We bought a house! And we moved, from Atlanta, back to our hometown. I don’t really know where to start and I know I don’t have to explain anything to anyone, but I wanted to blog a little bit about our home buying process and why we decided to move.
We started talking about potentially moving back (to our hometown) last year in 2019, after 10 years of living in Athens + Atlanta. We didn’t have a real timeline, we are more go with the flow with most things. We love Decatur and all the things to do in Atlanta. But….we didn’t love the housing prices (or afford them) and traffic. We both have family here and just missed a sense community to be honest. None of our neighbors in Decatur ever really tried to get to know us, maybe because we were just renting and/or didn’t have kids and but I think that’s what it’s like in bigger cities and I understand. We looked at a lot of homes in Atlanta a couple of years ago and weren’t very impressed anyways. Most homes in desirable neighborhoods were too close together or were quick flips that just lacked character, or were WAY out of our budget. So we started looking online for houses in our hometown probably around October, but not very seriously. After living in 4 different houses/apartments within 3.5 years in Athens, Decatur, City of Atlanta and back to Decatur, we knew what kind of house we wanted. The older and more character the better, fireplaces and a yard were a must, bonus points for historic and in a good location where we could walk to town. We didn’t really love anything we saw online, until one day in February when Cody emailed me a link to a house he had not even looked at yet. I immediately loved it and said it was perfect. So we texted our realtor and waited. The next day we learned the house went under contract with another couple in less than 24 hours.
Since we were in Atlanta and it was a Monday, we couldn’t get there to look at it anyways but I really had a feeling that this house was ours. We were sad since now we wouldn’t even get a chance, but we both kept looking at it online and thinking about it, hoping that we could somehow still have a chance. On Friday, our realtor called and said we could come down and look at it if we wanted to and put in a backup offer incase the other offer fell through. So that’s what we did! We had to patiently wait and not tell any friends because this was just a backup offer and it might not even happen. Over Valentine’s Day weekend though, the other offer fell through and we went under contract!
celebrating our first night with our friend Bob, Veuve and Red Lobster
We say we didn’t have a timeline because when we started looking at houses more seriously online, we already knew Cody was going to work for his dad when we moved. So that’s why we didn’t have to move by a certain time frame even though the sooner he could start working with his dad, the better. I was hoping to keep my job with ClassPass since it was a remote role, but the role was outside sales based in Atlanta. I told them as soon as we closed on the house and they decided they needed someone based in Atlanta. I totally understood, but was sad because I had a great team and really enjoyed my time at ClassPass, the startup culture, working for a great company and learning so much about the fitness industry - another post for another time though. We decided to move in mid March which happened to be right before the Covid19 got really got crazy. I think we moved the second weekend of quarantine and I was scared our movers were going to cancel on us but they didn’t and they were great! I worked the rest of the month through all the pandemic changes and 2 days after my last day at ClassPass, my team was let go or furloughed. So March was crazy to say the least but in April I kept busy painting, taking down wallpaper, putting up wallpaper and trying to get our house unpacked and furnished. So, I am still looking for a job or new career and posting on instagram/my blog to pass the time and potentially turn it into a side hustle in the social media world.
We love our house and it was probably a huge blessing in disguise that we moved when we did and how things all workout. Everything happens for a reason.
xo,
morgan