Nesting at Midlife
This is our story of picking up our family and moving back to our college town, near friends and family. The good, the bad, and the soon to be beautiful. Walk with us as we remodel our mid-century ranch and turn it into our dream home!
We picked up and moved right in the middle of Midlife back to the town where it all began...
This is my fourth and hopefully final time moving to what is now one of the most popular relocation spots in the nation. From college to family and now midlife, Murfreesboro has always felt like home. In 2022 we sold our home in Davidson County and found a dreamy mid-century ranch in an idyllic neighborhood right in the heart of town and within walking distance to the University that brought us here many years ago.
For a deeper look into what brought us back here and making a move in midlife despite how crazy it seems, scroll down for a more in depth post. It was exciting, messy, painful and beautiful all at once. But, here we are!
With this move we are embarking on a long term renovation project. We began with the heart of the home - the Kitchen. It's been fun and painful all at once. Gosh, we (I) have made a lot of mistakes. This is my blog about walking through this process. Witch warts and all.
Meet the Family who suffers through my shenanigans:
At this point you know me. The hot guy in the far left is my brainy hubby of 22 years. The other handsome guy is our 21 year old son, news junkie and college student soon to be archeologist. Proud Mama moments: he's an Eagle Scout, rowed for 3 years in high school, played in an orchestra for 8 years, has had multiple internships with his professors and works at a restaurant all while maintaining his college scholarship. The gorgeous girl is our 16 year old daughter. She's the life of the party and keeps us laughing. Proud Mama moments: she trained in traditional Chinese dance for 5 years, plays tennis year-round, has been in a choir for 9 years, is competing in HOSA at her high school, is on the Student Council, is pursuing lifeguard certification and just joined the Color Guard club to begin training for the 2023 Color Guard/Band season.
Meet the Family
How We Got Here
My father died in 2017 leaving me parentless and wandering. I was 45 years old and once the dust settled from his care, dealing with the estate and a lifetime of memories, attempting to deal with my overwhelming grief, I looked around at what was working and what was not. Unfortunately, the "nots" outweighed it all. Months had gone by during the process of losing my father. At that point I began telling my husband that our lives had to change. Our daughter was in a nightmare situation with her school and high level incompetence that created a situation where her entire class permanently left. Our son was seemingly thriving on the outside but not on the inside as he watched the trauma unfold. Our marriage was struggling and to be honest, we were all simply unhappy. I woke up each day wondering why we lived so far from family, how things had gotten so off track and why our life was so difficult.
I knew things needed to change for our survival.
Then. Covid.
According to the USPS data, nearly 16 MILLION people moved during 2020. That trend has continued and now the dust is finally beginning to settle. For many, it was as many have said "a great reset". Suddenly our daily commutes became a distant memory. My desire to be anywhere besides where we were had been festering for a couple of years. In 2020, we began to dig deep and have a better understanding of what was occurring for our family. Despite Covid, the cogs had begun turning and propelling us toward this move. Scroll down to see the ins and outs of the renovation and keeping our heads up while we live through it.
