If you had told me a year ago that today I would be living in my dream house in Georgia, I would have laughed in your face. Fast forward and here I am. Not only living in my dream house, but having my daughter move with me, and engaged to the love of my life.
It all started very innocently with a weekend trip to the home of friends, Randy & Maria. I was admiring their home and Maria said to me that she wanted to live in a home she didn't want to leave when she was on vacation. Something about what she said resonated with me. Mike and I were driving home from that weekend talking about were wanted to live and that started this crazy journey.
We knew we wanted to live within driving distance to the Gulf Coast (our favorite place to vacation), and we knew we liked older homes. We are fortunate that Mike works from home so he could work remotely anywhere. And being a licensed real estate agent I was flexible too. So we decided to go for it and move south.
I started my web search and we put our Maryland house on the market.
We found a few houses we liked. We drove from Maryland to Eastern Alabama one weekend to look at one house, but we knew that would not work.
In all my searches one home kept popping up. We called it the 'pinecone house' because the main photo for the listing showed pinecones all over the front yard. We were hesitant about the 'pinecone house' because it had been on the market for almost a year. There had to be something terribly wrong with it, right? We found four houses in Southern Georgia we wanted to see so we decided to take a weekend and go check them all out, including the 'pinecone house'. This time we opted to fly (a much better choice).
Within 5 seconds of being in the 'pinecone house', we knew we had found our new home.
As a real estate agent, I have been to many home inspections, and while I am not an expert, I do know certain things to look for. The soffits and fascia of the house were the biggest issues. The gutters had filled with debris that eventually filled with water and rotted the boards. While the damage looked extensive from the street, when I took an up-close it seemed pretty superficial. The trusses were in great shape. We discussed the options, crunched the numbers and we were under contract in a few days.
The inspection of the 'pinecone house' confirmed my findings regarding the gutter issues, and the inspector found (much to our great joy) the damage was superficial. Other than that, this 116-year-old beauty was solid as a rock.
So we packed up our stuff, our daughter, our cats, and our dog and headed to Georgia. (We moved 30 axolotls too, but that is a tale for another day).
Now, we can't imagine living anywhere else. We have met wonderful people. The cost of living is so much better. And the day-to-day pace is far more relaxing. Plus, we are living in our dream home.
The house keeps us busy. And I will be chronicling those journeys and milestones here.
Every time I drive down our street and see Her standing proudly at the corner of 12th and College Ave, I can't believe I live here. We are so blessed to have found Her. And all it took was the courage to make that leap.
Comments