60. Surprise! We're Moving!

Brittany : Hi friends. Welcome to the Life with Loverly podcast. I'm Brittany, a wife, mom, and lifestyle entrepreneur here to help you discover your best daily style and encourage you to try new things when getting dressed each day, I took a tiny following on social media and turned it into a community of over 1 million amazing women, and I am so glad you're here. I'll be sharing my heart with you beyond the 15 seconds on Instagram. So we'll be diving into things like personal growth, friendships, motherhood, marriage, and of course the business of blogging. Really, this space is here to serve as your go-to resource to building a life you adore while sprinkling some kindness to others along the way. Grab an iced coffee and let's do life together. I'm Brittany, and this is The Life with Loverly podcast.

Brittany: Hi friends. Welcome back to today's episode of Life with Loverly. Today is the day where I'm finally going to share the secret that we've been keeping!!

Nichelle: Geez, Louise finally

Brittany : Feels like it's been almost two years in the making.

Nichelle: I feel like it started really, if you think about it, three years ago, and I know you're going to probably tell the story, but when you moved to Athens.

Brittany : Yeah.

Nichelle: I mean really.

Brittany : Yeah, so we lived in Atlanta and then we had Collins. I'm for those of you new to the podcast, I am originally from Athens, Georgia, which is where we currently live. But after college I moved to Atlanta, lived in Atlanta, met Chris, we lived in Alpharetta, Roswell area, and had Collins After we had her, we were like, we actually really want to get closer to family. All my family still lives here, so we, it was such weird times when we were moving to Athens because we listed our house for sale in Alpharetta the week before the world shut down, which was that ideal time. And at that point we were under contract with on a house in Athens contingent on the sale of our current house. And thankfully the owners of the house were so amazing and they were building, and so they were planning to move to a rental.

So they were super flexible with the moving time, but we were kind of trying to get to Athens because I was pregnant with Hazel when we ended up moving. I had her two weeks later. So it was just wild times. But when we moved, we were very specific on a one mile radius of where we wanted to live in Athens, and it was very close to my parents. And so there really weren't a lot of options. However, the house that we found and that we're currently in has been everything that we needed. It was truly a God thing that got this house, and it is so amazing. I've loved it, but it's just not exactly what we need.

Nichelle: Well, and you got here to get here

Brittany : We came here with the knowing this was not going to be our forever home and knowing that it was a great fit for our family right now, but that we were eventually going to want a bigger yard or there was just some key things that we needed, which I think is also one of the reasons that the family who lived there before us moved out. Because they got to the point where they were like, we need some of these other things. So we are moving, which is so exciting! We're actually in the process of building right now. It's kind of a long and crazy story.

Nichelle: Well give them the short version because I think it's hilarious and amazing how it all worked out.

Brittany : So when, another great part of moving to Athens and the part of Athens that we moved into was we were in walking distance from my best friend and her family. So they lived all within a mile. My parents lived, and then my best friend Shae and her family lived and then we lived. And so we would always meet up for on Saturday mornings with our kids in the stroller, walk and grab coffee, just walk all around, be back and forth between each other's houses all the time. So having moving to Athens and then having your best friend live right close by was amazing. So we had been living in Athens for, I guess it was a year they came to us and they were like, Hey, so we are actually going to put our house for sale. We found this lot in a neighborhood that we really want to get into, and so we're going to be moving.

And we were kind of like, oh, bummer. They had also just recently redone their house, and I do have plans to have Shae on the podcast and share her side of this story too in future weeks. So that is coming. But we were sort of like, well, I guess we got to move too, kind of joking, but also knowing what our backstory was in that there were just some things that our house didn't have that would be better for our family or be better for our business, which, you know what I mean, both Chris and I work in the Loverly Grey world, and there's just some things that if we had the ability to work from home and it really makes sense, how could we do that in a future home? So we loosely started just being like, okay, well they're moving great, love y'all enjoy.

