Are We Serious About Moving?

Keith and I had talked about it, and we joked about it… but now it was time to ask ourselves, are we serious about moving?

Can we do this?

We were saving money, not exactly knowing what it might be for. Keith had accepted a remote software position about two years before so work wasn’t a concern. He was working from home and home could be anywhere.

A tough decision

The biggest factor for me was leaving my family, especially my dad. He has had health issues over the past several years and we’ve spent a lot of time together. I didn’t know if I could give up the personal support I’d been able to provide.

Keith and I were also thinking about our own health. The activities that we were wanting to do might not be possible if we waited another 25-30 years. We had recently seen changes in our parent’s health that helped us to realize this. We didn’t want to miss this period in our lives when we were mostly free of health concerns. Keith had a slight issue with his knee and I with my back, but we are young enough and healthy.

Getting serious

All of a sudden we got serious about this move during the summer of 2015. Researching properties online and meeting with a realtor to gain more information about the area became a big part of our free time.

At that point, I was thinking a small condo would be perfect for us. A condo would be within the budget, easily maintained, and possibly rentable, and we could visit in the summer and during my breaks from work. Keith was under the assumption that we’d move, but I still wasn’t convinced. To me, a vacation property sounded good as a trial.

We booked a trip to Salt Lake City during my Fall Break (October 2015) to check out the area and properties.

Fall Break in Utah

Keith and I still joke about driving around that first night in the dark, “looking” for the mountains! We even started to think, “Maybe you just can’t see the mountains from here.”

The next morning we looked out our hotel window and were surrounded by these gorgeous, enormous mountains!! We were a bit hysterical at the difference from the night before. It was finally time to meet our realtor in person and see what the area had to offer.

Viewing properties

It was surreal to be touring these properties and imagining ourselves living in these places that we’d only known online. We felt House Hunters' excitement and anxiety!

Would we really make this big move? I have to admit, I wasn’t sold right away. It was a bit of a whirlwind day! My brain couldn’t catch up with all the information that was being thrown it's way. I was getting the locations mixed up, trying to create pro/con lists in my head, etc.  It was overwhelming.

We recognized the need to slow down a bit and reevaluate. By doing this, we were able to mark off a couple of locations right away to narrow the search. The more we saw, the more we began to make decisions about location, size, layout, amenities available, etc. Very quickly we were able to narrow it down and basically knew what we were looking for by the time we left Utah.

The mountains are really what sold me!

We had been looking at properties and it was overwhelming. I wasn’t completely sure I was even willing to move. There’s a lot of excitement in it, but when it really came down to it, I just wasn’t sure.

Enter… the mountains…

This almost immediately sealed the deal. We had some time off from the realtor and decided we needed to see the area. We headed up towards Snowbird Mountain Resort and I fell in love with the surroundings. That was really why we were here, nature.

Our decision to move was not for a living space, but for nature… landscape that cannot be found in Indiana.

Areas we visited

We ended up at Snowbird for their Octoberfest, rode the tram to the top, and got a view unlike any other we’d ever seen. Our day continued over to Park City for coffee, sightseeing, and dinner. Then we explored Midway, Deer Creek State Park, Bridal Veil Falls, and eventually back to the hotel in Orem.

Goodbye for now!

As we left, we knew that we would be seeing a lot more of this place! One way or another we had a lot more to explore in Utah. Now we needed to decide how we were going to do it.