The Hunt Begins
The time has come to start looking for a new place to live. My time at my beautiful little sister's house is almost done ... sad face because it has been so fun, happy dance because I will get to have a whole house and my husband back. We got word that Patrick can (finally!!) start his new job the last week in April.
Eden's puggle Tuff & Avery taking over
After a long (mostly internal) debate, we have decided to rent a house for a year, for a couple reasons. The first reason is that we won't be living in Jupiter. We were ready to buy a top-of-our-price-range forever home, because we knew what we wanted and where we wanted to be. Apparently, God has other plans. Patrick's position is in Fort Lauderdale (over an hour's commute through south Florida traffic on I-95 from Jupiter = no bueno), and mine is in West Palm Beach, therefore we'll be living somewhere in the middle. We still have friends where we went to college, so back to the Boca Raton area it is. Secondly, when (notice I didn't say "if"... faith, people!) we sell our house, we could pay off the rest of our student loans. Wouldn't that be amazing? Debt free... sounds so nice... oh and yeah, Patrick needs a new vehicle. He's been driving the same awful Ranger since he was 16, but that's a story for another day. It will be nice to concentrate on family, friends, settling into our new jobs, and upcycling some furniture (this girl loves a good garage sale and some spray paint), and generally have a bit less stressful year ahead of us.
That being said, yesterday I started our hunt for rental properties. We are kind of a difficult situation; we both drive trucks, have two dogs, and one of which is a breed people thing are vicious, which most definitely is not the case. Realtors don't typically want to work with us - I literally got fired within a phone conversation with the first realtor we tried to use. Thankfully, Patrick and I found the realtor we used in college, a friend of a friend who is more than willing to work with us. So, I went down to Boca yesterday and drove around with a few college friends looking for "For Rent by Owner" signs in the neighborhood where we want to live, just to cover all our bases, and re-familiarize ourselves with where we'll be living. I can't say it was successful, but it was fun. Getting to spend time with friends always makes for a fun day.
In typically college fashion, we made this amazing meal of grouper and lobster (our friends are water people) and some delicious butternut squash pasta. One of my favorite places is Steve's back porch. Good times and good friends happen there.
Overall, a good Saturday.