Why did you move to McEwen, Tennessee? That’s the first question we’re asked by everyone when explaining we moved here from Houston, Texas. Many people find it shocking we would just up and move to rural Tennessee without knowing anyone, no family here, and it wasn’t for work purposes.
McEwen is a little over 1 hour west of Nashville, with a population of 1,750 people. It’s a totally fair question to ask “why McEwen, Tennessee?” Really, what are these city folk doing moving way out here? My family also seemed to be pretty shocked when hearing the news we would be moving. Guess I never really told them my love for the great outdoors!
And I get it, I’ve been a city girl my whole life. Having grown up in Omaha, Nebraska and lived there until age 22, then Houston for the next 10 years. Honestly, I felt like I had all the “big” city life I had ever needed. My husband, Jason, grew up in small town in Wisconsin and knew a more simplistic and laid back way of life existed. As a kid, he got to help with his uncle and grandparents dairy farms and always had fond memories of that.
After we had our first child in 2013, we started to have more serious conversations about moving out to the country. We dreamed of getting some acreage, gardens, chickens, goats, and all that jazz. You know, a little farmstead we could provide our children with wide open green spaces and great learning opportunities. We became increasingly frustrated at having noisy neighbors, green space disappearing (a concrete jungle) due to Starbucks and CVS popping up on every corner…like every other month.
Now, rewind to 2011 when Jason and I went on a road trip through Tennessee and fell madly in love with the landscape, the people, and the music scene in Tennessee. That vacation was magic and I would replay everything about it through my mind.
One day I asked Jason, “can we look for land in Tennessee?” At first, he was hesitant and said no. I respected his answer and shelved the thought for about a month, then I brought it up again. He was more open this time and told me to start searching cost of living to see if it was doable for us.
Just by doing some easy online searches, we found beautiful properties in our price range. We ended up contacting a realtor and gave them all our non-negotiables including NO Homeowners Association (top of our list, lol), creek or pond on the property, gas cooking, minimum 5 acres, and about an hour east or west of Nashville…this is pretty much what I recall.
Fast forward to October 30th, 2014 – this was the day we put an offer on our now home. We fell in love at first sight with the 13 acre space as we drove up that day, and have called it a little piece of heaven ever since. Let me remind you it was fall and the leaves were changing on all the trees…it was like a Bob Ross painting (but in real life) galore road trip driving through Middle Tennessee. It really felt like a dream – it was so beautiful. After we toured the property and house, Jason and I felt like this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and we had to make an offer on the house. So we did, the lady accepted it, and the rest is history!
