Hey friends! I finally have a home and life update to share, following my earlier post about a big dream coming true for us. This is part one of the story, so grab a cup of coffee or tea and get cozy—there’s a lot to tell.
If you want the news right away: we are MOVING. We’re selling our house and buying a new home. It’s been a whirlwind, and I can hardly believe it myself, but it’s an exciting new chapter. I’ll keep sharing updates as everything unfolds.
I’ve been sharing our family life and home stories here since 2007—longer than many of the home influencers online—and this past month marked fourteen years of writing the blog. Balancing privacy with sharing life online has not always been easy. Putting joys, struggles, and changes in front of hundreds of thousands of readers can feel vulnerable. Still, I’ve loved sharing our journey. Now we’re stepping into a new season that brings an exciting change for our family.
The past year has been an emotional roller coaster—not only because of everything that happened in 2020, but also because our kids began making moves that signaled real change. Our empty nester season was finally approaching in a way it hadn’t before. My husband and I had been through a brief empty nest period a couple of years ago before the pandemic brought everyone back, so this time felt different and more final.
We’d been praying for clarity about our next phase for years. Over the last twelve months, lots of pieces started falling into place—some only in the last two months, and a few as recently as this week. It has felt like a series of small miracles guiding us toward a clear direction. We’re thrilled to be so close to a new destination for our family.
Family is central to our lives. Over the past year our kids and their pets moved in and out, and we treasured the unexpected, extended time together. We would have happily kept them all close if that had been best for them. As they began making independent decisions, it helped us imagine our own next steps.
This year each child chose a different direction: Courtney moved to an apartment in Bellingham about 1.5 hours north of Seattle; Kylee and her husband bought a house in Portland, about three hours south; and our son Luke moved into a house with friends while finishing college. While not the “perfect” scenario of everyone living next door, we’re grateful they’re all still in the Pacific Northwest and close enough to visit.
Watching each of them settle helped free us to picture our own future. With that clarity, we began to consider where we wanted our next home and how we wanted to spend our empty nester years.
We had lived in our current home for six years to support our son’s high school years, and while I often said I didn’t want to move, my heart began to sense a shift. Initially it seemed right to stay put after our kids made their choices, but soon circumstances and conversations nudged us toward change. Life has a way of surprising you when you least expect it.
One weekend we walked a beautiful boardwalk in Bellingham with our kids and my parents. My parents spoke about the joy of living closer to water and new adventures, and those conversations lingered. After that day I talked more with my dad and heard his hopes and dreams. My husband and I reflected on our own desires for the next chapter, and suddenly our dreams aligned in a way that felt natural and right.
Those conversations opened a new vision for us: the idea of living near the San Juan Islands and enjoying a life that feels a little like being on vacation every day. When I was a child we had a sailboat and spent many summers exploring the islands, and my parents later owned a beach house on the Oregon Coast where our family gathered. My dad’s dream to recreate that beach-house feeling nearer to the islands sparked something hopeful and exciting for all of us.
You can’t always predict which moments will shape the next part of your life, but when you look back, you can see how experiences and relationships guided you. For us, family memories, past summers by the sea, and my parents’ dreams all converged and made it clear that moving closer to the water was the right next step.
This decision isn’t about finding a flawless, perfect house. It’s about choosing a lifestyle—embracing adventure, time with loved ones, and days filled with the kind of joy that comes from being near the sea. Still, selling our home felt daunting with the housing market the way it is. We prayed for wisdom, timing, and the ability to step back and let the process unfold without forcing it.
There was an area north of where we live that I’d been curious about for years. We finally decided to explore it, and took a weekend road trip. To our surprise, we not only found the perfect location for the life we envisioned, we also discovered the home that felt like it was waiting for us.
I’ll share the next part of our story soon—there’s more to tell about finding the house and how the move unfolded. Follow along for part two of our new home story to see what happened next.
Click HERE for PART TWO of our new home story!
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