Big news… we sold our house! For some of you this might come as a surprise (especially since we just finished our dream bathroom a year ago!) but those who have been following along for several years may remember that moving late this summer has been part of our long-term plan for a while now. It’s a BIG change for our family and it definitely comes with a few mixed emotions but Jeff and I are really excited about what’s to come! The whens and whys of it are kinda complicated so I thought I’d write a quick post to share some details and answer a few of the questions you may have! (post includes affiliate links; full disclosure statement available {here})
Where Are You Moving To?
We’re heading to Wilmington, North Carolina and… Morristown, New Jersey. I told you it was complicated! 😊 While we’ve been ready to leave Connecticut for a few years now, we’ve stuck around so that both of our daughters could finish high school here. We’ve always joked that the day our youngest daughter throws her graduation cap up in the air, we’re coming home and putting a “for sale” sign up in our front yard. It didn’t quite happen in that order because we listed and sold our house first and she just graduated from high school this past weekend but we weren’t too far off!
Why Wilmington?
We actually have a pretty long history with North Carolina. I went to college there (Duke) and my parents grew to love North Carolina so much during their trips to visit me that they decided to move to Wilmington when I was a senior. I lived in Raleigh for two years after graduation and Jeff lived nearby in Durham while he was going to graduate school. I then left for South Carolina to go to graduate school myself and once we were both out of grad school, we got married in Wilmington at First Presbyterian Church: 
We actually had our wedding reception in the same neighborhood that we are moving to! My parents have lived in the neighborhood for 20+ years and both the city and the neighborhood have always felt like a home away from home.
Since we planned to buy a house in Wilmington in 2021, we started casually looking at homes there a few years ago. We figured that if we found the right house at the right price, it would be nice to buy early and do a few renovations before moving in. We ended up finding a home in September of 2019 that we thought would be perfect for us and had been sitting on the market for a bit. It had a pretty dated interior but the owners meticulously maintained it – it had a newer 50-year roof, newer HVAC, great landscaping, and was just really loved and well cared for. We loved the idea of not having to put money into the “unseeables” but instead into updates to make it our own including kitchen and bathroom renovations. We put in an offer thinking it probably wouldn’t be accepted but it was and a few weeks later the house was ours!
It’s a 3 bedroom/2.5 bath home on a little less than half an acre and is essentially a ranch with the addition of a room over the garage. I love the tiered roofline, big windows, and copper accents (and think I’d love it even more if we painted the brick white – I’m working on getting Jeff on board with that idea…).
Why Morristown Too?
Jeff has been working for a company in New Jersey for a few years now and the commute from our home in CT is pretty hefty (1 ½ hours each way on a good day). He loves his job and is definitely not ready to retire yet so we decided we to sell our larger home in Connecticut and instead have two smaller homes (one in NC and one in NJ) and divide our time between the two.
We had originally planned to buy a small home or condo in New Jersey but the real estate market is currently so crazy that we decided to just rent in New Jersey for now. We went looking for a condo or apartment this weekend and signed a lease on an apartment in Morristown that’s within walking distance of restaurants, shops, and just about everything you could want. If any of you are from the area, we’re complete newbies so I’ve love hearing about any favorite places!
How Quickly Did You Sell Your House?
Like in many areas of the country right now, the real estate market in Connecticut is insane – definitely a seller’s market! Our realtor put our house on the MLS as “coming soon” and it didn’t take long for the first few days of showings to get booked up. Since we had so many back-to-back showings scheduled, we weren’t going to be able to be home at all during the day so we stayed at a local hotel. It ended up working out well because I didn’t have to worry about making sure everyone made their beds, cleaned the bathrooms, etc. every morning since we weren’t there to mess anything up!
To keep things quick and simple for us and potential buyers, our realtor set a date and time for all “best and final” offers to be submitted which was just four days after our house first opened for showings. That evening we met to evaluate all the offers and choose the new buyers for our home. Our house has since been inspected and all contingencies removed so we’re “sale pending” with a close date at the end of July.
Did You Renovate Your Wilmington Home Already?
You know how I said we decided to buy in Wilmington early so we could have renovations done before moving in? Well… that didn’t really happen quite like we anticipated. Six months after buying our home, everything went into lockdown and all of the plans we had for a major kitchen and bathroom renovation in 2020 basically went by the wayside.
However I did do a lot of small DIYs myself in 2020 – we went to Wilmington for spring break in early March of 2020 for what was supposed to be a one week visit and ended up unexpectedly quarantining there for several months. I took that time to pour myself into some house projects including some simple updates to our kitchen:
including removing the floral wallpaper, adding a new wallpaper backsplash & cabinet knobs, painting the yellowed cabinet frames & recessed lights, and adding new counter stools:
Sources: Woven counter stools | Wallpaper | Cabinet knobs
You can read about the details of my budget kitchen makeover {here}.
