Well, the time has finally come. After living in four states over the past four years, I’ve found a place to settle down. I started looking for a place to buy after deciding I liked it here enough to stay.

The parameters I gave my agent were a bit challenging; I drew a circle on the map of the area I was interested in living in and a fairly low price point but I reassured him that I wasn’t afraid of a little hard work. I’ve restored two fixer-uppers before, I figured I could do it again.

It took three months of looking and I’ll be honest, I was starting to despair, but then a little block house popped up on the market. Built in 1954, this two bedroom, one bath (with a Florida room – a bonus room of sorts) had been partially renovated. While it was filthy, and obviously in need of quite a bit of elbow grease, the bones were good. Plus, it’s located on a large, fenced, corner lot on a cul-de-sac in a quiet, little neighborhood just ten minutes from my old apartment (and the beach). ​

I closed on it the last day of September and after ten long days of work I moved in this past Saturday. Which explains the lack of activity on this blog, I’ve been too darn busy! I still have a great deal of work to do but the house is clean and livable.

Before photos: Note the lack of trim/baseboards as well as the orange and industrial grey paint scheme – blech!

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After photos: I have yet to tackle the Florida room, the guest bedroom, and the kitchen but the main living area is at least clean, freshly painted, and livable.

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Exterior photos: Needs to be painted and some landscaping work. All in due time…

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