And the neighborhood they were moving into, they bought the last lot in the neighborhood. So there was no even option for us to get in there and potentially build or move or be close to them. So we just started loosely looking for what could this look like for us? Where do we want our kids to go to school? Started having these conversations because our kids are getting to be that age. We got word that there was somebody in the same neighborhood as they are that had a lot and was going to be potentially moving to another house in the neighborhood. And so we were just kind of like, Hey, if anything comes up, I feel like all of the neighbors kind of knew we were also potentially looking.

Nichelle: There's a lot of talk about that, so-and-so

Brittany : Literally Chris would be on the golf course and I'd be like, don't forget to mention if they know this person and they want to sell, let us know. Seriously. So somebody in the neighborhood ended up moving out of the neighborhood and the people that owned a lot ended up buying that house. And

Nichelle: This was the second to, I mean, this was the only other lot. Yes. Because everything else had been built on.

Brittany : Yes. All of the other houses had actual homes already existing. Shea got the one lot, there was another lot that somebody was about to start building. They had already finalized all their plans with their architect. Everything was good to go. Well, then they ended up moving into this other house, so then the lot was available. So then Chris and I were like, if you don't have plans to sell your lot to anybody else, go, we'll buy it. And so we bought this lot in December of 22, I think it was. Yes. No, December of 21. Yes, yes.

Nichelle: Okay.

Brittany : So we were just like, well, we're not in a rush. Let's just really figure out what we're going to do. It felt good to have a base. Meanwhile, Shea is getting, getting their plans, and they're hopefully going to start building their house soon and all of that. So we start working with an architect and start coming up with everything that we're looking for. And this gets us into last summer. So summer of 22 is when we're kind of in the middle. We hadn't finalized our plans yet, but

Nichelle: It was getting really close.

Brittany : Yeah. We were like, okay. And it was kind of interesting because building a house is, I mean, it's hard. It's a lot. And there's, you can make a list of here's all of the wishlist, but you start putting that all in a house and it's like, okay, that's not possible. Or we need to give something because building costs were kind of high, you know? I mean, there was so many factors that I was like, okay, well what do we maybe want to take off this list? What is most important to keep on it? So we're going back and forth, and then the most exciting thing happened, and the house that is literally next door to Shea, those people were going to be moving and their house was going to become available. And I heard through the grapevine, literally, I don't even know how I found this out so early on in their process of thinking about it. And I feel like I had a little bit of skin in the game because we already owned a piece of property in the neighborhood. So I was kind of like, man, this house is already existing. And it had a lot of our wishlist items and it was on such a better piece of property.

Nichelle: I was going to say the pluses, there were so many more things that were going to be capable.

Brittany : And then not to mention literally being next door to my best friend, which is we are still, this is going to be so crazy when we can just walk out our driveway or into the fringe entrance on her side. I mean, it's crazy. So we end up going to look at it taking our builder who was working on building, working with our architect on our current plans, taking him to this house to be like, there's a few things we want to shift around and do. Is it possible? And then we put an offer in literally within a 24 hour period, it was because we knew if they put this house on the market, it would go,

Nichelle: Don't fret guys, because someone else heard that this might be going on. And they were ready to take the piece of property up front.

Brittany : So it was just so wild. So we ended up selling our lot that we had to another family. And so since last August is when we closed on the house, we've been doing renovation on, it kind of needed some updating. It wasn't necessarily my style, but again, the piece of property was just something we could not pass up. There were a few things about our previous plans that were super unique to my needs and my job that we needed to make happen in this house, but that had the perfect footprint for a lot of this. We are in the middle right now. I think we've still, we've got about seven months to go with just all of what is happening and all the changes that we're kind of making. And it's going to look like a completely different house. I think once it's all said and done, it's a wild ride. I mean, you're pretty invested in it with me just because as my right hand, she's been very involved in some of the design meetings and going on site and walking through things and thinking through things like, okay, but how is this really going to work for the business? We need to create a space that has a lot of good natural light for shooting content in your office. There's so many things I feel like, oh yeah, you've been involved in too.

Nichelle: Yeah. It's so fun to see everything literally fall into place though.

Brittany : Yeah, that's the wild thing, knowing that we're going to be so close to our best friends

Nichelle: Your families are going to grow up together. The kids are so close already.

