The Next Chapter
Buckle up friends, although I tried to keep it short this is a long one so I apologize in advance! Since start of 2022 we have been on a wild journey through health issues, family changes, taking huge risks and preparing for massive changes. Although it hasn’t been easy I wouldn’t change what we’ve journeyed through for anything to be where we are today.
I will very briefly touch on the health issue - I had three scary reactions to who knows what throughout January and February! My face swelled up and my eyes swelled shut and to this day I have no idea what caused it. I developed bad face rashes and it was quite scary with zero answers. I got food allergies tested and was told it could be a contact allergy but I’m still using all the same products… it remains a mystery to this day. I sum it up to stress but maybe one day we’ll get further answers. I am just thankful it hasn’t happened again since February so we move along!
If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that we had tried to get Jackson into a better school program last year and found out the school miscommunicated what needed to be done to do so, making us miss out on this past year of a better program for him. If you want to read more about our journey with Jackson click here and click here. This program can only be applied internally through the school board so it was out of our hands and a huge disappointment. This year we have made sure to have much better communication with the school, had him reassessed (guess what - his results still blow me away) and made any qualifications for the other school. We applied back in February and were told parents typically find out around Spring Break if they are accepted or not. The waiting game began!
This school and program have been something we’ve been looking forward to for Jackson for years and knew that one day we would probably have to change our living situation to accommodate it. Because the school is 25 minutes away from our current home, we wanted to give our kids the chance to be independent, grow up around their school peers and have them possibly be in the same school throughout their education. Our boys (currently) have such a special bond and while they are still brothers who argue on occasion, they also find each other at lunch to sneak in a hug or a game together. I want to nurture this special bond they have and our kids have always been our priority, even if that means a move from our JUST renovated home.
Once March began we knew in a matter of weeks we would have the answers to Jackson's education and had to begin the home selling and buying process. We reached out to our realtor to discuss, look through our home and thus began our journey that I knew would go fast and furious. The market from January to March was pure insanity and terrifying to enter into so the pressure was on. We began looking through houses and quickly fell in love with a few homes in the neighbourhood south of where the school is, just a quick 10-minute drive away. To shorten this story we fell in love and made an offer on two homes just four doors down from each other thinking this was where we needed to be. Losing the second one just because we hadn’t sold our home yet gutted us and we then realized we needed to sell first to be taken seriously in this market which terrified us! We don't exactly have backup places to stay in the city so this was a huge risk that we knew we needed to take.
Spring Break came and went as did Easter and still zero answers from the school about Jackson's acceptance which was frustrating, to say the least. With our entire decision depending on this one check of approval and our realtor saying we needed to list that weekend to stay on the hot market we had to make a big leap of faith and decided to sell without knowing. Without going into too much of the emotional side of it, this was the biggest leap of faith for me. Not only were we selling our newly renovated home with nowhere else to go but we were doing it for Jackson without knowing if he was accepted yet.
I felt like throwing my hands over my eyes and just taking the step forward not wanting to look. Everything was organized and I kid you not, the day before we listed the house we received the phone call from the school learning that Jackson was accepted for this coming September. I just had to feel like this was a confirmation that we were making the right decision and we listed our first family home. The home sold within four days and the deal was done! SOLD along with every emotion imaginable.
We spent the next few weeks looking at home after home, going between the neighbourhood south of the school area and chasing after the rare home that became available close to the school in our price range. One house we looked at sold while we were in the house discussing making an offer - the market was hot and fast.
One day after a few weeks of looking aggressively we found a complete GEM; a home just down the street from J’s new school. It was much smaller than we’d hoped for but nothing seemed better than this home. The location just made complete sense and the realization of the need for independence for Jackson became so real to us. That realtor told us that this client was the grumpiest client he’s ever worked with - safe to say we didn’t get that one for the stupidest most confusing reason that boggles us to this day and we were gutted. This was the lowest point for me of the journey. I truly felt like we lost our home, nothing could be more perfect for us. I began to think nothing would be out there for us and as we looked at house after house we realized then what was most important to us was the location. We would give up so much in a house to raise our kids in the neighbourhood of Jackson’s school, we are only moving for this very reason so we were willing to take the chance and make our location search just that much smaller.
The next week to our complete surprise another home came up just a few minutes walking distance from the school but, you guys, this house from the pictures needed WORK. Picture your great-grandmother's house with zero updates and that’s it! If you know what this house looked like when we moved in you’ll think that we are just attracted to outdated brown-on-brown houses!
We walked into the house and our realtor told us to leave our shoes on as our socks were much cleaner than the current carpet. The floors creaked, the flooring was taped together, there were grouted tile countertops and we were immediately very intimidated. This house would need to be next to gutted and we left soon after.
Two days later we went to see one last house in the community ten minutes away and I can't explain it other than it was just a gut feeling, that this was the end of our journey. I knew in my heart that this was the end. Do we go with the more updated home ten minutes away that was move-in ready just needing minor updates or do we take on great grandma's house and start completely all over with our style? We stood in the basement of the more updated house and just stared like deer in the headlights - hubby and I knew without speaking what we had to do.
We wrote a letter, and if you are in the market right now I strongly suggest this if you fall in love with a house as we did. We had no idea who owned this house or their history but we knew we had to communicate why we loved this home as they did as well. It was clear they spent years probably raising kids in this home (judging by what was in the house and the age) and we knew they would understand our story. Sure enough, after very little back and forth and compromises on both sides we got to sign for our forever home.
There is a little sneak peek but so many more to come. This house needs a whole lot of love and we are already well on our way to making plans for all of the changes were about to make. I am in love with this house and although we will probably spend the next three to five to ten years renovating it and making it ours we could not be more excited and blessed. Just a few things we're doing as we enter this house is adding a beam, removing posts, and walls, raising a floor, replacing all flooring and popcorn ceiling and the list goes on! This is a complete renovation project and we are so oddly excited.
I truly feel like every house and the roller coaster of emotions we went through on this journey was worth it and I wouldn’t trade any of it. The tears shed, sleepless nights and all. I can’t wait to show you all through it, what we’re going to do it - it's going to be a BIG reno which we are so ready to begin. We move at the end of June and we could not be more thrilled! We can not be more ready for this next fixer-upper adventure and feel so excited for Jackson to begin a program just so perfectly created for him. We are over here just feeling so blessed and excited for our next chapter.
Who is excited to follow along with the #GammelFixerUpper ?
