For years, my husband and I had always talked about how someday we wanted to live in the country. We imagined acreage, room for our kids to run around outside, and a slower-paced lifestyle surrounded by nature — but we honestly thought that dream was probably 10 years away.

Around that same time, my mom was getting closer to retirement and knew she wanted to move back closer to family so she could be near her grandkids. Since she was living out of state while working, we spent over a year casually house hunting for her together. We would send each other Zillow listings, go to open houses, and dream about what kind of property would be perfect for this next stage of life.

Eventually, with the help of our good friend Jake, who was also her real estate agent, she found an incredible property on acreage that she absolutely fell in love with.

Funny enough, that’s what changed everything for us.

Seeing her settle into country life in that area started making us wonder if maybe our “someday” dream didn’t actually have to be so far away after all. We started casually looking at houses nearby “just for fun,” never really thinking anything would come from it.

The House We Couldn’t Stop Thinking About

One day, my husband came across a house on acreage that immediately caught our attention. At the time, it was listed way over our budget. We remember joking about how amazing it would be to live somewhere like that “someday.”

There was something interesting about the listing. While the property itself was beautiful, the listing photos didn’t fully capture just how special the house and property were in person. I think that may have played a role in why it stayed on the market longer than expected.

Over time, we watched the price slowly drop lower and lower. Eventually the house went pending, and we assumed another family had bought it. We were disappointed, but figured it simply wasn’t meant to be.

Then months later, the listing suddenly came back on the market again.

At that point, the price had dropped significantly, and for the first time ever, it felt maybe slightly within reach. I remember asking our friend Jake — who was also our realtor — if we should even go look at it because I was honestly nervous we’d completely fall in love with it.

Spoiler alert: we absolutely did.

Another Reason We Desperately Wanted This House

One of the craziest parts about this whole story is how close we ended up to my mom’s house. Out of all the places we could have landed, we ended up just minutes away from Grandma. It still feels surreal that our kids get to grow up so close to her. That alone made this property feel even more special to us.

When we pictured our kids growing up here, we immediately imagined spontaneous visits, family dinners, holidays, and the kind of everyday memories that happen when family lives close by. It wasn’t just the house or the land that made us fall in love with it — it was the life we could picture here together.

Selling Our House to Buy This One

Once our contingent offer was accepted, reality hit us very quickly.

In our offer, we had promised to get our current house listed within two weeks, which suddenly meant we had to completely shift into packing and survival mode almost overnight. After living in our previous home for five years with two little kids, three dogs, and another baby on the way, we had accumulated a LOT of life.

We spent those next couple weeks decluttering, packing boxes, cleaning nonstop, and putting things into storage while I was heavily pregnant with our son. It was exhausting, emotional, and honestly pretty overwhelming at times.

Thankfully, my mom had already purchased her property nearby and wasn’t living there full-time yet, so we were able to temporarily move into her house while preparing our home to sell. Looking back, that was such a gift because it allowed us to keep our house clean, staged, and ready for showings at any moment — which is not easy with little kids and dogs.

When our home officially hit the market, we immediately received an amazing offer over asking price, and we thought everything was falling perfectly into place.

But then the deal unexpectedly fell apart.

Without getting into every detail, the buyers ultimately backed out, and suddenly we found ourselves scrambling. Our contingency deadline for the dream home was getting closer, summer was approaching, and we were completely panicking wondering if we were about to lose the house.

At one point, we actually drove by the property and ended up meeting the owner of the home completely by chance. She was incredibly kind, and we instantly connected with her. She knew how much we loved the property and how badly we wanted to raise our family there.

Thankfully, she graciously agreed to extend our contingency deadline for another week, which honestly felt like the miracle we needed at the time.

Shortly afterward, we found the sweetest buyers for our previous home, and everything finally started falling into place. To this day, we’re still connected on Facebook, and it’s honestly really special seeing their family making memories in the home where our girls spent their baby years.

Finally Moving Into Our Dream Home

One thing we will always feel incredibly grateful for is how patient and kind the previous owner of this home was throughout the entire process. This house was clearly very special to her and her family. Her husband had built the home, and you can truly feel how much thought, care, and intention went into every part of it — especially the layout, which we completely fell in love with.

We instantly felt connected to the home, but also deeply appreciative of the people who created it before us. I honestly don’t think we would be here without her willingness to work with us and hang in there while we figured everything out financially.

We officially moved into the house when I was eight months pregnant with our son, which honestly feels a little crazy looking back now. Between unpacking, painting, and trying to make the home feel like ours before bringing home a newborn, those first few months were definitely chaotic.

Over time, we slowly started making the home our own. One of our biggest projects was finishing the unfinished daylight basement, which ended up becoming such a meaningful addition to our home. My father-in-law now lives downstairs in his own space with a private entrance, large bedroom, beautiful bathroom, and a partial kitchen.

One of my favorite little memories from that renovation was getting to help design the bathroom downstairs. I always joke with my father-in-law that he has the fanciest bathroom in the entire house.

More than anything though, this home has become such a gift to our family because it allows us to stay incredibly connected to the people we love most. Not only do our kids get to grow up surrounded by nature, space, camping, fishing, and outdoor adventures, but we’re also able to live just minutes from my mom. Technically, we could almost hike between our properties.

This home has created the kind of family life we always dreamed about — backyard movie nights, big family dinners, outdoor adventures, and enough space for multiple generations to stay close.

One of our favorite traditions has become movie nights on our deck. We hang a sheet on the side of our house, set up a projector, and spend the evening watching movies under the stars with family and friends.

If you’d like to see how we set ours up, you can check out our movie nights on the deck post here.

The Perfect Time to Come Home

As if this story wasn’t already emotional enough, there was one more piece that made it even more special.

We moved into our dream home less than two months before our son was born.

At the time, it felt a little crazy. We were unpacking boxes, painting rooms, and trying to prepare for a new baby all at the same time. Nearly every room on the main floor needed paint, including the living room, entryway, and our bedroom.

The biggest challenge was our living room with its soaring vaulted ceilings. I still remember watching my husband balance high on a ladder trying to reach every corner while I stood below as a very pregnant and very nervous observer. Thankfully, he finished every last room before the baby arrived.

About six weeks after we moved in, we brought our son home from the hospital to the house we had dreamed about for years.

Looking back now, I can’t imagine bringing him home anywhere else.

If you’d like to see the nursery we created while preparing for his arrival, you can take a peek at his nursery here.

It’s honestly crazy for us to think about where we were almost a decade ago compared to where we are now. Back then, taking the leap to go to nursing school felt terrifying and uncertain, but looking back now, it completely changed the trajectory of our lives and ultimately helped make this dream possible for our family.

If you want to read more about that season of life, I shared more of our nursing school journey here.

Want to See What We’ve Changed?

When we moved into this house, we loved it exactly as it was, but we’ve slowly started making it our own. One of our favorite projects so far has been our bathroom remodel. If you’d like to see how we’ve updated our home, check out our Bathroom Remodel post.

At least a couple times a week, my husband and I still look at each other and say, “I can’t believe this is our home.”

And honestly, after everything it took to get here, neither can I.