Our Big Announcement//And Where We Are Headed
It’s finally here! Revealing our big announcement! Some of you who know us personally, probably already guessed what our big news is. But for those of you who don’t know our story, read on!
WE ARE MOVING!! (Again 😅I have officially sworn off custom address stamps!) We have decided to sell our Creekshore Dr home of the last 3 years, and buy a new home for our family just a few miles away. In 2015, while I was actually in active labor with our second daughter & living with my in-laws, we bought our second home but our first fixer upper. Three years later, in 2018, we sold that home for a good bit more than we originally bought it for! And because we were in the home longer than 2 years, we avoided capital gains tax, meaning we were not taxed on our profit on the home. As you can imagine, we were hooked! We found another home in the next county over and did it all over again! Lived with Justin’s parents, did a complete (much more involved!) renovation inside and out, and now it’s officially for sale!
Before
After
Every time we buy a house, people ask us, “Are you going to stay in this one long term?” or “Will this be the one your kids grow up in?” and honestly, we can’t answer those questions with 100% certainty. We always approach a house purchase with a few things in mind:
Is there room for our family to be here long term, or could we make the room?
And, Is it located in a location that has a resale ceiling that can handle renovations/additions without pricing ourselves out of the neighborhood. (Could we make money)
If we can answer yes to both of those questions, then we can make the house a home for us. Our “home” is Me, Justin, our three kids and our sweet dog, and wherever we are is what makes a home. As our kids get older and are in school and making friends, we will make them a part of these decisions. They told us they wanted to stay at their same school, so we tried to find a home in a very small section zoned for their school in our county. When we lost out on a few other homes on the market, I decided to go a different route. Justin thought I was crazy at first, but he trusted me. So I made up about 25 flyers with our family photos, a little note about us and why we were trying to find another home, and asked the homeowners of each mailbox we placed them in if they would consider selling their home to us. We got one phone call from our flyer, and that one stuck. Creativity takes courage, my friends!
The thing is, buying, renovating and selling is just a way of life for us. We may not always do it, and the next house may be a “long term” house for us, but we will always choose to try to set ourselves up for success should we decide to sell again. We know this is an “unconventional” way of living life, but it’s our story.
Before
After
If you haven’t noticed, Justin and I are both dreamers, though in very different fields! Justin works in the bass fishing industry and also fishes tournaments at a high level. It is part of the core of who he is. If you’ve met him, you know there is no denying his love and passion for the sport! I admire his drive and perseverance in a sport that will truly chew you up and spit you out. And because fishing is a part of his story, it is also a part of mine. We vowed to support each other and cheer each other on to chase our dreams. And last fall, Justin came one giant leap closer to his. He won a huge All-American tournament as a co-angler! He could have taken his winnings and chased his dream of going on the pro circuit, but instead, he chose to support me in mine.
That is when the conversation started about buying our next home. We started brainstorming on what that would look like for us and how we could grow the business. This all sparked the decision to start Along and Well, branch out into marketing avenues, and the decision to take you all along the journey with us on our next home. Before now, our homes haven’t really been a public part of my business, but this time, we are going to approach it a bit differently. We have decided to take the next house on one project at a time, documenting, blogging and posting along the way. We hope this will be an avenue for inspiration for many, a platform for “lessons learned”, the do’s and don’ts of home renovations and “how to’s” on anything home. And you will be the first to find out when/if we decide to sell and do it again!
The next Kimmel Home!
And who knows, maybe one day we will combine our passions and venture into “Fishing and Flipping” 😉
We fished a tournament together once!
Thank you all for following along, and your continued support through our personal and business lives. I will still be continuing full steam ahead with work and projects for my clients, just with a little more personal home life thrown in. We can’t wait to share more with you guys!