Goodbye Nashville
Postcards from the edge (of Davidson County)
In what is truly the worst kept secret of my life, John and I left Nashville and moved to the country. We bought a log cabin in the woods back in December and have been slowly renovating it, and then in early March, we moved in.
John always wanted to live in the country. He wanted no neighbors and enough land to build miscellaneous buildings and own a superfluous vehicle. The noise at our Nashville house disrupted me at a cellular level. I saw the appeal of a quiet, country life, but I wanted to be able to use ride shares and stay in the fold of the consolidated government of Nashville and Davidson County.
We both assumed we’d end up in Ashland City, Pegram, Bells Bend or Bellevue. Goodlettsville was not on our radar.
There’s a hidden Bellevue neighborhood that we’ve loved for years. Houses never go up for sale in that neighborhood, but one did while we were looking. It felt like a great streak of luck: a dream house in our dream neighborhood.
There was a pending offer in on the house, but the realtor selling it encouraged us to put an offer in, so we did. The people with the original offer countered and they got it. I was heartbroken.
A few days later a house that we had looked at six months prior popped back up on the apps. I had vetoed it in May because the (gravel) driveway was too long and the house had a pond, which I was worried meant the house was a flood risk. Our realtor suggested we go look at it and scheduled a viewing. We fell in love with the house.
After living in a house built in 1969 that was never renovated, I had a wishlist of things I hoped our next house would have. I didn’t expect to get all of them, obviously, but getting a few of them seemed like a dream. Let me see if I remember my list:
Updated bathroom
Updated kitchen
Walk-in closet
Screened in porch
Upstairs bonus zone to turn into my lair
Lots of trees and green space
Good windows with good light
Garage
Like I said, I just hoped to knock a few things off this list. I wasn’t expecting a house to have them all, but this one did. And we could afford it.
There were a ton of showings the weekend we saw it. I wasn’t sure I could go through trying (and failing) to get a house so soon after losing the Bellevue house. But we loved this house.
We slept on it, woke up the next day and put an offer in. We were the only offer, but at the last minute, someone put an offer in over-asking. Our realtor helped us make a new offer and then we had to wait another day to hear back.
I don’t know exactly what our realtor did, but she got us this house. I deduced that the other offer wasn’t from someone who wanted to live here. The sellers loved this house and wanted to sell it to someone who would live in it and love it as much as they did.
This house was built in 1983 and flipped/renovated in 2020. In a surprising twist, the 2020 renovations are good! Mostly.
This house is gorgeous. Nothing “needed” to be done, but we opted to have a shower put in (it was a tub only situation), we pulled up the carpet and had hardwoods installed and we had a second walk-in closet built.
We also did some minor-ish closet work and some major-ish structural work. All of that took the month of January. We spent February painting, building shelves and finishing closets.
And now we live here!
Timeline:
May: Saw the listing and drove out to the house. Drove up the long driveway and looked at the house from outside. I vetoed it.
November: Hired a realtor and started looking at houses.
Put an offer in on the Bellevue house. Offer wasn’t accepted.
Cried for a week.
Kept looking at houses.
This house got re-listed and our realtor scheduled a viewing. We put an offer in, someone else put an offer in, we put a second offer in. Our second offer was accepted.
December: Closed on this house. Interviewed and hired a contractor.
John pulled up the carpet and engineered flooring and took two big HVAC ducts/pipes out of my walk-in closet and the pantry.
January: Contractors worked on floors, bathroom and closets. Engineer worked on structural issues related to support beam and posts.
February: Contractors finished. John started on the buildout of the two walk-in closets, painting the kitchen cabinets and an incalculable amount of sanding, spackling and painting.
Had HVAC system cleaned. Hired an electrician to re-wire the breaker box and fix/install a bunch of outlets. Had a plumber fix something that I’ve already forgotten about. Had the house professionally cleaned.
March: Packed up old house. Hired movers. Moved into the new house.
We’re still getting our Nashville house ready to be listed. Turns out, when you live somewhere for 17 years, you have a ton of stuff! We’re almost done. We just have to clean out the garage and attic and then have the house cleaned.
My stress and burnout for the past two years has been high. My burnout got so bad my therapist referred me out to EMDR. Then my stress got so bad my disordered eating popped back up and I went back into regular visits with my ED RD.
I don’t know if moving to the country is “the cure.” Where ever you go, there you are, blah blah blah. But friends, I feel better. I have hawks and owls in my yard. I can watch deer while I eat breakfast. Turkeys have seen me naked. I’m even excited about the skunk!
Like I told Joey from the HVAC company, “At least if someone shoots me in my yard out here, it’ll be an accident.”
Thank you for reading all of this, especially if you already knew it. Like I said, the worst kept secret of my life. And to the inheritance that made this possible, thanks Grandpa. 🫶🏼
AMA
Now it’s your turn! Ask me anything you want to know, within reason, and I’ll answer in a future newsletter. Just leave your question in the comments section so I can track them all in one place. Comments are on for everyone.
Stay tuned for a future recurring segment called Country Kim’s Critter Corner.
Ta-ta for now,
Kim
Welcome to the glory that is life outside Nashville. Left in 2019 and have never once regretted it. Some bodies just want trees and birdsong. Mazel on your move!
Amazing. And so happy for you!