture in, which was the best. For years, I've repeatedly dreamt that we move into a new house and we'd live in it for months before I'd discover a new "wing" or basement and be ecstatic at finding more house to enjoy! Now I'm living it!