This robe is one I just bought on Amazon that I plan to wear at the hospital.

We’ve always wanted to move back to Athens {my hometown} & started seriously considering our options once we found out we were pregnant with baby number two! We started looking at houses in November – mostly just putting our feelers out there & made an offer back in February. We had hopes we would sell our house in March & move before the baby arrived in June. One week after listing our house, COVID19 put everything on hold. We did have a few showings and an open house before social distancing & quarantine started, which we were thankful for but obviously things got put on hold. After a few weeks of nothing, we figured we would just wait until late summer to move & prayed everything would work out with the new timeline. Thankfully the family we were buying from in Athens had a flexible timeline and were willing to work with us. Then a miracle happened. The first people to look at our house came in with an offer!! We have officially closed on both houses and are residents of Athens, GA! 

I grew up in Athens, GA and it’s where my parents and my brother and his family both live. Growing up, we lived very far from grandparents – my Dad’s family was in Oregon and my mom’s family was in Canada. We didn’t get to see them much and it was hard on my parents from time to time. We definitely are a close family of four because of it but I always knew I would want my parents to be close to my children. That’s honestly the biggest reason for our move. 

Chris’s family lives in Massachusetts and while we would love to live close to them as well, the snow and rough winters are not something we are interested in. Thankfully we do get to see them several times per year and FaceTime with them almost daily. Maybe we can convince them to move south one day!! 

We always wanted to come back to Athens but Chris’ job kept us in Atlanta. In January, Chris changed jobs and now works 100% remote so that gave us flexibility on where we could live. Thankfully, I can do my job from anywhere so that peice was the final straw.  

We moved about a mile and a half down the street from my parents – walking distance which is a dream come true! My mom was coming to Atlanta two days per week to keep Collins since she was born. We knew with baby number two, we would need the extra help and just genuinely wanted to be closer.

We had a specific area of town that we were looking in and were fortunate to find a house that wasn’t on the market but that would be coming up for sale soon. I will say that our search didn’t start out with this kind of luck. We looked at several options and even considered a few renovations but in the end, waiting for the house we landed on was the best case scenario!

I’ve been getting the question “Why did you move to Athens?” a ton and in short, which I think is most obvious from this post, is that we wanted to be closer to family! We are excited to raise our family here and can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Home Updates

The house was built in 2013. The previous owners bought this lot and built the house then. They kept it in remarkable condition over the past 7 years making updates as needed. When we first saw the house, we knew it would be move in ready and we could spend a long time raising our family here. There were a few cosmetic changes that we wanted to make but only based on my personal style and taste.

We decided our first project would be painting the kitchen and master bathroom cabinets. We figured we would get this finished before we fully moved in since it would be easier to wait a few days to unpack rather than empty out all the cabinets and drawers down the road. We used a company that my parents have used several times that they highly recommend – M&M Handyman. They are local to Athens, GA and the owner’s name is Mario. You can contact him directly here: 706-347-6947.

Here are the before and afters that we currently have! I’m still waiting on a few cabinets and the pulls but here is a progress picture:

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We painted the kitchen cabinets SW Pure White and the kitchen island SW Kyrpton. I loved having white and grey in our last house and wanted to bring that with me here. We changed out the pulls and knobs to a gold finish, which I LOVE!!

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We painted the master bathroom cabinets the same color as the kitchen island, SW Krypton. I love the blue/grey color and how it looks against the marble. I think the bathroom looks a little brighter now, which is what I was going for! I am still searching for knobs for the bathroom. There is a local spot that I’m going to look at and see if I can find something unique.

We have a LONG way to go in this process but wanted to give you an update on why we moved and what we have done so far. I’m going to share a few graphics below of items I recently ordered for the house. Excited to see them in our space. Thanks for stopping by!

Drawer Organizer \\ Drying Rack \\ Counter Stools \\ Rug \\ Foyer Table \\ Three Drawer Dresser \\ Round Mirror \\ Retractable Baby Gate \\ Cabinet Pulls \\ Basket