” What I love most about my home is who I share it with.” 

We were driving home from the gym: sweaty, tired, hungry. As we pulled into our little condo I spied a sign for an “open house” down the road. Being the curious girl I am, I just wanted to go look. I didn’t care if it was mansion or a little cottage, I wanted to see how other people live in our community. After talking Drew into driving over, we pulled up to a home that we often run past and we reluctantly went in. Now, if you know me, I am totally an HGTV junkie and pretend like I am the next Sandra Rinomato when it comes to real estate so it was only natural for me to assess the property. We walked through a gorgeous home that smelled of pretty candles and had more space than I would know what to do with. Drew filled in the info sheet at the realtors request and we were on our way. As we left, I asked if he put down a fake email address and he looked at me confused. I laughed at him and said, “you mean you actually give our your email to people who ask for it? No wonder you get so much junk mail!” A few days later a little ping and a new message appeared in his inbox that started a crazy journey to find our “home.” 

We hadn’t really thought about buying a house. Sure that would be the natural progression but we scoffed at the idea of permanent residence and had grown pretty comfy in our condo that was big enough for the two of us and our pup children. We claimed we didn’t want to get “stuck” anywhere and knew that our plans would lead us back to Minnesota eventually. I wanted to be closer to our family, to get back to my roots… this was the long term plan. Snuggled up on our couch we opened the email. This little message was something that would soon change our idea of  what home was to us and where we wanted to be for awhile. The realtor started sending us property listings that I would quickly shutdown with the click of an image. (Side rant: poor image quality on real estate listings totally irks me.. seriously, you want to see a house with crappy photos?) Finally on one Sunday we met up with him per his request and ventured through five different homes, all brand spanking new. Soon, we started to feel a little restless in our condo and the idea of a space of our own became enticing. 

At night we would lay in bed going back and fourth about what we want. A new home? To stay put? To move? What was our future? I hopped on Pinterest and ferociously started pinning home ideas and dreaming of an office that I could close the door on at the end of the day. Closet space to fill with gear, files, and books. The big thing we had to talk through was where did we want to live and for how long? We realized that we really fell in love with our tiny little farm town and that we finally felt like we had planted a few roots for the first time since college. We talked about how we loved the post office lady, our accountants down the street, the cookies at the auto shop. Our dates night revolved around our favorite local eateries and our friends were becoming staples in our small town life. We prayed, a lot. As we saw home after home we began to visualize us, our lives, our business, our family. The hunt is winding down as we narrowed our scope but the greatest lesson of all is not about the space, the land, the building, it is about who you share it with and the memories you make within those walls. Stay tuned for some fun updates on our search, until then, just imagine me rocking my role as the next HGTV star – Genevieve Gorder, you better watch out. I am coming for you! 

Home isn’t a place to go to, it isn’t found in the perfect house, it really truly is a feeling. 

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