Q&A: Why We Are Moving + Sneak Peek of the New House

Last Updated on March 3, 2022

Everyone is shocked we are moving! We are filling you in on the all details– the what, why, and where AND we answer all of your burning questions about our upcoming move.

I announced about a month ago in this blog post that we have decided to move. It has been giving me all the feels, but I was shocked to find out how floored you all are, not to mention you all have a lot of feelings about it also! I could never have predicted the flood into my Instagram DM's with questions about All. The. Things. When it came time to sit down and answer them all, I decided the easiest way to discuss it is to resurrect the podcast. Thea and I have been itching to restart, and this was the perfect reason to get it going again.

We have loved this house, but are SO excited for the changes having a new home will bring not only to our family but also to the blog! Listen along below to Thea and me talk about the reason the move is happening and I answer all of your burning questions about it!

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All the Details

When we announced we are moving you all went CRAZY. It made me really realize y'all are as invested in our home as we are! It has been the costar in our story given all the DIY home improvements and projects we have tackled (and blogged about over the past 7 years). I mistakenly thought it wouldn't have been a big deal. DUH, Tasha. Turns out it is as big of a deal to all of you as it is to us. And you all had A LOT of questions! So we restarted the podcast and are SO excited to be back! (The audio is a challenge right now with social distancing, but we promise it will get better).
There are lots of reasons we are moving, but one of the main things is that we wanted a smaller, quieter community. We are moving to a small town outside of Greensboro (where we live now) called Oak Ridge. We love that it is self-contained and the school district is GREAT.
For a long time, I refused to even discuss moving, which Joe has subtly been bringing up occasionally for about the last two years. I finally started listening because there are challenges in our current house that we can only remedy by moving. I explained more about that in this blog post and go into a bit below…
Having my office right in the middle of our home has become very stressful (hard to get a lot of work done when everyone has access to me all the time.)

door from office into family room — Office with french doors into the family room.

door of office into foyer — Doorway into the foyer. (There's a door now, but it doesn't help keep my people out, lol!)

Our current garage is not small as far as garages go, but it is a problem for us. It is where we keep all of our tools (which we have a TON of given that our business is all about DIY home improvement), Joe's Gym, and one car. It is filled to the brim and we really need a bigger space.
Facts about Oak Ridge: It IS a town, it is incorporated, it doesn't have a mayor. But it does have a 5 person town council! Now we all know! (Thank you google.) Sorry to inform Thea she cannot be the mayor.
We can't wait to start new projects, but it will be less major reno and more cosmetic work. Everything in the house is brown, which as you all know is NOT my style. We have to paint everything, and I want to cry thinking about it, but it is not optional. Seriously, So. Much. Brown. The projects in the house will not be huge projects that require a ton of money–I am really excited about how doable the DIY's will be. I cannot wait to show people what is possible! The color lover in me is dying to get started and I cannot wait for the transformations to start!

realtor photos of boring brown house — Our current house when we moved in. The curse of the brown house.

You will get to see all the pics of the new house once we close, I don't want to curse anything. This is the third house we made an offer on and it is perfect. The floorplan is exactly what we wanted and the outdoor space is AMAZING. So if you have listened to the podcast and read this far, here is your reward! Here is the first official sneak peek of our new house–this is the outdoor space that we are OBSESSED with!

outdoor space with eating area and vaulted ceiling

Thea wants to move too, and I finally think they are really going to do it. We can't believe it might happen for both of us during this crazy stressful time. But why not, right? She just has to purge ten years of “home shrapnel” and stage it. No big deal, LOL.
The girls were initially emotional about moving (much like me) but they have come around. Once we started talking about what they can do to their rooms in the new house, it got them super excited. I keep telling them honestly that it is perfectly natural to feel sad AND excited. They both have ideas for exactly what they want and have come full-circle on moving.
Our current house doesn't seem neutral, but if you take all of our decor out, all of our paint colors really are pretty neutral. I suppose my navy blue doors are a little out of the ordinary, but the color is still pretty neutral (jeans go with everything, right?!) The wildest thing is the powder room mural, but I ran out of time and never painted over it. But that is an easy fix for anyone looking at the house.

hall with navy doors gallery walls and bright runners — Blue doors

The balance of what needs to be neutralized and staged and what is okay to leave is tricky. You can see Thea's red dining room and the curtains we always reference here.
I was so happy when we finally finished the guest room, but I had to spruce up the laundry room to feel like it was really finished. Since that was the very first room I did in this house (you can see that makeover here), I needed to give it a quick makeover to freshen it up!
You can see lots of before pics of the kitchen here. I still can't believe people are mad we painted those cabinets. I will never understand this. If you attack me in the comments section anywhere, my beloved readers will come after you. Please consider this your warning, lol!

I LOVE our stuff, and the choices we have made for our current house, so you will see a lot of our things and our style repeated in the new house. Unlike Joe, I refuse to sell MY stuff and I have no interest in starting from scratch! I have curated things I love and I am taking them with me!!! If it were up to him, he would leave whatever they want for the right price.
If you want to see the weird set-up to record this podcast, check us out in the guest room. We were responsibly socially distancing, and the audio suffered. Sorry!

We love hearing from you! Tag us at @tasha.kaleidoscope in pics or screenshot your episode and tell us what you are doing while you listen. We love seeing those and try to share them as often as possible. Make sure you are following me on Instagram so you can follow along with my stories and see all the behind the scenes action. I talk about ALL the things (not just home decor and DIY!) and it is very fun.

Get Social With Us

I get asked a lot about my design process, which I am also using when I design the new house! I use the SAME system every single time I design a room. I finally put that system down on paper so that you can use it, too! It's an affordable alternative to hiring an interior designer and it's called Designer in a Binder®! It walks you through each step of the design process, like choosing items that are the correct scale, space planning, mixing patterns, choosing colors and more! I give easy-to-understand guidance on all of this in Designer in a Binder®! You can order your binder now. We have over 5,900 happy customers so far! Click here to learn more.

Wondering how I approach transforming rooms and spaces in our home? Check out Designer in a Binder®.

designer in a binder--the affordable and simple way to decorate your home

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