More About Our Next Move...
Okay, it's time to fill you in on the details of our next move. We shared about the move briefly in this post. This is our 4th property in 4 years....so I know most of you can't really be that surprised. Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?
This was our very first home as a married couple. We built it while engaged and moved in on our wedding day! We knew so little about the industry back then. I was certainly still figuring our my "style." Looking back, I see how much my personal style has changed! Regardless, it was a great home, and we created many special, newlywed memories there. The home was 2000 square feet, in Hudsonville (country living....we had cows and buffalo in the backyard!). We followed that experience with one year in this condo in East Grand Rapids overlooking Reeds Lake. This fixer upper was in our DREAM location (we joke that we will retire in these condos one day). Living on Reeds was lovely. We were incredibly active and social living there, taking full advantage of the neighboring amenities. Over all, it was a great investment, a successful flip. It lead us to our current home, which we found "by accident" (see this post) and quickly fell in love with the mid century architecture and large, wooded double-lot.
So, what did you buy?
Are you ready to watch us tackle #tinyliving? In the spirit of minimalism, we are moving back to the condo life! And a SMALL condo at that. Apparently, there is some controversy regarding what constitutes a tiny house. I've done my research. Most tiny living enthusiasts (and rather passionate ones at that) say that anything 250-500 square feet is considered a "tiny house," whereas; 800-1000 square feet is considered a "small house".... We are moving into just over 700 square feet...I suppose that leaves us in the middle of "tiny" and "small!"
Why so small??
SIMPLICITY. With running our own business, along with plenty of other endeavors (school, jobs, flips, etc.), we crave the simplicity of condo living. We often work 60-70 hour weeks, so mowing the lawn, raking leaves, and plowing snow can feel tedious! Right now, our house is simply too big for us. Many of the rooms, and most of the closets, don't get used at all!
TIME. Beyond house vs. condo, we look forward to maintaining the interior of a small home. Cleaning one bathroom, one small kitchen, and one bedroom sounds like a dream. Honestly, we are SO EXCITED to gain precious time!
MINIMALISM. You know this is a passion of ours. This is going to force us to reach an intense new level of minimal living. We are getting rid of nearly everything to make this work! (After already getting rid of 80% of our belongings just a year or so ago!)
COST. Being so small, and in need of a major renovation, we got a great deal, and are able to live with lower monthly costs. Which leads us to our next points...
DEBT FREE! We were in $250,000+ of debt when we got married (student loans, cars, first house) just over three years ago. This move enables us to live debt free. Further, this coincides with our focus on minimalism, our love for travel, and our desire to invest more into our business. We are so grateful to reach this milestone, after many, years of painful payments.
EDUCATION. Ty is back in school attending Harvard Business School; and I am finishing a marketing degree at Michigan. We all know tuition is $$$; this will allow us to prioritize furthering our education.
FREEDOM. Most of all, we are embarking on this move to create freedom. With freedom comes "options." Living in this tiny home will provide a bevy of open doors.
What do you mean by options?
Decreasing our monthly expenses will enable us to pursue other ventures. We've been looking at investing in Airbnb's out of state for the past year. We have honed in on a specific area, and would love to procure a cute little property by the beach. It's actually one of our long term dreams to own, renovate, and manage Airbnbs in all of our favorite locales!
Maybe we will begin looking for a flip...that we don't have to live in! We've been wanting to tackle our own flip that is not our primary residence!
Maybe we will save all our money and build a new house in our ideal location in a couple of years?
Maybe we will become hippies and quit our jobs to live off the land? Just kidding....but we COULD! That's what this is about - freedom to change, try something new, move, stay, go wherever God leads us.
Maybe we will take a gap year and travel the world? Also unlikely (our cross-country summer road trip taught us that we have limits...and the length of that trip was it!), but you never know!
Maybe we are working on writing a book together about unconventional living.....??????
What about kids?
We would like to have a family someday. Of course, we considered this when deciding to leave our perfectly suburban family-friendly home in a leading school disctrcit to buy a one bedroom condo in the city. We have decided that we could live in the one bedroom condo with a baby. That would give us approximately 2 years (including nine months of pregnancy) to find a new home and coordinate a move. Considering that we have moved once every year for 4 years, we are not concerned about having to make a move in a short amount of time!
How long will you live there?
Who knows! It's taken until the 4th move to learn that we have no idea! Ha. Cast your bets now.
Have you sold your house?
We have not listed it yet! We would like to time it out so that we do not have to live in the condo until it is finished!
When are you moving?
We hope to move in November or December.
What about all of your furnishings?
We are selling E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G! Hit us up on facebook marketplace or our instagram @TyandHannahSellThings. Our minimalism is your treasure!
We are SO EXCITED to try out this life, but we also realize that it is not without sacrifice. There will definitely be times that we miss our Ada home. We will miss the space, the storage, the windows, office, guest bedroom, garage, etc. We are prepared to experience some discomfort, yet are excited to give it a try!
Ty and I have learned a lot about living intentionally this year, regardless of what is "conventional." We are embracing an unconventional life. We've learned about the subjectivity of the words 'Standard of living." Just because someone makes a certain income, doesn't mean they need to live a certain lifestyle. Someone, at one time, decided that we all need bigger, better houses, and we all agreed! We've decided that at this time in our lives, we don't want that. We want experiences, simplicity, time together, and freedom.
In the spirit of objectivity, we considered friends of ours who lived in NYC in a 650 square foot apartment. He and his wife were both esteemed, well educated individuals with successful careers. Because of the average size of homes in NYC, this way of living is status quo in that locale, no matter one's salary. Likewise, my sister-in-law in NYC was telling us about a well-to-do couple they know with two kids, who lived in a small one bedroom apartment near them. That's just the way it is in big, expensive cities. Why do we assume that we have to live in a large home just because we reside in a city with a relatively low cost of living? Millions of people all over the world are living in small homes. Why not us, too?
We are excited, overwhelmed, nervous, and have a lot of hours to log on Facebook marketplace downsizing our things! Stay tuned as we renovate our little place, and share how we like small living!
WOW THIS WAS LONG. Definitely my most lengthy (and personal) blog post ever. We are passionate about "intentional living," embarking on a quest to create our best life (okay, I am beginning to sounds like a self help book!), and we want to share it. So, expect transparency as we document this deliberate, debt free experiement. Tour of the new place coming soon! Thanks for following along!
HJJ