It has been three months since we moved to Tennessee, and I wanted to take the time to share our journey—what led us here, how we navigated the moving process, and why we ultimately chose Tennessee as our new home. This was one of those life-changing decisions where you do all the planning and research possible, but in the end, you have to trust your gut and take a leap of faith. When I look back at my past experiences, some of the best decisions have often come from following my intuition rather than logic alone.
The Early Years: Searching for a Place to Call Home
To give a little backstory, my husband and I are originally from Colorado. I was born and raised there, and we met in college before getting married in 2012. We had our first son in 2015 while living in Pueblo, Colorado—a town about two hours south of Denver that we just knew wasn’t where we wanted to raise our family. When my husband got a job offer in Utah, we saw it as our ticket out. We lived there for 2.5 years, but after some time, I was ready for a change- and my husband was open to new possibilities. Neither of us were attached to Utah or felt like anything was keeping us there.
He had an opportunity to transfer with his job, with options in Kentucky or Texas—two states we had never been to. Since I knew a few people who loved Texas, we decided to take a chance and move there. This wasn’t our first time making a big move and flying by the seat of our pants. My husband flew out to Texas for the weekend, met with a realtor, and instead of renting, we ended up buying a house because we found an incredible deal. I saw Texas for the first time when we made the drive down with our two kids. We originally planned to stay for 2-3 years, but we ended up staying a lot longer. As 2020 and the pandemic came around, we started feeling the pull to move again, but life events delayed things.
Researching the Next Move
We had always assumed we would move back to Colorado, but after seeing how things were handled there in 2020 and considering other personal factors, we decided against it. This led us to start researching other states. We created a list of criteria for the place we would set down our roots: good homeschooling laws, school systems, cost of living, taxes, medical freedom, job opportunities, climate (Texas summers were BRUTAL), and overall community values. We wanted a place with a supportive and like-minded community, beautiful scenery (we missed the mountains!), and an overall more mild climate compared to Texas.
Over the next few years, we visited different states whenever it was feasible. As you may know, it isn’t exactly cheap to go visit a bunch of new states- nor is it a fast process. This process took a few years to check out some different locations. In the summer of 2021, we explored South Dakota—it was lovely, but it didn’t quite feel like home. In the summer of 2022, we took a break from traveling after we had our fourth baby, but we kept researching. By this point, we had narrowed down our list to Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Montana, and Idaho. We’d visited some of these states like Montana and Idaho many years ago, but not the rest of them. In the fall of 2023, we visited Northwest Arkansas. You can see my travel guide on our trip here. We actually loved it there, but didn’t leave feeling like “THIS is where we are meant to be.” So we kept it in the back of our minds, but we still weren’t 100% sure. We went back and forth a lot with Montana and Idaho, but the high cost of housing and harsh winters held us back a bit with those states. Now that we’ve moved to Tennessee and we’ve seen that they have a fairly mild winter, I am so happy we didn’t move to Montana or Idaho because, although I’m sure it’s amazing in those places, I just think the winters would’ve just been a little bit too harsh for us!
At this point, we still weren’t sure where we wanted to go. In December 2023, my husband and I seriously considered buying an RV and traveling the country to explore different states. If he could get a remote position with his job, we planned to take time off and use the trip as a way to find our next home. We even had money set aside for a down payment on an RV.
However, life had other plans. If you followed my mold story on Instagram, you know that things didn’t go as expected. The money we had saved for the RV had to be used for mold mitigation and rebuilding our kitchen after extensive damage. We quickly realized that our hopes of traveling in an RV starting in May 2024 wasn’t going to happen. We were incredibly disappointed, but I try to remember in these situations that when things fall through, it just isn’t meant to happen and usually something better is coming. With no other option, we stayed put, and my husband started the long process of redoing our kitchen himself (which is a whole other story I need to write about).