I also prettied up our kitchen eat-in area:
by removing the wallpaper, swapping out the light fixture, and adding a new round table, chairs, and rug:
Sources: Woven pendant | Round table | Bistro chairs | 7′ Round jute rug
You can see more details of my breakfast nook makeover {here}.
I also went to town on our guest room:
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You can see more details of our new blue & white guest room {here}:
Sources: Queen beadboard bed (weathered white) | 12″ Memory foam queen mattress (no boxspring needed) | Blue & white quilted shams | Blue tasseled edge pillow covers | Navy embroidered lumbar pillow cover ( with {this} pillow insert) | Navy border duvet cover | Navy border sheets | White quilt | Backless bench at foot of bed | Nightstand | USB Lamp | Mirror (white – small)
New carpet, light fixture, and window treatments are soon to come!
And my girls’ room has gotten a little TLC too:
Sources: Gray damask peel & stick wallpaper | Curved wood beds | White chest | Rattan lamp | White quilts | Tassel duvet covers
You can see more of their room and get the details of how I hung their peel and stick wallpaper {here}.
Currently, I have a contractor working on a few projects in our dining and living rooms including taking down four decorative columns and the dividing arch between the two spaces:
and a complete overhaul of the fireplace too:
The main goal is to get any renovations done that involve changes to the hardwoods so we can get those refinished before moving in in early August.
What Are The First Projects You’ll Jump Into After Your Move?
Along with finishing the projects we recently started in the dining and living rooms, our master bathroom will be one of the first spaces I’ll be working on renovating. It does break my heart a little lot to leave behind our brand new master bathroom that I poured my heart into designing:
Shower sources: Pump bottles (16 oz white/gold) | Body brush | Sea sponge | Stool | Shelf sources: Floating shelves | White woven basket (medium) | Kumquat tree & stacked boxes – no longer available | Round basket for kumquat tree (small) | Gray & white striped planter | Colorful moth art print | White wood frame | Glass canister (1 gallon size) | Bath bombs | Belly basket with tassel | Favorite bath towels | Large lidded basket for hamper
and to be starting over with this 😳:
but I’m up for the challenge! Sometime in the next year we’ll also do a major kitchen renovation and I’m really excited to also get to work on dressing up our “circus room” off the kitchen (the ceiling reminds us of a big top tent 😊):
I see so much potential in this space! I’ll also be working on the girls’ bathroom, the powder room, replacing the door hardware throughout our home, adding a closet system to the master closet and all sorts of other projects. I’m excited to have you guys to share everything with and bounce ideas off of!
Why Did You Renovate Your Master Bathroom in Connecticut If You Knew You Would be Moving?
It might seem strange that we did a major master bathroom renovation when we knew that a year or so later we’d be putting our house on the market but there was good reason for it. We’ve put a lot of time and money into renovating our home in the 8 years we’ve been here (especially with our kitchen renovation) and every space EXCEPT for our master bathroom was like new. Our old master bathroom was super dated and the size of most powder rooms – without doing a major upgrade to it, we didn’t think we’d get our money out of all of the other upgrades and renovations that we’ve already put into our home. We’d hoped that doing this last major renovation so that our ENTIRE house was updated and move-in ready would help us sell our house faster and at a price that would cover the cost of it. Fortunately it did and we’re thrilled for the cute family that bought our house to have this space to enjoy for years to come!
Are You Sad to Leave?
Yes and no. We’ve made some lifelong friends in Connecticut, we absolutely LOVE our home here, we love being able to hop into NYC for a day trip or evening out, and Connecticut truly is an incredibly beautiful place to live. On the other hand, I’m NOT a winter person so I’ll be happy to leave the snow shovels behind and while Connecticut was a great place for us to live for 8 years, it’s never felt quite like “us” – we’re more at home in North Carolina where it feels a little friendlier and less rushed. Plus it will be nice to be so close to my parents, especially since my dad has some significant health issues, and closer to Jeff’s dad too.
Are You Selling Any Furniture?
Almost every time I’ve told someone that we’re moving the first question is, “Are you selling anything?” 😂. We’re taking some of our furniture with us, the family buying our home is buying some of it, and we’re giving other pieces to family members but we do have some furniture pieces and a lot of accessories that we’re going to part with. Once I figure out exactly what we’ll no longer need, I’ll share what I’m selling on Instagram Stories so stay tuned there if you’re local to Connecticut and may be interested in anything!
Any other questions? Send them my way!
XOXO,
