Story time! Six months ago we bought a beach house, and now it’s the place we call home every day. That means so much to us. Years ago my parents owned a beach house on the Oregon Coast that became our family vacation spot. They remodeled it from top to bottom into a cozy, welcoming place where we made countless memories.
As a family with young kids, vacations weren’t frequent, so having that beach house was a treasured gift. It wasn’t only a free place to stay — it was a destination where we explored the shore, enjoyed nearby towns, and built traditions together.
The house was near Cannon Beach, so we spent many days at the shore, wandering shops and restaurants, and watching parades and fireworks on the Fourth of July. We gathered with family and friends for vacations, holidays, and celebrations. Our oldest daughter even had her wedding reception there after being married at the little white church in Cannon Beach.
We adored that tradition and the sense of having a second home. But seasons change, and eventually we sold that home away from home.
After moving to our home in Seattle, that house became our new gathering place. I’ve always believed in making home a destination you love, a place you don’t need to escape from. It doesn’t have to be perfect — it just needs to suit your family and the season you’re in.
Although we didn’t own a vacation house then, Seattle offered plenty to explore nearby, and our home often became the place family visited. Over six years we hosted staycations, holidays, and celebrations, and it felt almost like the old beach-house days.
As our children left home and we entered the empty-nester season, we felt a mix of sadness and relief. After a long decade of parenting three children close in age, we were ready to slow down and enjoy the home we’d created. Moving is exhausting, and endings are rarely easy, but we embraced the next chapter.
We realized we no longer needed to live right in the city or maintain a large yard. Those changes helped shift our thinking toward what we wanted next: something smaller, simpler, and closer to family.
Letting go of a house you love is hard, especially in a competitive housing market with few homes that fit your preferences. We worried about selling and not finding the right place. But we allowed ourselves to dream — dreaming with faith opened the door to unexpected possibilities.
Those dreams led to a few small miracles and eventually to this sweet beach cottage on a nearby island, about an hour and a half from our old house. It’s actually closer to our daughter Courtney and the charming town she moved to last year.
The new home is exactly what my cozy, sea-loving heart wanted. It offers more than we imagined and has been a blessing after some difficult years. We’re deeply grateful for how things unfolded.
If you missed it, you can read more about how we found this home in part one of our story.
It’s been about six months since we moved in, and we’re falling in love with this place. We still pinch ourselves. It’s peaceful and magical, and the house is cozy — just the right size for our needs. My parents moved nearby and plan to add a tiny cottage suite behind the house, so it feels like our beach-house tradition has come full circle.
This home will be a creative playground in the years ahead. We plan to add beach-house character, relocate and remodel the kitchen, create flexible guest spaces, and design cottage gardens. It’s not a major fixer-upper, so we can take our time and enjoy making it our own.
Our new beach house feels like a long-awaited, unexpected dream come true. It’s close enough to Seattle to stay connected, yet being on an island makes every day feel like a little escape. We enjoy neighborhood parks, marinas, shell-collecting, and watching eagles over the water. The beach is a short walk away and ferries let us explore nearby islands.
We can go whale watching, kayak, visit flower farms in season, or simply relax on the porch, play games, cook, and spend time together. It’s also a warm place to welcome our kids when they visit. We recently hosted a full family gathering over spring break — they explored the neighborhood and created new memories together.
Life isn’t perfect, but there is so much to be grateful for. We look forward to making endless memories here, just as we did at our previous beach house — with the joy of living in this one every day.
If you’re catching up, you can find all posts about our new house in the related category on the blog.
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