Brittany : So much about that is just makes me so happy. And it's like if I would've looked back in 2021 when they were, we're moving, there's no way we could have set this situation up because it took a lot of moving parts to even get it to happen, which is why I feel like it's such a wild story. So once we actually move in and they are almost finished their house, so they will be moving in really soon. And I was telling her the other day, I was like, I think I'm going to have so much FOMO in between the time you live here and the time until we move in. I'm like, cannot wait. We've, we're working with a design team in Atlanta, Truth and Co, who has been amazing helping us just with selections of all of the things,

Nichelle: Every detail you never knew building would entail.

Brittany : I mean, for those of you guys who have built houses in the past and do this all yourselves, it is amazing. Honestly, kudos because it takes so much.

Nichelle: It's overwhelming.

Brittany : So overwhelming. My parents have built houses in the past. Whenever we moved, it was because we moved into a different house and they just were very particular and we just moved. Not often. I think I only moved two times with them growing up, but I just remember the building process being so specific and so long, but you kind of have to make a decision quickly on certain things. And especially now with the way things change,

Nichelle: Sellout, I mean everything.

Brittany : So they've been incredibly helpful with that process and has really taken a weight off of my shoulder to just be able to focus on other things that I need to be focusing on.

Nichelle: And the builders, contractors. I'm like words. They are the same ones that did the office. And so you're in good hands.

Brittany : Yes, they are. We had an amazing experience with them building out our office space. And even before we started this project, we were working with them to build on the lot. And so then when we were actually, we have this commercial space, can you guys help us here? And so it was really nice to finish this project with them knowing yes, the caliber of work that they do and then having that same experience. I mean, we're in the middle of it right now, but it's just so excited. The kids are so pumped. Where we live now, we just don't have a lot of outside space, and so we do have more yard and just more space there.

Nichelle: So excited to see them experience it daily. I know they get so excited whenever they go over there now, just checking it out. But yeah, once everything's finished, it'll be their space.

Brittany : I'm just, sometimes I'm like pinch me. All of this hard work that I've literally been doing for years with this business is going into something that we're going to be able to have and look back on just like, this is what I'm working so hard for my family and this, and I'm just excited. I can't wait to have Shae on the podcast in a few weeks to talk about her building experience because they're almost done. They're going to be moving in two weeks. So I thought it would be kind of helpful for her to come on and talk about her process and what being in the house, what she's wished she would've done differently. But I feel like there's obviously so many people who have built houses in the past and people have so much good tips on what to do or make sure you have an outlet here.

So definitely stay tuned to Instagram because I think even on Loverly Grey, once this information goes over there, you guys are hearing it first. Yeah. I really want to make this a community. And for those of y'all who have built before, share your tips and tricks. For those of y'all who are going to be building, we will share, this is where you should put outlets or don't forget to do X, Y, Z or this paint color works really great if you have a shaded area or whatever. I feel like there's just like so much good information out there that I want to be able to have some of those conversations, but it's been a fun little secret to keep, but now it's out and I can't wait to take you guys along for some of the ride and the process and show y'all some behind the scenes. And we've got some good before and after photos that we'll be able to show. Cause it's literally changing. The footprint is becoming different out inside of the walls. It's going to be great. So a few months we'll be moving what we're really close to where we currently live, so we're not moving out of the city or anything like that.

Nichelle: Right. Yeah, you've definitely inspired me to start looking.

Brittany : I know you come on over here. I feel like...

Nichelle: That's the next thing. Yeah, it's already on the goal list. Thanks, Robert.

Brittany : I know, right? Sorry about that, Robert. No, Athens area is amazing. Yeah, I feel like I'm influencing you to come on. Come on over.

Nichelle: I'll take it. Give me some land out here. Come on.

Brittany : Anyway, we love you guys and I'm happy to share this news. Make sure you're following along on Instagram because I know we'll be sharing some more behind the scenes and pictures and tips and just different things as we get heavy into the process over these next few months. It'll be fun!

Brittany: Hi friend! If you're loving the show, will you go find that follow button on your podcast app? This will ensure that you won't miss a single episode. I love having you in this community. Until next time, this season of Life with Loverly is produced by Elizabeth Evans Media Productions.