Monday, January 27, 2014

So Much Change

Whew! I am finally coming up for air after the past few months! Like the holidays aren't enough to keep us crazy busy we decided to throw in selling our house, buying a new one AND renovating all in the month of December. November was full of packing and keeping the house spotless ALL the TIME for showings which was completely exhausting but paid off. We closed on the sale of our old home December 2nd and closed on our new house December 3rd. We really were not even looking to move we just happened to stumble across a house in Atlantic Beach and when we went to look at it we fell back in love with beach life. We saw families riding bikes in bathing suits and all the restaurants and activities the beach has to offer we were sold...even though we found out later that week the house we were interested in was under contract. We had the bug and we had it bad! We looked at a few houses but we had strict requirements since we were really happy in our current home, we were not going to move just to move. We wanted this house to be everything we would want for the next 20 years. That being said we wanted to be walking distance to beach OR have a pool...both would have been nice but last time I checked my lotto numbers we were not winners!!! The problem with the beach houses are they are small and typically need a lot of updating. So after looking and looking we tried our luck on a short sale. Charles and I were nervous because the stars would have to align for this to all work out. I threw my hands up and said a prayer and decided God would make the final decision as to where we should be. We got acceptance from the bank that they approved our short sale offer without us having a contract on our current house. I was nervous the whole deal would fall apart but was also OK with it if that was where we were meant to be. 6 days later we got an offer from a couple who were in Japan on their honeymoon!!! SO CRAZY! They had not even walked in our house. We set the closing dates and it all worked out. We were homeless for the entire month of December which was hard for me to not have my own house and decorations up BUT we stayed at Charlotte and Adams for 2 weeks leading up to Christmas break and they are wonderful. The girls feel right at home there and I absolutely LOVED seeing Brooke every single day for 2 weeks straight!!!! Ansley loved seeing Bogey every single day...Addison could have lived without Kickball and her stinky gas problem!!! :) Then we headed to Vero and then my sister's for Alexander's first Christmas. It was such a great holiday week! We even got to go out in the boat. Only in Florida can you go on a boat ride in short sleeves on Christmas Eve! :) We headed back the 26th to check progress on renovations which had stopped for the week of Christmas and we stayed with Guy and Reva. We are so thankful that family was so willing to open their homes for us and give us a place to sleep and eat! I was hell bent on moving in before Addison and Ansley started at their new school. We luckily got in to the Catholic school literally 5 minutes from our new house (a big change from the 20 min drive I was use to). One child moved so there was exactly 1 random opening for Addison in VPK....again it was meant to be! Addison is loving her new class and has made many new friends. I think mommy was more nervous for her than she was herself. Mommy IS loving the uniform though! :) Ansley is my happy go lucky gal and she loves her new school. She still only goes Tues/Thurs which is plenty for mommy! The house is not entirely done, we still need a back splash, built ins go in this week, tile around the fireplace and then hang my millions of pictures! :) I will post lots of pictures when it is all done! Here are some before/after pics of house and girls. They sure are growing to fast for my liking!