Moving

 We were not excited to do it. 

Nobody in our family wanted to move.

Just to write the title of this post is triggering for me.

 Lots of anger to dig up, and lots of shame and guilt for feeling angry.

Of course we were grateful to find a place to live in the same neighborhood as our beautful Whaley Avenue home in San Diego.

It was very awkward every time people asked how excited we were to be home owners again.

We simply were not very excited.

We loved our townhome on Whaley. 

We were in the canyon, surrounded by beautiful wildlife. Most of our neighbors were now our second family. The boys had beautiful spaces to play-- like the long driveway, fort TOD, Funderland grass area, the basketball hoop, the pool, woodchip heaven, all the trails, our tree swing. 

We loved renting. It gave us so much freedom!

Our landlord took really good care of us. No yard work. No worries when things broke. No manditory house projects to complete.

If it weren't for the housing market going ballistic, we would still be living at Whaley. 

But it went ballistic, and very quickly.

Meaning, the value of homes in our area skyrocketed.

Our landlord decided to sell the home to take advantage of the crazy market.

Suddenly, we had all kinds of difficult decisions to make--with a very short time to make them. 

In between baseball games and music lessons, we found ourselves shopping for rentals, taking tours of homes for sale, and trying to decide what to do.

To be completely honest, Jeremy and I were furious, absolutely beside ourselves about the whole situation. All our options were win-lose, screwing up all the stability we had worked really hard to establish when moving here 3 years ago and during Covid. Moving meant our career plans, early retirement plans, our kids education, friends and church callings were all on the chopping block to completely change.

It was so stressful. 

We prayed, we kept house hunting, we made tons of spreadsheets. We put offers on homes, which made us sick to our stomach knowing this was the most expensive city in the country to own a home, at the most expensive time in history for the housing market. 

It was absolutely crazy! 

We tried to buy the Whaley home, doing everything we could to make the home look less valuable than it was. But they wanted a lot more than we felt comfortable offering. 

All this taking place while I'm directing the school Variety Show, teaching at the school, teaching at home and being the children's president at church. Jeremy wasn't exactly free for time either. He was working fulltime, coaching his first season of baseball and serving in the high council at church.

When it was certain that we had to move, the boys were beside themselves. The thought of not being in fort TOD everyday with Owen brought on all sorts of grief.

We decided to try staying in the neighborhood. I wish we could say we felt 100% sure, but we weren't. We often felt sick about it because it meant our entire financial goals would be changed. But it made the most sense under the premise that I would be working at McKinley for at least 5 more years, and this would allow me to maintain my relationships with all of my private students I had worked so hard to gain, and I could continue to build my client base and have a dediacted space in the home to teach. 

Jeremy could keep biking to work, and the boys could keep attending McKinley without any disruption to their social life and school life. And we could stay in the same ward and continue developing the friendships that were budding with many friends there.

After 3 different homes that we thought we were going to buy, the 4th house we put an offer on was the one we got! I was so happy, because as we toured this home, I did feel a prompting that this was where Heavenly Father wanted us to be.

The Pentuckett Ave home was a brand new flip. 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a nice backyard and a big bonus room that we turned into the music studio. 

It cost 1.42 million dollars. 

Gulp.

Definitely not the million dollar home we dreamed of as kids.

But still a beautiful home that we were grateful for. And that's why the guilt was creeping in, because we were not thrilled to be there; we were not overjoyed the way many would expect us to be.

We closed and got the keys in the middle of May.

The Jacaranda trees all over town were in full bloom, marking yet again another big milestone change for our family.

We got rid of some furniture, packed and moved on June 4th,

marking our tender time in the beautiful Whaley home at exactly 3 years.

Our first two weeks in the new house was very rocky. We discovered missing pipes for the laundry hookups, after gallons of water had ruined the walls and flooring. Two of our bikes were stolen. And lots of details around the home proved that the flip was not done very well.

We tried to get more settled once school ended around June 14, but I had already committed myself to teaching 3 summer camps, and Jeremy's schedule was packed with coaching All Stars for baseball. So it wasn't until August, Sept and Oct that we started to feel like we were getting settled. 

We tried really hard to get permits to convert our garage into an ADU (additional dwelling unit) studio apartment. This could help pay for the mortgage. It was extremely disappointing to hit so much red tape with that, and even after a year of owning the home, we were at a standstill.  

But there is good news. Within the first few months, we managed to get the music room in good appeal and function by adding a folding wall to the rest of the house and insulating the room. As time went on, Jeremy painted the backyard fences, got solar panels, built a porch cover on the north side of the home, rented out our garage for storage space, and landscaped the front and side yard. 

Then more bad news. 

McKinley cut their music program in June of 2023. This was such a blow to me personally, and it added a big blow to us purchasing this home. My job there was one of the main reasons we stayed in the neighborhood, and now I was out $25,000 each year. Why would God help us feel good about moving here if I would not have my job within one year of living there?

During year 3, Jeremy managed to build a huge custom cupboard system on our back porch, took care of cleaning and insulating under the home (crawl space), painted the kitchen and is currently working on converting the front porch into some sort of office space.

  

Finally in the fall of 2024, I was able to let go of resentment and buyer's remorse, genuinely feeling that I love this home and I'm okay with the fact that we spent so much money on it.

Now, we are just 2 months shy of living here for 3 years, almost the same amount of time that we were in Whaley. Very crazy to think.

There are still things we miss about the Whaley home. Hearing the coyotes barking every few nights, hearing the red-tailed hawks on hot afternoons, seeing our boys play in the dirt and trees, teaching and chilling on the green strip, smelling the eucalyptus with the morning dew, saying hello to our dear friends everyday.

But here on Pentuckett, we have crickets that chirp and the days are longer because there's no canyon walls blocking the sunrise and sunset. We have awesome views of the sunsets and we can even see the ocean from the sidwalk. The boys don't have to ride up the big hill to get to school. The boys each have their own room, and I have tons of space for teaching in my own studio and the family has a lot more privacy while I teach. 

We still go down to Whaley occasionally for a swim or to play and visit, which has been awesome. And we have made new friends on Pentuckett, and I've been able to grow my student population to three times bigger than before, and do so much more during our lessons. 

We hope to own this home for a long, long time.