If you’ve ever read the children’s book, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse : A Retelling of Aesop’s Fable, you’ll remember that the city mouse fantasized about how peaceful country living must be and the country mouse day dreamed about how exciting living in the city would be.  Both mice traded places and soon discovered that country and city living each had advantages and disadvantages.  Eventually they returned to their original homes and were content.  This is not that story. 

I’ve lived all over Atlanta all of my life.  I am a suburban/city mouse that has somehow found herself living the country/mountain mouse life with no plans of going back.  Our family is discovering all that country living offers and are learning to enjoy the fresh country air (as long as our neighbors at the farm behind us aren’t cleaning their chicken houses – Y’all the smell of chickens is NOT pleasant- whew!).  We’ve found some really sweet friends here and, I have to admit, living on 15 acres without a neighbor in sight is really pretty great.  The best part about our new community in Northeast Georgia is that if we do need or want to take advantage of all that the city has to offer, it’s really only an hour to an hour and a half drive.  Just close enough that it’s accessible but far enough away that our worlds don’t collide if not desired.

While my parents have been blessed to live and raise their family in the same home and community for the past 40+ years, I have had the opposite experience.  I fell in love with and married a soldier and his career has resulted in our living in six homes in the past 17 years.  That’s a lot of houses to sell, move out of, and buy!  It’s no wonder, then, that I am passionate about real estate with a whole lot of personal and professional experience!  Recently, Marie Kondo has become a popular home organizational blogger known for her phrase of whether an item “sparks joy” in you.  Helping families sell and purchase their homes is what sparks joy in me! 

I love the process of discovering not just the perfect house and community for my families but also in aiding them with the vision of how they can turn someone else’s house into their home.  Out of the six homes that we have owned zero have been perfect!  We have made mistakes and have learned so much along the way as we’ve moved our family around.  We’ve gone from falling in love with our first home because of the adorable pond filled with cute little white ducks – (that ended up terrorizing our toddler’s by chasing them around the yard and biting their diapered bottoms) to being excited about finding a home with a flat driveway with extra parking for teens.  I have turned the ugliest of homes into one of the nicest homes on the block.  I’ll share the story of each of our homes, the good and the bad that we learned about features of each one, DIY projects, repairs that I’ve learned to do, and renovation investments that really paid off and helped us to purchase a little bit of a nicer home each time. 

I hope to entertain you with a little bit of self-deprecating humor as I navigate living in our new community, stories of helping my clients and each lesson or observation I learn from them, and share my biggest challenge yet as I turn one more house (think Lincoln log home) into our “Forever Home” (think Joanna & Chip Gaines Fixer Upper).  Mostly, though, I hope that my character, knowledge, and heart show through in this blog as I cover all things related to selling, buying, and creating a home.  If you or your friends find themselves needing the help of a really amazing realtor (hint: that’s me!), give me a call!  Until then, I hope you enjoy the content I share on Georgia Peach Living as I recount my stories of turning houses into homes!

God Bless!  Priscilla Crane