The Judges Next Adventure!

We're moving again!

Yes . . . again.

Turns out the love of living a somewhat nomadic lifestyle continues to burn bright in both of us Judges, so we've decided to pack up and call a new place home in March.

We'll be leaving London and moving about 25 minutes away to the town of Port Stanley, which is right on Lake Erie.

We hadn't really been planning on moving anytime soon, but an opportunity came up to rent this super cute little cottage home (with amazing lake views) and we just couldn't pass it up. It's actually both a bit of a dream come true and an answer to prayer!

A little history - shortly after we got married, my husband and I moved to a little house right on the shore of Lake Simcoe. We only lived there for a year, but it was a magical year and we've always looked back fondly on our time there and knew that eventually we wanted to move back to living near the water. We're both big time "water people" and I've always said I always feel most at home when I'm in, on, or near the water. We've lived in a lot of different homes and environments since that year on the lake (seriously - we are experts at moving), but 6 and a half years later and we're finally making our way back to the lifestyle we both enjoy the most!

Port Stanley is a very cute little town, and went there quite a bit this past summer. When we first moved to the London area we considered moving there, but there was nothing available at the time and we thought it would be too far of a drive, considering we both work in London. After visiting Port Stanley in the summer though we realized it's actually not that far at all (well, not far for anyone who is from the GTA and used to commuting), so we've kept a bit of an eye on the area from time to time just to see if anything came available. Sure enough a listing came up not too long ago that Chris spotted so we decided to go check it out and of course absolutely fell in love with it.

It's a small house. Like, really small. As in tiny, tiny . . . really tiny. 600 square feet to be exact. But it's 600 square feet of pure character. It sits up on the top of a tall cliff that overlooks the main beach area below. There are stairs at the end of our road that lead down to the beach below, or we can walk about 10 minutes to another, more private beach. The front of the house is all windows and has some spectacular views of the lake, and the area itself where our house is seems quite quiet and friendly and away from the more touristy part of town. Both times we went to look at the house, every single person we drove past waved at us - I love that small town vibe! It has two small bedrooms (one we'll turn into a little office), 1 tiny bathroom, and then a combined open plan living space/kitchen. The house is so small that the entire place is heated by a gas fireplace. It's also so small that the washing machine is in the kitchen - ha! It does have a huge covered patio in the backyard, which pretty much doubles the living space in the warmer months, and a 2-level shed in the backyard as well. The yard is pretty big (with a firepit - woo hoo!) and it drops off at the back into a forest with a ravine.

I'm really excited - like, really excited. Not just to be living back on the water again, but I'm so excited to be downsizing. This past summer I started to have a great desire to downsize, and both Chris and I started talking about how great it would be to just sell everything. I think we're both pretty good about not having too much of a personal attachment towards "things", and our plan (and prayers) for our long-term future is to be able to just pack up a suitcase or backpack and just "go", and not feel weighed down by belongings. While we're both extremely grateful for the house we live in now, (this house itself was an answer to prayer when we first decided to move to London and couldn't find a place to live at first!) we know it really is too big for the two of us and the dog, and we've both never been fans of having space that doesn't get used a lot. We're probably fairly minimalistic already to many people's standards, but we've both really felt a need to pair down more and get back to an even more simplistic, minimalist lifestyle. The rent in our new house is also less than half of what we're paying now, so we're definitely excited that we'll be able to save more and become even better stewards of our money!

Our current house is about 1800 square feet, so we're getting rid of at least 75% of all our belongings, but probably more like 90% as we really want to move with the bare minimums. We've already sold most of our furniture, and are now going through the rest of our stuff to either sell, give away or donate. This will definitely be the easiest move we've ever done, as we'll hardly have anything to move!

I'm sure we're going to have some moments (perhaps many moments), when we both feel cramped or get cabin fever, but I feel confident that this is probably going to end up being one of the best decisions we have ever made. And it's just another example of how God so knows the desires of our hearts and is constantly opening doors and shedding light on new opportunities for growth and ways to shed the things in our lives that we don't need or are holding us back, whether it's physical "things" or just the "noise" of a place or environment.

The pics below are of our new place and our new town. Here's to new adventures!