The listing picture for our 1921 home.

For sixteen years we have lived on a little country road with a good piece of land and happily raised our babies. Both of our families live here in WV and we've made this little town our hometown over these past sixteen years. We always talked about moving south, near the ocean, to warmer weather and a bigger city. We always loved living near the ocean before we moved back home to West Virginia and always planned to move back near the ocean once our kids were all grown. We have talked about moving to Charleston, South Carolina for several years now. 

My mother was never happy with the idea of us moving south again, further away from home and family. She would always eagerly send me emails of new listings with older homes. She knew an older home was always something we dreamed of having and making our own. The number one thing on our list for a new home was and older home, a fixer upper. Most homes she sent were located in an area we didn't want to be. We honestly were not considering staying here, we had always wanted to move south. Being the stubborn woman that I am, sometimes I wouldn't look at the listings my mom would send, simply because we wanted to move south, not stay here in WV. But the day my mom sent me this listing, I opened the email, looked at the home listed and realized it met all the things that we wanted in a new home, except one, and that was to be in a southern town near the ocean. Our list consisted of six main things, a fixer upper or older home with some good character, a master bedroom on the main floor (which is not easy to find in an older home), a place for my photography studio to be located outside the home, a garage for my husband, a place close to town rather than in the country and a location in the south. 

At dinner that evening, I showed my husband the listing that mom had sent me earlier that day. He couldn't believe it met everything on our list, other than not being located in a southern town. We talked with our kids at dinner. We wrote down all the pros and cons of moving. We did some serious talking of whether we wanted to move to a home here in WV or stay with our dream of moving south. In the middle of conversation, my husband noticed that the house in the listing looked very familiar. As it turns out, the house in the listing was the home where one of his sailors in his unit grew up. Katie P is a friend we've all gotten to know through my husband being in the Navy. My daughters have babysat her daughter a few times. He contacted Katie P to ask her if this was her home and as it turned out it was.  We talked more about moving and what we would have to do to get our home of 16 years on the market. 

Two weeks before Christmas we decided to begin the process of buying this home that was built in 1921. We started making our lists of everything we needed to do and little by little everything fell into place. Christmas last year was a little bittersweet. We were excited about moving but knew that this would be the last Christmas in our home on Hollands. 

We had a little bit of snow a few weeks later. School was canceled for the day, we slept in that morning and the girls went out to play in the little bit of snow that had fallen. As I was stood in the kitchen washing dishes and looking out the window watching my girls play in the little bit of snow, I realized this may be the last snowfall that I get to watch them play in the backyard. So many memories had been made at this home on Hollands Branch Road, but it was time to move away and make new memories in our new home in town.

Four days and a wake up.

We close on our new old home, the Paynter home, in just a little over four days. I don't remember being this anxious, excited and nervous for our closing on the Holland home, the home we have lived in for a little over 16 years. But then again, when we closed on the Holland home our life was more chaotic. We were living with my parents, Jerome had just gotten off active duty for the US Navy, Spencer and Natalie were little, 3 years old and 6 months old, and little did I know it at the time but I was pregnant with Katie, our youngest daughter.

It's been a blessing how everything for this new home has fallen into place (knock on wood). To be honest, we have talked about moving for the past four years, but it was always with the plan of moving south. We fell in love with Charleston, South Carolina, when we visited friends of ours several years ago. With Jerome being in the Navy, we were always in a coastal town when he was on active duty. When he was off of active duty and a reservist we still visited these coastal towns every summer. Being near the ocean and larger cities was something we loved, something that felt like home to us. 

But life happens, things change, and for us, it was not moving south but rather staying in the same town we've lived in for the past sixteen years. The town that has grown to be our kids hometown. 

It's a small hometown, but it is a wonderful one.