Hola friends!!! I’m sure you gathered by the post title – WE ARE MOVING TO OJAI! WHAT!?! I know. I KNOW! We sold our house in San Diego, and we were shopping for another when I happened to cruise up the coast mentally to my dream town, Ojai. It’s the town I’ve been trying to get Lou to move to since we left LA in 2012. Tucked into a valley surrounded by foothills and mountains, it’s a magical little place that has had my heart since I first visited during my time at college in Santa Barbara. I spotted this house and sent the listing and a few others to Lou and our realtors, just asking WHAT IF?
I was absolutely SHOCKED when Lou’s response was that he liked this house, that we should go see it. I was already pretty attached to the idea by the time our realtors got in touch with the seller’s realtor and was a bit gutted when they told us it had gone under contract within 2 days, and had multiple offers over asking. California real estate is BANANAS you guys. We decided to put in a strong backup offer just in case. And the next day we got word that the investor who had made the original offer had backed out and it was ours if we wanted it. (!!!!!!!!) So just to recap, it was Wednesday when I threw out the idea of moving to Ojai and by noon on Thursday we were under contract for a house we’d never seen. Craziness to the max. HA!
That Sunday we drove up to Ojai to see the house, meet with contractors, have the house inspected and spend a little more time in Ojai to be sure we were making the right decision. It didn’t take long for us to know that our instincts hadn’t failed us- we still love Ojai and the house was even better in person. Well, the house is in crazy disrepair actually, but that’s what we’ve been looking for- a house we can make entirely our own. And we see soooo much potential with this sweet little mid century ranch house.
Many of you know all of this, but just to recap…when I started this site in 2011 we lived in LA. In 2012 we moved to Palm Springs to try out life in our favorite vacation town in a beautiful modern dream house. After living there for 2 years we realized it wasn’t going to work being so far from the beach and friends, so in 2014 we moved to San Diego. We looovvveee San Diego and the beautiful Spanish house we transformed in our time here. BUT. It’s expensive and we’ve had many many conversations about where we could go to have a slower pace of life while we raise Teo. And so, Ojai is next. In case you’re counting that makes it four towns in seven years. OMG. Hopefully we love life in Ojai as much as we think we will! We’re ready to really settle into life and stop the chaos of moving. We don’t regret any of the moves so far though, each has served us so well and it’s been a great adventure! So if you’re considering trying out a new place to live I say go for it! Life is short and there’s no way of knowing if something will work if you don’t try it! Of course if you’re thinking 4 moves/towns in 7 years is legitimately INSANE, I kind of agree with you too. HA!
So, are you excited to see more of this house and hear what we have planned? You do know I’m going to be a sharing fool while we go through the renovation and design process, right? It’s an absolute dream come true for us, to take something old and unlivable and give it a new lease on life! We’ve got BIG plans for this place! And I think it’s going to be sooo fun to share the renovation process with you all and hopefully inspire your own project houses!
Click through for a quick BEFORE home tour and read a bit about what I’m thinking going into the design process…
