It took a lot of planning to get here…
Hi, we’re Nikki & Steve, and we moved to our dream location, Stowe, Vermont, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It took a lot of planning & dreaming to get here…
When we met and began dating back in 2007, Steve was leaving (indefinitely) for Colorado to become a raft guide. We were both living in Pittsburgh at the time, where I worked for mortgage company and he was a general contractor. Steve never wanted to live in Pittsburgh forever, and his business was causing him a lot of stress & anxiety. He needed a break from construction, and while it broke my heart to see him go, I stayed in Pittsburgh. Months later, after his sick dog brought him back to PA, we reconnected & have been together ever since.
Over the past 18 years, we have purchased, renovated, & lived in 3 houses while residing in Pittsburgh. Our first home was in Brighton Heights, where we both did an overhaul on a large, brick four-square style house, and eventually got engaged. Our second home was near Sewickley, where we renovated a 1910 farmhouse on a spacious acre, got married in our front yard, & then had our two sons, Evan & Cameron. Our third home was in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, where we completely reconstructed a small, Cape Cod style house into a traditional two-story house with much more square footage.
It was in our third home that we converted his bathroom remodeling business into an online business where we offer DIY bathroom remodeling courses and social media content to help others with their own bathroom remodels. This is what allowed us the opportunity to move to Stowe, Vermont.
We visited Stowe in the fall of 2013 for the first time. We were captivated by its views and nature, & fell in love with the area quickly. We longed for a slower life, surrounded by the beauty of mother nature. At that time, with Steve’s bathroom remodeling work based in Pittsburgh & our desire to stay close to family, we didn’t think moving north was possible.
We kept coming back to visit Stowe year after year. The first time we brought Evan to Vermont (he was only 2 at the time!) we found I was pregnant with Cameron. We bought a used RV & camped at Maplewood Campground in Johnson every year, so we could come back to Stowe frequently. Each time we left to head back to Pittsburgh, we felt the pull to move even stronger.
It wasn’t until Covid hit, & when Steve switched up his main business from manual construction labor to online courses & content, that we really began to consider moving to Stowe, Vermont. We made a 5 year goal: to purchase property in Vermont by 2025.
We initially thought we would buy land in Vermont and build. We were looking at towns outside of Stowe, like Morrisville & Elmore. We thought we could buy land & come up during the summers to work on building a house. We figured maybe the boys would just finish school in Pittsburgh, & then we would move to Vermont.
But the more our vision took shape, we realized we didn’t want to just be in Vermont over the summers. We wanted to be there year round. We also wanted our sons to experience living in Vermont while they were young. Our goal was shifting from just buying land in Vermont to buying a home & moving our entire family to Vermont.
Since our kids are still in school, finding a town in Vermont with a good school district was incredibly important to us… especially since we would be leaving behind a very good school district in Pittsburgh. This is how we ultimately landed on Stowe.
We have always loved Stowe. The village is amazing, the skiing unbelievable, and the small-town feel incomparable. But, we always avoided making Stowe our goal because it felt too expensive, too unattainable. We now know you cannot let those fears stop you.
Our final goal had changed to a much more specific desire: to find a home in Stowe in 2025, & move there in the summer. There is a lot that went on behind the scenes (like borrowing money from a close friend & cashing in our BitCoin!), but once we got the money lined up exciting things began to happen. An interesting home in Stowe appeared on the market in February. Steve saw the listing and got excited. We both loved its look, location, & the fact that it needed some work. It checked all of our boxes.
We quickly organized & headed up to Stowe 2 days after the listing appeared online to see the house. We were the only interested buyers who looked at the property in person— the other 2 potential buyers only saw the house on a Facetime call. We made our offer above the asking price & waiving all inspections— and we won. WE WON!
We closed on Our Home In Stowe in April, and moved in June. We’ve been taking our time with renovations, trying to approach our updates with a thoughtful approach. Life is much more relaxed here in Stowe, and it’s helped us slow down. This is also the first time we have been able to live in our home without having to renovate it. Living in your home really does make a difference in how you design & improve it.
We are so excited to share all of our projects with you, and we hope that you find some inspiration in our story and our work. Thanks for coming along this ride with us!