A Heilmann World: 2015 Recap, Part 2

Part 2

May (cont'd)

This is a long one! Its a fun story that I have to tell! And it started all the epicness that was second half of 2015!

So to start, at the end of May I went in to the dentist to get a temporary crown. It was a Wednesday morning so I asked Mike if he could help me out with the girls. He was able to get the day off to stay home while I had the crown put in. Luckily it didn't take long and I was home late morning time. After I got home, I was just relaxing with Mike and the girls, browsing the internet, doing my usual and going to Zillow. We had been thinking about moving closer to Mikes job because we/he was kinda done with the hour long commute to work and had been put in contact with a realtor couple (which by the way, turned out to be THE BEST realtors in the WORLD! Love them!!!! If you are moving to FL or moving with FL, I can put you in contact with them. They truly are amazing!!) Sunshine (thats her middle name but everyone calls her that) had been sending me lists of homes but nothing had really made me go "whoa". So I'm looking on zillow and I come across this house.

Mike and I looked at the pictures in the listing and thought it was cute. It was 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1800sqft, on 3/4 and acre and best of all.....NO HOA!!! Then we looked up exactly where it was located....

What the WHAT?!?! See the green part in the center bottom of the above pic? That's UCF. Mike works at UCF!! This house was sooo very close to his workplace! I asked Mike if he wanted me to message Sunshine about it. He said sure. So I sent Sunshine the info I'd found and asked about it. She called me right away to tell me not only was it just listed and still available but that house was Paul's (her hubby) parents rear neighbors! So our awesome realtors personally knew everything about the location of this home and could tell us sooo many good things!! Crazy!! She asked if we wanted to go see it and we agreed, so on went the shoes and we got in the van and headed to the house.

We arrived at the house, its an older home but kinda cottage-like. There was a huge oak tree beside the driveway. So far, I'm ok with it. We head inside and yes indeed, the kitchen was bright orange. wow. After looking at the entire home, I was unsure. It felt like it was a lot smaller than our current home (2500sqft) and I didn't know if I could make it work. But Mike liked it. I could see that he really felt something about the house. We even timed the drive from the house to the parking lot at Mike's job. 10min! So Sunshine and Paul sent us home with all the info and told us to sleep on it. That was a rough Thursday. I cried and cried because I knew the location and everything about this home was exactly what we wanted...minus the size. Could I make it work? Was it worth losing my front room/formal dining? I was in tears. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, could I take it? So what do I do? I put a plea for help and guidance on Facebook! I had a friend comment that as long as the closet size was good and there was plenty of storage space, it was totally doable. That helped me calm down a TON (thank you Michelle Tweed!!)

So after that day to stew on it (and cry and stress for me) Sunshine called me again on Friday morning. She totally understood my fears and offered to take us back out to the house to look at it one more time. I thought that was a great idea now that I had new info on what to look for in the house. So the girls and I met Mike and Sunshine and Paul at the house one more time to look through it. Closets were large. Check! Feeling a bit better. Looked in the attic above the garage...TONS OF SPACE!!! It was a whole other room! Check! Feeling even better! Now came the big question, do we make and offer. Taking a deep breath, we decided to just go for it. Lets make an offer on this house!

We submitted our offer with a long closing so we could sell our current house, then went home to do the one thing that kills me...wait. We wouldn't know anything till (hopefully) Saturday. On saturday we went about our usual, going to Publix to get food to kill time. The whole time after we put in the offer, I would think that they won't take our offer. There was another offer on the table as well, they won't take ours. But I was totally fine with that. Me and my sentimental attachments to things. I was having a hard time thinking about letting go of our first home Mike and I bought together. If they didn't take it, oh well. While in publix I get a call from Sunshine...the one we had been waiting on. THEY TOOK OUR OFFER!!!!! WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!! I was in shock!

So now came another hard part, selling our Sanford house. Of course we would be working with Sunshine and Paul. They were quick to act and start marketing the house. I wasn't too affected until the key box on the door was put on and the sign went in the yard. Tears.

I begged for help from my church friends to help me clean and get the house ready for the marketing pictures because I only had a day and a half. It usually takes me at least 2 to 3 days to clean the house top to bottom. It just wasn't going to happen. So with the help of several ladies, we got the house spotless and ready for pictures on Monday. (remember we submitted our offer on Friday, it was accepted Saturday, now pics of house to sell Monday. yikes! whew!). Tuesday the house was active on the market and being marketed everywhere! I get emails from Homesnap and opened it up to see my house! Eek!!

We thought for sure it would be a while for any movement on our house but by Wednesday, exactly one week from when we first found the Oviedo house we bought, our Sanford house sold, full price offer! It was on the market for 1 day! ONE DAY!! Talk about the most whirlwind week EVER! Found a house, bought house and sold old house...all in a WEEK!!

After all that craziness, Mike got to come with me and the girls to the last story time at the Zoo while we lived next door. (one thing that I really miss about the Sanford house)

Evey also had a large cavity in her tooth so she got to experience the Dentist for the first time. She got laughing gas and did great!

June

Time to start packing up! We rented a 10'x30' storage unit that was literally 2min for the house and started taking van loads over. The girls loved to help load the van. We borrowed a friends (Michelle Tweed) truck for the larger furniture.

I also got to go with the young women from my church on their girls camp. It was a fun experience. I only stayed 2 days, one night. I was going to sleep with the leaders in their tent, but that night the spiders took over! They were everywhere! I chickened out and slept in the back of my van.

More packing. The house of slowly starting to clear out. I would stage everything in the front room to go out to the van to take to the storage unit. One positive about moving and moving to a smaller house was that I HAD to downsize and purge A LOT! It felt really good actually!

The girls loved helping drain the 55gal drums from the garage.

One of my running mama friends got married. The girls were a special invite, since it was an adult only wedding. These girls love their Mama T!

Filling the storage unit. This is about mid-June. There's still lots of room in there!

And storage unit FULL! We used every square inch of the 10'x30' space.

1 day before we closed on the house, the A/C went out. Talk about timing. Ugh. I got lucky when I found this company who could come out on a moments notice to fix it. It was a cheap, easy fix and the A/C was back up and cooling the house. Whew!

Closing day! Our last picture in front of our first house. Thank you 360 Willowbay Ridge. We had lots of fun memories, 2 babies, and fun with you!!

After closing, Sunshine and Paul gave us an awesome closing gift, a large bucket of goodies for a road trip! Since we were now homeless (sold Sanford home but had not closed on Oviedo house yet), we decided to go north to my parents house in Ohio. Here are some of the fun things in our "road trip" bucket.