Normally when I’ve shared tours of our new homes, they’ve been rentals. Living the military life these past 20 years has prevented us from buying a home, since we never wanted to be landlords or have me and the kids stick behind if we couldn’t sell it when it came time to relocate. But THIS time, it’s really ours!

We are officially homeowners and it sure does feel good! It’s crazy to think where we were less than a year ago in this decision process. In January, Logan and I flew out to Idaho for our anniversary to scout things out and see if we wanted to move there once he retired. We had really enjoyed our time living in San Diego – the access to all the national parks, the outdoor activities galore, and of course the amazing weather. I really was imagining us living somewhere in the PNW.

Idaho was beautiful but there wasn’t a lake to live on, houses were crazy expensive, the population was really growing exponentially there, and the sun didn’t rise until after 0800 in the winter?! Not to mention we really weren’t sure we liked the snow that much, lol! So we started looking for lakes on the east coast.

In February we drove down to Lake Keowee, SC with the kids in tow and it was beautiful! But, home prices directly on the lake were more than we wanted to spend and the idea of moving somewhere where we didn’t have our USMC family or our own family seemed to weigh heavy on us. My family is in Florida, so we started looking at homes on lakes there and realized we could get a lot more for our money.

But Florida is a big state and most of the bigger lakes were still six plus hours away from my family in Tallahassee. So, on a whim, we started looking at homes in Tallahassee and were surprised to find several homes that were located on smaller lakes. Not surprisingly, being close to family won. We drove down to Florida for Easter and started making a list of potential neighborhoods we liked, as well as looking at a few homes.

Here’s our checklist of what we were looking for in a home:

• On a lake
• If not on a lake, then a pool
• One level (if two, master on the first floor)
• Trees on the property (live oaks would be a big bonus)
• At least .5 acre
• Older, established neighborhood with character (all the houses look different)
• 3,000 sq. ft. minimum, not to exceed 4,000 sq. ft.

In April, Logan flew down to view a one level rancher that our realtor found in one of our desired neighborhoods.  He wasn’t impressed – it needed a lot of work.

Coincidentally, another house we had driven by previously,  but had been under contract – a beautiful brick colonial – was back on the market.  I had viewed the pictures online, but wasn’t crazy about the aesthetics on the inside of the home.  The outside however was gorgeous!  Our realtor set up an appointment for Logan to view it.  It was love at first sight! He immediately called me to tell me how great it was. In fact, my sister was taking a video of the backyard to send me and caught Logan saying “can we buy it?”  We put an offer in that day and it was accepted the following day!  By May, we were homeowners!  Totally meant to be!

We weren’t able to move in until July due to the kids finishing school and our jobs, but that gave us some time to hire a contractor and start making some changes. Stay tuned because I can’t wait to share all that we have planned for our new home!