We did it—an early days pandemic, cross-country move! How was that, you might ask? 

In a word—intense!

The preparation and move were fraught with excitement, stress, anxiety, and questions.

We began planning our move about three years prior. No one could have predicted the world would seemingly be falling apart when the time actually came to leave our Midlothian, VA home.

Phillip and I pulled up stakes and made the 4 1/2 day trip. We left with two dogs, one cat, and about 50 houseplants and bonsai. That doesn’t count the seven pods and 26’ U-Haul truck. Phillip almost single-handedly packed, shipped, and/or drove our belongings to our new home in Boise, Idaho. He’s a saint!

3 of 7 pods

Phillip cube packing pods

HOME SEARCH

Home aesthetics in Boise are obviously quite different than the east coast. That really is an understatement, as you can probably imagine! We knew some concessions would have to be made. And of course there’s the population boom in Boise, which in recent years has driven real estate prices through the roof.

Searching and finding our new home in Boise was nothing but simple. After a few trips west with no luck, I spent many hours searching on-line for just the right place to call home. Finding a few of interest, we finally decided to pull the trigger on a “good” house. 

We thought we had found our new home, and were one pen stroke away from being locked in on a contract. I didn’t have that 100% good gut feeling and decided to sleep on it. A good thing I did, because the next morning a very unique house practically jumped off my computer screen, only 8 hours on the market!

As I scrolled through the house pics, my excitement was real! The design was quite unique. High ceilings, geometric windows, open floor plan, a courtyard I had alway dreamed of, and a greenhouse/ breakfast room to die for! This was it!

Phillip packing U-Haul truck and his SUV

Plant babies packed so carefully

UNDER CONTRACT

By noon east coast time we were under contract! Phillip and I are convinced to this day the reason we beat the west coast crowd to our new home was the east/west time zone difference. We had a three hour head start!

I flew out two weeks later for the inspection. The house is visually appealing and photographed quite well. However, I could tell from the photos updating and some renovation would be required. I tried to convey that to Phillip during our FaceTime walk-thru. He didn’t quite get it! 

Since we’ve been here, we have renovated, replaced, and updated almost every part and feature of the interior. The yard and landscape are an on going project, as always, but major work is already complete. 

Phillip has been his usual saint-self through it all. He has worked hard on projects that he is best at, and has moved the work forward saving us a boat-load of money in the process. 

Last leg of the trip—the beautiful west, just outside Salt Lake City!

Next—The home we left…