Bitter Sweet Move

As most of you know, I live on a very beautiful piece of land and live in a house that my husband and I designed ourselves.  We managed the entire building process and James did a good portion of the work himself.  We built this place to be our forever home and put a LOT of thought into every detail.  We made sure to think of each phase of our lives while planning the layout, floor types, etc.   

Approximately 16 months after we moved into our beautiful home 4 years ago, James took a job in Ames, which is 75 minutes from our house.  He had been wanting to get into the Ag industry and this job was something he was very excited about.  We decided he would try it out for 2 years and then try to get a different job in Ag closer to home.  Well, this past October was his 2 year anniversary and we sat down to discuss our current situation.  Basically, he LOVED his job and had never been more happy at work, but the 2.5+ hours of travel time each day was wearing on all of us.  It's hard on the kids and I to have him gone for 12.5 hours each day and many nights he stays in Ames because he has to work late and it doesn't make sense for him to drive all the way back home just to sleep when he could stay at my mom's house 10 minutes from his work. 

So, we talked for a long time about our options.  At this same time James had a really good job offer with his former employer and he considered taking it, as it would mean more home time and a little more money.  He had also had another job offer a few months prior (both of these companies sought him out; he was not looking for another job) that was a huge pay increase and what appeared to be a pretty stress-free job; we did consider that job as well.  He knew he could be happy at his former employer, but the more we talked the more we realized one big thing:  If he quit his current job, we would both be settling for something.  James would be settling for a job and, living where we live, I am settling because this is actually only my 2nd choice of a place to live.  I have always wanted to live in the Ames area.  We swallowed our pride and admitted that the best option is for us to move closer to Ames so he can keep his job, I can live where I want, and we can have more family time.  So many people dread going to work each day and it is a huge gift that James loves his job as much as he does.  Even if he were to change jobs down the road, there are more Ag opportunities he's interested in closer to that area of the state. 

So, here we are today.  We signed documents with a realtor on Saturday to get our house listed on the market.  Today, we had a photographer in taking pictures-- LONGEST.MORNING.EVER, trying to keep my kids from tearing up the house for 5 hours!!  I don't know how I'm going to keep this place show ready all the time....with any luck the first person to look at it will make an offer and we can be done with that part! 

Anyway, as you can imagine, this is very bitter sweet for both of us.  As we were prepping the house for pictures last night and it is by far in the best shape it's ever been in, I told James, "WOW!! I want to live here!!!"  We did so many things to this house to make it easy and functional to live in for the rest of our lives that even if we build again it just won't be the same.  Some things we included in our house:

1) A boiler system so we could heat our house with wood.  We have over 4,000sqft of finished house and that would be super expensive to heat in the winter, so putting in the boiler system would allow us to have free heat.  Obviously it was a big expense in the beginning, but we knew it would pay for itself really fast.  Also, James has a passion for chainsaws and cutting wood...and we have 130+ acres of timber (ie, free wood), so this was sort of for him to play with too.  For the record, we also have electric heat too.

2) Concrete exterior.  Our entire exterior is concrete forms, instead of sticks.  This was a huge expense, but we knew it too would help with keeping the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer (it is AMAZING for this!!).  It is also obviously much sturdier than a stick house and would hold up in a tornado better.  The other good thing about concrete is it's a sound barrier, which we didn't need in the country. 

3) Metal roof.  As we had planned to live here for the rest of our lives, spending extra on a metal roof that would never need replacing, unlike a shingled roof, was a great investment in our eyes.  On a similar note, we also got put HardiePlank siding on for similar reasons.

4) Heated floor.  Our basement has a heated floor and it is amazing!!  This will be a definite must in my next house if we build again.  It really helps heat the house.

5) Extra wide doorways.  As we cannot predict what our future will be like, we planned for one of us needing a wheelchair and made sure the doorways were all wide enough. 

6) Main floor bedrooms and laundry....in case any of us cannot do stairs.  We made sure to put all of the necessary rooms on the main floor so someone in a wheel chair or on crutches wouldn't have to worry about the stairs.

7) Timeless trim.  I really like the look of white trim, but as it is a bit trendy and those I know who had it hated keeping it clean, we decided to go with a more timeless trim.  We both also really liked the look of thick/wide trim.  Having concrete form exterior walls, all of our windows have wide window sills which adds to the character of the house.  We also have big heavy wood doors too.

8) This is a total James thing, but we put in a safe room with a real safe door. 

9) We have an extra large shower/tub in the master bathroom.  I am a bath person and take at least one each week, and while I love the look of the fancy tubs, I just couldn't see any real reason to have a separate tub and shower, so instead we opted for the largest tub/shower we could get.

10) 100+ year old wood floor.  I mentioned our floor in a previous post, but James pulled all of the wood flooring out of the 100+ year old farm house that was on our property and put it into our house. It's the first thing people notice when they walk in (and then 2nd is our amazing view!)

I'm sure I'm forgetting many other things.  With James having been in the construction industry while we were building, he knew many people in each of the trades and hand picked who he wanted to work on each phase of the house to make sure it was the best quality build possible.  I don't know that much about the mechanical system in our house, but he says it's commercial grade.  We also put a sink in the garage so he could take care of any dirty cleaning out there. 

As excited as I am to move closer to Ames (and my mommy), I very truly will miss this house.  We have so many memories here.  This is the only house our kids have lived in so all of their firsts have taken place in this house.  In addition to memories, I have so many visions of the future in this house that will not be realized.  The view we have is irreplaceable and I will definitely miss the serene beauty of it.  I can calm down in an instant just by staring out my window. 

We never could have imagined 4 years ago when we moved in that we would be leaving here so soon (or ever).  But life happens and it is an adventure.  Whatever the next chapter brings for us, we are ready for it and will embrace it, together as a family.