House Hunting in Vero Beach

The adults in the house got up at 5am to get ready to go to the airport. Just before we left, we got the kids up and dressed. We were out the door at 6am, just as planned.

Jonathan's mom Shirley dropped us off at the Greensboro airport, and we were plenty early for our flight. She left with the boys, as she will be taking care of them while we're gone. Matthew got a special breakfast at Chick-fil-a, courtesy of Grandma Sissy!

Our flights went well, and as we descended into the Melbourne, FL airport, I was in semi-disbelief. We're in FLORIDA! To LIVE here, not to visit! AAA!

We got our Avis rental car (a PT Cruiser) and drove on out to Vero Beach. The whole time I was in a haze, amazed at what was happening. This crazy scheme is really happening, right now!

We listened to Amy Grant's Behind the Eyes on the CD player, and we were struck at how much the song "Leave It All Behind" applied to our situation. So funny!

We met with a realtor I'd met online, Liz Sherman. She showed us a home that was in our price range, but the property didn't feel right. She was really nice, and it was great to meet her.

We looked at a rental home (but didn't go into) that we heard about through Jonathan's school, but again it didn't have the right "feel", and the neighborhood wasn't to our liking.

There was another realtor I'd been communicating with online lately, Vicky Hagy, and she had a property available for rent, but it was the only house she had in our price range. All her rental homes were getting scooped up really fast, and with the approaching hurricane, she assumed this one might go soon as well. Rental homes go quickly after hurricanes, as displaced homeowners need a place to live while repairs on their regular homes are done.

We met her out at the location: 6325 6th Place in Vero Beach, zip code 32966 (in case you want to look it up on the map). While we waited for her to arrive, we poked around the property and peeked into the windows. It looked perfect! The bedrooms were a good size, the kitchen (from what we could see) looked good, and there was a garage.

When Vicky arrived and let us in, we were sold. The kitchen area is HUGE, the floors are stone tile (hence we can bring the cat!), the bedrooms are plenty big, and it looks like the den area will be big enough for me to jump around with my exercise videos. Plus it's near a very good elementary school, Glendale Elementary. Jonathan looked at me and said, "Push the 'Deal' button! We're done!" I looked at Vicky and said, "We'll take it!"

It turns out, the realtor of the owners of this home is Liz Sherman, whom we 'd met with earlier in the day. She was initially confused about why we hadn't gone through her in the first place, but it really was a fluke that we'd hooked up with Vicky and happened to view one of Liz's properties. I'm glad we're able send some business her way, in any case.

We parted ways with Vicky, then realized we hadn't taken any photographs of the house. She was so gracious to drive back over and let us snap shots and take room measurements. I'll post photos online as soon as I can, but right now I can't. I'm using the computer lab at Flight Safety Academy and the system won't let me.

While waiting for her to return, I met our neighbor across the street, Shannon. She looks like she's about my age, maybe a year younger. She has 2 children, the eldest is 5 and the youngest is 3 I think. The eldest boy might make a good playmate for Matthew! And next door to Shannon is a family with 6 kids. We're so excited that Matthew might have neighborhood friends to play with. The street is a dead-end as well, so he should be able to ride his bike outside a bit.

At some point today we also went by the school board to pick up paperwork for Matthew's enrollment. We really wanted to come back tomorrow to deliver our paperwork and address verification, but with the impending hurricane they're going to be closed. I don't know what we're going to do. We'll figure something out.

We went to the grocery store to buy food to eat in our room. For one thing, it's cheaper and healthier than eating out, and we also surmised that alot of restaurants would be closed tomorrow anyway. Might as well fend for ourselves!

We came home an ate dinner, then we came up to the computer lab to check email and such. Afterward we headed back to our room. I did a workout video that I'd brought from home and Jonathan fell asleep as I jumped and wiggled in front of the television.

I didn't sleep well, being in a strange bed, my brain running a mile a minute and hearing Jonathan's snoring. Hopefully we'll be able to sleep late in the morning-- no kids to tend to!