Picture this, a fish in a half filled tank, gently set inside of a leopard gecko’s cage. Yes, the leopard gecko is also inside the cage. OK, now what?! I’ll get back to this part, let’s rewind a year.
In 2018, we became more serious with the idea of moving out of state. Where? We weren’t sure, a lot of research came in to play. Best housing to income ratios, public school ratings, diversity, culture, and so much more. North Carolina continually popped up in the top 5, we then narrowed down our search to the Lake Norman area. Why? Well we love the lake life and in Utah, this was a weekend trip with lots of planning involved. We craved spontaneous trips to the lake where we get to come home, shower and sleep in our own beds!
Now we couldn’t just move to NC without experiencing it could we? Of course not! Especially when we’ve got two little ones in the mix. May 2018 we stayed in an Airbnb on the shore of Lake Norman. As soon as we exited the Charlotte airport, the smell of nature filled the air. Not to mention I could breathe without getting a bloody nose! In Utah the air is so dry, bloody noses were a regular occurrence for me. As you see, instantly we were falling in love with North Carolina.
When we got to the Airbnb on the Lake, we were greeted so graciously by the host, Diane. We often looked at one another in a bewilderment by how nice everyone seemed to be. Can people really be this welcoming, polite, and genuine? Oh I am telling you, they can. This might not be a surprise to you, but it was for us. OK, let’s sum this portion up shall we? We fell in love during our visit to the area. Now to return to Utah to prepare!
Our home in Utah was a Rambler, which is a ranch style home with a basement. It was built in the 1970’s and you could tell. The kitchen was a tight U shape and had a drop down ceiling with florescent lights. Not to mention the awkward layout, if you had the fridge open, no one could get through the kitchen! Alright, you get, the most important room in the house SUCKED! The living room was dark all the time, as most of the light came through the back windows and I won’t get too deep in to how outdated the bathrooms were. Let’s begin the demolition!
Whoa, living a construction zone was by no means, fun. We ate microwaved food for weeks, our fridge was in the office and you had to wear shoes all the time. I could make this sound much, much, worse. I think you get it though, right?! (insert head nod)
We completed our remodel in a matter of months, doing the work ourselves. My husband was a General Contractor for many years. By June we were ready to list our home for sale. June 12, 2019 was our list date, we had a full price offer and were under contract by June 23, 2019. WOW! Can I just add in here that we hadn’t packed a whole lot yet. The buyer wanted to close in 2 weeks. Let the packing begin in crunch time!
The kids jumped in to help…well, sort of! We spent day in and day out packing. In the midst of all this and a tight closing timeline, we managed a weekend trip to NC to find a house. Thankfully we succeeded, finding our home in Denver North Carolina.
We had to leave our house in Utah by the first week of July. Our home in North Carolina was not to close until end of July. Oh what fun…homeless for a few weeks! Now let’s pick up the story where I left you before.
The fish in a half filled tank, gently set inside of a leopard gecko’s cage. Yes, the leopard gecko is also inside the cage. Did I mention we also have a 40 pound dog?! We drove a small Penske truck with the car in tow and a F350 Long bed with the boat in tow. All of the creatures were shoved in the truck, and 1 of the 2 children. Oh I wish I took pictures to show you!
Yay, we are finally on our long drive to NC. Let’s get as far as we can. Well, we made it 3 hours the first day. The exhaustion of months remodeling, packing, and selling our house finally caught up with us. We stopped at Little America around 4pm that first day and slept for hours! Good thing we did, because we drove all daylight hours the next 2-3 days. Let me tell you, driving that F350 with the boat in tow got my heart rate up more than once. My smart watch thought I was cycling nearly 3000 miles. If only that was true, because we sure ate a lot of fast food!
We got to North Carolina and had to live in a hotel room for over a week. With, yet again, the fish, the gecko, and a dog. Hotels do say pets allowed…right?! (haha) We needed to store our things somewhere temporarily. Finding a storage where we could just park the Penske for a few days was difficult, especially it being a Sunday. We ended up finding one in Denver, NC where the owner was willing to meet us there on a Sunday to get us set up.
While we are nearly homeless, in a hotel room. My husband is trying to work remotely in the Hotel business room, I’m trying to watch the creatures and kids while also getting our utilities and home owners insurance set up. It felt like we were being pulled so many directions.
I am tired just thinking back on this time in our lives. Also I am grateful to have been through it. It is not easy to move, let alone, move across the country. I can share this experience with others and assist in the relocation of my clients in a way that I’m not sure I could if I could not relate.
Fast forward, we LOVE North Carolina. Specifically we are loving living in the Lake Norman area. The people are all so wonderful, the schools we attend are out of this world. I can’t say enough good things. I’ve enjoyed volunteering at the school, at Habitat for Humanity, and so much more to come. I can’t wait to hear the stories of others relocating to the area and to be a part of that journey. I’m here for you, let’s do this!