Today is a bittersweet day. It marks the end of one chapter in our lives and the beginning of a new one. We are leaving our home, moving on, and while we know this is the right move for our family, there is a part of my heart that is a tiny bit broken.

It’s just a house, you might think. But for us, this house truly was a dream come true. When we got married, due to some financial situations that were completely out of our control, we weren’t sure if we would be able to buy a home. Thanks to my parents’ assistance, we were able to build and buy our first “owned” home, a rambler style town home. While we loved that house, and even brought both of our babies home there, because of the circumstances around buying it, it never truly felt like OURS. Especially to Adam.

After many ups and downs in business, careers, the real estate market, and our personal lives, in 2012, we were finally able to make the decision to move on and build the home we had always talked about building. It truly felt God-ordained, with the way the sale of our house went, to the pricing we were able to get on the lot and the new build, to how seamless the entire process was.

And this house has always been OURS. Adam worked VERY hard in his career, and we were finally able to purchase what felt like our first “grown up” house. We have truly LOVED this home. But when we built it six years ago, Adam worked for a different company much closer to us and our children weren’t in school yet. Now we send them to a school we are madly in love with that is twenty minutes from us, and Adam’s commute is an hour one way on a good day. We’ve been talking for a couple of years now about if this house still makes sense for our family, and the bottom line is, as much as we are sad about leaving our home (and our fabulous neighbors!!!), the location just doesn’t work for us anymore.

In honor of leaving our home, I’ve posting my first ever “whole house tour.” You will see from the photos that some rooms are fully decorated and very “me,” and some I never quite got around to tackling. Many of the photos are not even remotely blog-worthy, and my style has evolved a lot since we first moved in, which isn’t necessarily reflected in all of the rooms. But I want to remember all of it! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. 🙂

Have you ever left a home you loved? If so, what was the reason that finally made you do it? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below!