We’re Moving!

Post Update: For safety reasons, we’ve removed this photo of our home for the time being. We’ve gotten some emails from some of you well wishers {and some creepers} stating that they know where we live now. So, I’ve taken the photo down and replaced it with this one of Eddie. Eventually I’ll be sharing more details, but for the time being this will have to do. Sorry!

That’s right, you crazy kids! Come summer, the Brennan Family will be MOVING to….wait for it….Boise, Idaho!

We’ve had to explain our reasons behind this move to lots of people who don’t understand the whys so hopefully this will give you a little insight as to WHY we are heading to Idaho of all places.

Why are you moving?

We have quite a few reasons why we felt this was the right decision for our family. The main reason was actually because of this wee little blog that has blossomed and grown into our full time jobs! Paying for this blog in a state that is really unkind {tax-wise} to small businesses was our biggest reason. We’ve done everything we could to maximize our deductions personally and for a small business with the help of our accountant. Though that has helped, this last tax season really was the last straw to break the camel’s back. Comparing how much we pay in Oregon to the four other states we were thinking of moving to, it was literally painful to do a few quick calculations to see how much money we could have saved if we lived there instead of here. We’re talking thousands, people. Do you know how many outfits I could buy with that?

Another big reason to move was to get all the sweat equity out of our small 1400 square foot home that we’ve put into it over the last 3+ years of living here. With the housing market going CRAZY in Portland, we’d be foolish not to. Crunching a few numbers and selling our house meant that we could pay off ALL of our debts, get my husband a newer car {he was driving a janky, rusty old honda!} and have more money in the bank for retirement and stock up our emergency fund. Another pragmatic reason to leave.

I suppose another reason could be it just felt right. We love Oregon and it kills us to leave some of our wonderful friends that we’ve made here, but we felt it was time to move on, get a bigger home {one that we wouldn’t have to move out of for a long long time} and make the switch now, before Brooke got older, into those higher school grades.

How did you pick Idaho?

Well, there were a few states on our list like Washington, Arizona and Wyoming to name a few. But at the end of the day, Gordon is still in the Oregon National Guard. And the kicker in this plan is he wants to STAY with the Oregon National Guard. So, wherever we’d end up moving to, he’d have to travel back to Oregon once a month. Washington was super close, but still too expensive for our taste. Wyoming was too far, even though it’s beautiful there and has the low-key lifestyle we like. Arizona was initially our top pick because we have family there and taxes are low. But at the end of the day, we wouldn’t be saving very much money month to month with all his travel expenses to get to his drill. So, Idaho was our choice and we have felt nothing but peace about our new adventures that await in Boise. We seriously cannot wait!

A few more details

So, remember this Instagram photo I posted way back in March during Spring Break? Yeah. We were in Boise looking for houses to buy! So sneaky, we are 🙂 Our house was already on the market.

We were in Boise for three days and within that time received 17 offers on our home and found our {enormous} dream house. We drove home on a Wednesday afternoon and had to stop at a McDonalds {the only place around with free wifi…haha!!} to e-sign the papers to sell our home AND the papers to buy our new home, pictured above!

Since then, there have been no problems, no hiccups, no nothing to make us question this decision. We have felt God lead us through this whole process since we first started in January and I have complete faith that this is the exact right home, the exact right city and the exact right place our family needs to be and that is a comforting thing to have.

Details on the new house

Here comes all the fun stuff! See that house in that picture? That’s OUR NEW HOUSE! I still can’t believe it. We closed on it and everything, so it’s all ours!

Out of the 17 homes we toured over 2 days {yawn}, this was the very last one to see and both Gordon and I fell in love. It’s a brand new home and only required minor tweaks, though Gordon is hesitant to do anything to it! If we were to build our dream home, this would be it. It has a lot of the smaller features that both Gordon and I would have wanted had we built a home from the ground up. That was what sold us on this property.

It is just over 3200 square feet and has 5 bedrooms, a 3-car garage, 2 offices, a playroom, a big backyard, wide hallways, a beautiful kitchen {duh!}, a gorgeous master bathroom, a large walk-in closet and a partridge in a pear tree. It seems obnoxiously big for our family, especially since its more than double the size of our starter home, but once our children start getting older, I feel we will grow into it nicely.

I’ll be posting more photos once we are actually moved in and I’m there every day, but for the time being that one, low-quality photo I took with my phone will have to do.

So, that’s our exciting news for the day 🙂 We could not be more grateful/excited/thrilled/tired/thankful/all the feelings for our new adventure that awaits.