I’m going to share the first piece of the puzzle today and then we’ll be telling the rest of the story as we can. There are still several pieces that aren’t finalized yet and so you’ll just have to sit on the edge of your seats! :)

First of all, you have to know that when Michael and I announced that we were building THIS house, we had no intention of selling it two years later.  If you thought this was our plan all along, you are wrong. Who willingly moves TWICE in two years…. no one. Who moves out of their DREAM HOME after only living in it for only two years? NO ONE. We’re crazy. We thought we were going to be in this house for a good 5-10 years. This was our semi-forever home. We love not worrying about lawn care, having neighbors close by and living in a “community” setting. This house is our ultimate dream home and we built it because we wanted to be able to serve people well with this gift that God has entrusted to us.

Over the last 18 months, we have hosted over 250 photographers  and countless friends and family in our home. We’ve packed out the cul-de-sac with more cars and excitement than we ever dreamed of. We originally built this house in 2013 because we wanted to transform the way we hosted workshops. We wanted to hold workshops in our living room because ultimately, we wanted our workshops to be a personal, intimate and impactful experience. This dream of ours became a reality after only two weeks of living in this new home. From the VERY BEGINNING this house was built for others. It’s very obvious to us that God didn’t give us this home just for ourselves, He gave it to us with a goal in mind… and that goal was service.

We love this house… in our humble opinion, it’s one of the prettiest homes in our whole neighborhood. We know we’re biased but when neighbors tell you that you have the “Showcase” home of the neighborhood, it does start to butter you up a bit. :) We love our corner lot, fenced in backyard and INCREDIBLE amount of natural light. The amount of windows in this house is just unreal. We basically have a WALL of glass in our living room and my favorite thing to do is sit in there when it snows. It’s just beautiful. Gosh… I’m tearing up. This really has become our “home” and we still can’t believe it’s ours.  Even after two years, that hasn’t really sunk in. We don’t deserve this home and the number one thing we DON’T WANT is for people to think that this wasn’t “enough” for us… because this home has always been MORE than we ever hoped for in a home. I STILL say  “can you believe this is our house?” to Michael when we pull up in the driveway. To leave this space that we built from scratch is kind of upsetting and scary. This is HOME. We feel safe here… we feel comfortable here… but we also know that we have grown exponentially in the last year… faster than we ever imagined. (I’m talking about the business here, I’m not pregnant with quintuplets!)

Our workshops sell out fast and so do our coaching sessions. One of the parts of our business that we KNOW we’re supposed to continue to pursue are workshops. Over and over again we have seen the power and impact of The Workshop Experience on photographer’s lives and business’s and the demand has continued to grow. We have also had several brides ask if we could have a KJ Brides BBQ and invite ALL the past KJ Brides to our house! What?! That’s over 200 people! We’ve been asked about hosting more Small Business events and we love hosting gatherings for our college kids from church. We want to be able to do workshops for years and years…. and then some. We want our home to forever be open to serve others but we also want to respect our neighbors and the fact that they didn’t signup to live next to two entrepreneurs that dream a little too big for a .2 acre property. :):) Do you see where I’m going with this?

We’re not moving because we want MORE…. we’re moving because we want to be able to DO more, serve more and respect our neighbor’s space. So much has happened since December when this was just a casual thought in the back of our minds.  So much has transpired and fallen into place and the stories are crazy. I can’t wait to tell you more as we continue along this journey! There is a lot up in the air but there are a few things we know for sure:

• We’re staying right outside of Richmond, Virginia! We LOVE our city and we’re not going anywhere! (So many people thought we were moving to Lexington! No no, that’s our retirement goal. :)
• We’re moving to more land… I’ll leave it at that. :)
• When you hear the story of this adventure in its’ entirety, you’ll be shaking your head. It’s crazy and so perfectly orchestrated. We feel so confident that this is what we’re supposed to do and that God has a plan for this.
• We won’t be going ANYWHERE if we don’t sell this house!!! It only takes ONE PERSON to fall in love with it! So if you think our home is beautiful and you don’t mind spreading the word, we’ll pay you in virtual hugs and high fives!!!! Tell your family, your friends and your friend’s friends! Even if you’re not anywhere close to VA…. a share is a share! :) Our goal is 30,000 views on today’s blog post! It’s a big goal… but I think it’s doable with your help!!
• We’re trusting God with this WHOLE THING. It’s scary to leave your “home” with such a big project ahead of you.  This is so far beyond us…we can’t do any of this on our own strength.
• OPEN HOUSE THIS SATURDAY for anyone seriously interested! We won’t be around (obviously) but the house will be shiny and ready for tours for those that are seriously interested!
• Until we can share more, you can be a part of our new home adventure and REALLY make a difference by SHARING this post or our ZILLOW LISTING!!!! Even if your people aren’t in the market for a brand new home, they may enjoy looking at it!!! :)

Take a Tour!

So there are a few more pieces to our home puzzle!! We’ll be sharing a virtual tour of our house on PERISCOPE tomorrow at 1pm EST if you want a live tour!!! Tune in!! I’m @KatelynJames on Twitter  and Periscope! (If you’re new to Periscope, you just need to download the app on your phone and follow us!)

A BIG thank you to our good friend Zach Fauver of the Fauver Group for helping us with all things Real Estate. We’ve known Zach since our college days! We’re so thankful to have a trusted friend help us along in this crazy new adventure!!!! Definitely give him a Like on Facebook !!