Feature Friday: Renee & Bruce House Sale

I have some big family news today so I’m posting a day earlier than normal for Feature Friday! I haven’t shared much about this new adventure, but my sister and brother-in-law will be moving very soon. I may not have told you all this before, but it’s been in the planning stages for a few years now. With Lauren and her family firmly entrenched in New Orleans, Renee and Bruce have been planning to retire down there eventually. They started looking for property a few years ago and landed on a lake community in Covington, LA on a small lake. They bought the property 2 years ago and have been making their plans and figuring out what house they wanted to build. There’s a lot that goes into building a house and this will be a huge undertaking, but I’m excited for them.

They are building a very similar floor plan to the HGTV Dream home that I visited and featured last year in Hilton Head, SC. They loved it so much and it seemed to be a good fit for their living on the lake dreams. It’s a gorgeous home plan and very practical so I’m excited to see it all come to fruition. It is, in fact, my very favorite dream home I’ve ever visited and I’ve visited several.

They have been working hard the last few months paring down their belongings and cleaning out their house. They have been in this house their entire 21 years of marriage so you can imagine all the things that accumulate over that period of time. They’ve sold quite a few things and have more to go, but she will take some furniture with them and also fill in after they finish the build. And guess what, I get to help them pick things out! I’m so excited for that part too, so it means I’ll be going down to Covington and New Orleans much more the next year as they build their house. I’m excited to see it finished and Mark and I going down to visit. It will be so much fun to see and I’ll be blogging the whole house build and sharing with you all!

Lauren and Philip live about 45 minutes away from Covington, so it will be close enough and they can be very involved with the 3 girls and all their adventures. I know Renee and Bruce will enjoy that so much. They will have to make friends and get to know their new community. Bruce isn’t retired yet. he’s an engineer for Lockheed and since Covid a year ago, has been working from home so he can now continue working from home in LA. That’s a big plus for him.

The care of our parents will fall to me now and Renee will come home as needed. I’m sure they will still come back here pretty often as mom and dad need more care along the way, but the day to day will fall to me now. I’ll miss them for sure, but I’m sure we will figure things out as we go. Caring for aging parents does not comes with a manual and we move through these days and face things as they come. I know you all understand that as you’ve dealt with it too.

So, with that story in mind and bringing you up to speed on what is going on in our family these days, they just put their house on the market a week ago…and it sold already, in the first 2 days. They had 10 showings the first day/weekend and an offer was made right away for over asking price. I had a feeling that would happen. Their house is in great shape and shows well and they had it all ready for showing. I had been meaning to take pics of their house and show you the update, since it’s been so long since I shared it with you all, but the real estate pics are perfect so I’ll share them here.

{All photos courtesy of Mark Spain Realty| The photographer did a great job.

They live in a beautiful swim and tennis community in East Cobb. The real estate market here in Atlanta is very hot and I wasn’t at all surprised that the house sold for over asking and had multiple people interested. A clean well maintained home with curb appeal will attract many buyers.

Enjoy the tour, I won’t say much, but it was all ready for showing. You’ll see it looks more bare than usual, some things were sold and the rooms pared down for better showing.

Foyer

Living room looking to foyer and dining room.

She’s keeping this sofa and these chairs and getting them all recovered. She’ll be going much lighter at the new house.

She sold her dining room chairs and will be keeping this table and getting new chairs.

Breakfast table looking to kitchen.

Kitchen, they painted their island the same as our kitchen bar, Knoxville Gray.

Vaulted great room

Great room, she’s keeping this spacious sectional sofa, it will be perfect for the upstairs TV room that the girls will use a lot. She’s going to outfit one of the bedrooms in the new home with 3 twin beds for 3 little girls. I can’t wait to help her with it all, so much fun to have a project like this ahead of us.

Downstairs bath

Laundry room

She sold all this bedroom furniture and made it a playroom for the girls in the meantime.

Upstairs hallway

Master bedroom

Master bath

Closet

Office space

Guest room/girls room when they are here. There’s one more bedroom up here that didn’t get  photographed.

Upstairs bathroom

Down in the basement, they finished this space a few years ago.

Craft area

Basement bathroom

Basement storage room, isn’t this great?

Bruce’s workshop

Outside the basement

Backyard with beautiful landscaping. I’ve shared this backyard many times with you all and everyone loves it.

Back porch

We’ve had many family meals on this back porch, lots of great memories in this house.

They worked on the backyard for many years getting it to this point with rock walls and landscaping. Bruce has worked so hard on this.

The pond with goldfish. The girls sure have enjoyed playing in the backyard and the stream.

This house holds a lot of memories for Renee and Bruce and I know they’ve enjoyed living here. Kids were raised and now grandkids have been coming to this house for a few years. But I know they are excited to start the next chapter in life in their dream lake home in LA. I’m very happy for them and even though we will all miss them, it will be fun to go and visit.

They have a lot ahead of them to close on the house, pack up and move and get down to LA where they are renting a house while they build. That will be a big undertaking, but I know it will be so worth it. My dream would be to live on a lake too. We live very near a lake and in fact, it’s about 1/4 mile behind our house through the woods, but to actually be on the water every day would be wonderful. I can’t wait to see this dream come to life!

 

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