Country Life, City Amenities
Ali Aldrich spent her childhood riding four wheelers on her parents' 12 acres of land and playing on her father's 100-acre farm.
She wanted a similar homegrown experience for her “forever home” but lived in one of her city's most popular — and crowded — neighborhoods.
So, when it came time for a move, this mother of two (four, if you count the two dogs) and her husband Eric looked for a domicile that held the perfect mix of city and country living.
They found their ideal spot in a quiet community with dead-end streets and an extensive tree canopy that's not too far from one of the city's main drags.
"We really feel like we're in the mountains," Ali says from her living room, which comes with glass windows that face the backyard. "It's a cool atmosphere. The end result is like something I grew up in."
Here's some insight into their journey.
They realized you really can go home again
Ali wanted to live in a place that reminded her of home. Eric wanted to enjoy a reasonable degree of privacy. Both wanted enough space for their daughters Elyn, 6, and 3-year-old Adele, to run outside and play, and for their dogs to roam freely without worrying about traffic.
When they started their home hunt, they looked for a house in an area that felt like a countryside oasis surrounded by big city amenities. They found a two-story, five-bedroom single-family home with a spacious backyard that abuts a tree line.
Then, they tore down some walls
Ali, Eric and their daughters have lived in their new home for three years now. And while the interior today is immaculate, it left much to be desired when they moved in. The house was constructed in the 1970s and had the flamingo pink bathroom wallpaper and wood paneling to match. To modernize it, the couple knocked out some of the walls that closed off parts of the house, and added shiplap to give it a refreshing boost.
They're in the process of renovating their bathrooms, and Ali is considering moving onto the kitchen cabinets next.
They made it their own
Neither Eric nor Ali were big fans of the contemporary cookie-cutter homes one might find in many big cities. They wanted a place they could customize and make their own. And make it their own, they did.
They turned their ground-level floor into spare bedrooms for guests, a spot for their daughters to practice gymnastics and a trophy room of sorts for Eric's wall-mounted deer heads. Out back, they added a playhouse, jungle gym and zipline for the girls, and transformed a firepit and gazebo into a staging area where they've hosted two bands.
"Eric says we're living here 'till we die," Ali says laughing. "So we better like it."
They found a process they could trust
When it was time to buy, the Aldrichs turned to Movement Mortgage for a loan. They used Ali's brother-in-law, Blaine Newsome, as their loan officer.
He helped the couple secure a conventional loan they managed to close on within a week or so.
"It's pretty impressive how fast (Movement) can move through the process," Ali says. "For us, it was pretty much a seamless process which makes it great when you're worried about boxing up and moving into a new house."
#MyMovement is a campaign to share and connect significant stories from our homebuyers, team members and industry connections across the globe. With #MyMovement, we hope to make the personal generosity, kindness, service and social awareness of our own community contagious.