Tennessee: Following My Intuition
With a few states left to check out, I felt drawn to Tennessee. It was simply just on my heart and I couldn’t explain why. I had never been there before, but something was pulling me there. My husband, who was in the midst of studying for his CFP (certified financial planner) exam and traveling a lot for work, wouldn’t be able to take time off to visit until October. I didn’t want to wait that long, so on a whim, I suggested I just take our four boys on a solo road trip to Tennessee. It might sound crazy, but I had done solo trips with them before (read about that HERE), and this felt like the perfect adventure to continue on our annual mother/sons trip.
In July 2024, we set out on a 9-day Tennessee road trip. The intention of this trip was to scope things out and see if Tennessee was somewhere we were genuinely interested in. We visited Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville- spending a few days in each city. You can see a detailed outline of what we did on our trip in THIS post. By the end of the trip, I fell in love with Knoxville. Chattanooga was a close second, but Knoxville felt like home in a way that no other place has, since leaving Colorado. I didn’t want to leave. For the first time in years, I just had this overwhelming peaceful feeling and knew this was where we were supposed to be. It was truly amazing.
Making It Happen
After returning home, I told my husband everything- and he was fully on board. I suggested he take a weekend to fly in and check out the area, but he was so busy with work and instead said that he trusted my judgment and was ready to make the move. Talk about flying by the seat of your pants haha. He took his final CFP exam and started applying for jobs right away, but we figured it could take months to even get an interview. At this time, we lived in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas and if you know anything about that area, it’s a massive metroplex- the population is 9 million people. There’s so many jobs but it’s also very hard to get interviews or even get a callback just because many industries are so saturated. We were a little bit worried that there were only a couple job openings in Knoxville, but my husband received interview requests much faster than expected. He had a couple of interviews set up the following week.
I figured it wasn’t going to be a fast process, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to start packing and purging a few things. Within six weeks, he received two amazing job offers and was able to choose the one that he felt was the best fit. He accepted that job and by November 1, we were moving to Tennessee. Things moved much faster than we anticipated.
It was honestly a bit hectic and stressful because we knew we needed to finish our kitchen and do some repairs on the house. We had to get our house ready to be put on the market, my husband was still working at his job in Texas, and we had to find a rental in Tennessee to live in. Not to mention packing for a family of six with four kids, was a big task. We started to look for rentals the first week of October and we were approved for the very first house that we applied for! I was super nervous because there just was not a lot of rental inventory in Knoxville, especially for a family of our size. But the pieces fell into place seamlessly—something that only reassured us that this move was meant to be.
We were thrilled when we found a rental that would be a good fit for our family and we signed the lease. That was one big step that was now out of the way. Then we started the process of packing up the whole house and purging as much as we could. We got rid of a lot, but it was just a daunting experience.
My kids and I actually moved out to Tennessee first, while my husband tied up all the loose ends in Texas. It was a bit of a whirlwind, honestly. He put his notice in on his current job and finished up everything at the house. It was so much easier for him to get things done alone because he was not working and with me and the kids gone, he was able to get things done without distractions.
He got everything for the house ready and that was a lot. He did have to hire a contractor to help him. There was just so much work to do, but he is amazing and got it done. He finally joined us in Tennessee right before Thanksgiving and we signed with a property management company to handle everything for our house.
Reflecting on the Journey
Looking back, this move was years in the making. We took our time, did our research, visited different places, and trusted our instincts. But it wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t trust our intuition and take a few risks. Every obstacle and delay led us to the right place, at the right time. Tennessee has already begun to feel like home, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the way everything unfolded. We are currently renting and we aren’t sure what specific area we’ll end up in, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out soon!
If you’re considering a big move, my best advice is to do your research, but also listen to your intuition. Sometimes, the best decisions aren’t the most logical—they just feel right. Sometimes, the best decisions seem crazy and you just have to take a leap of faith.
Thanks for following along on our journey! If you’re curious about our Tennessee road trip or want tips on making a big move, check out my other blog posts or feel free to message me on Instagram!
