June 2018: First Sour, Ending Sweet

I’m normally super excited for June because June normally means the true beginning of summer, but in Florida, the lines of when summer begins are so blurred and it’s so outrageously and uncomfortably hot that I can’t say I was looking forward to summer, only that I was looking forward to getting out of Florida as much as possible. Especially after the way June came steamrolling in…

May 31, I went to Sam’s Club to get some grocery shopping and came out to find that my Jeep wouldn’t start. It wasn’t the battery because all my lights and AC would come on but it would just click when I tried to start it all the way. I had to Uber home with Tatum and all my loose groceries and tell my stepmom I couldn’t pick her up at the airport the next day anymore because I wouldn’t have a car. Friday, (June 1) Brian got a phone call from our renters in Utah saying the garbage disposal broke. Saturday, the Jeep was still at Sam’s Club and after breakfast out with my stepmom and grandma, Brian waited around at Sam’s Club for THREE AND A HALF HOURS waiting for them to tow the Jeep to my grandma’s where he would have room to work on it since we still lived in our apartment at the time. Once it finally got to my grandma’s, Brian spent 5 ½ hours attempting to get TO the starter to check it, but Jeeps are apparently the worst and he had to remove the entire drive shaft. Probably 15 trips to the store later for tools and parts and it still wasn’t resolved that day because at the last minute (and as it was getting dark), Brian realized he needed something ELSE he didn’t have.

Sunday, I woke up with a splitting migraine and the water shut off to our apartment due to a major pipe break in our building. We took showers at my grandma’s and saw my stepmom off, and that night Tatum woke up with 104.3 degree fever and we had an almost entirely sleepless night. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the water wasn’t restored to our building until 5 PM the next day so I was feeling gross but more importantly I couldn’t give Tatum a bath to try and bring her fever down. That night, Brian had another three hours of working on the Jeep before he ran out of daylight and Tuesday, he gets the Jeep fixed only to have to go buy a new battery for his car because it died. WE COULD NOT CATCH A BREAK.

If you saw my previous post, you saw that we bought a house and closed the first week in June! This was a very exciting and a very stressful time, especially with everything else that happened to us the first weekend of the month. There were a few things that the owners were supposed to have taken care of in advance that they suddenly said they wouldn’t be able to do in time. While it was annoying and they were in breach of contract, our options were to let the house go and know it would immediately be snatched up (we were in a bidding war and know there were at least three other offers on the table when they chose ours) or accept closing credits and take on the burden of a few projects ourselves. We chose the latter.

We were very strategic about when we put an offer in. Putting an offer in on the house in May gave us a closing date in June and our first mortgage payment wasn’t due until August, which is when our lease ended on our apartment. That meant we had from our closing on June 8 until August 16 to clean, paint, and get our stuff moved in before our lease ended, and we only paid double on rent and mortgage for half a month. We got most of the stuff done in June so we could move our stuff in July before I went on a weeklong vacation home for a friend’s wedding. We painted everything except the kitchen that we’re replacing the floor on (so I wanted to wait and choose a color once I bought the tile) and the third bedroom that’s getting a facelift in September.

All of our free time in June was spent working on the house with a few fun breaks. Brian turned 26 and we got a babysitter and went out for dinner at Bonefish Grill, then took a sunset walk at the beach. I made him his favorite homemade chocolate cheesecake and we celebrated my favorite person in the world, so it was a great day.

The day before Father’s Day, we went and used our last Disney day at EPCOT and quite literally ate our way around the world. We had macaron ice cream sandwiches and ham and cheese croissants from France, Brats and chips in Germany, gelato from Italy, Fish & chips in the United Kingdom, and snacks from pretty much everywhere else. EPCOT is great because wait times are way less than every other park and we rode everything. Tatum loved Nemo & Friends and Frozen Ever After, Brian and I rode my favorite (Soarin’ Around the World), and Tatum got to meet Ana and Elsa and take pictures with them. Father’s Day was spent at church and home with Brian’s favorite foods and desserts and it was a great end to a great weekend.

At the end of June, we made our second trip to Utah in 2 months. We planned this trip perfectly because Kevin and Amanda were in town visiting and one of Brian’s best friends, Glen, was getting married. We flew out on a Wednesday after Brian got off work, and Thursday we spent all day at Lagoon with Brian’s parents, Kevin and Amanda, and all the nieces and nephews. It’s so fun letting Tatum play with her cousins. She evened the count on the Baldwin grandchild side, so now there’s 4 boys and 4 girls.

Glen and Kelsey’s wedding was on Friday, so we left Tatum with Lindy and her cousins and went to their sealing in the Salt Lake Temple. This was my second time going to a sealing at this temple and it was so beautiful! We had some time to kill after the ceremony until the reception, so we grabbed some In ‘N Out (of course) and caught up with some friends in between. That night, Brian and Lindy and I went to see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom because everyone else had gone during the day while we were gone and Lindy had the little kiddos. I love me some Chris Pratt!

Saturday was pretty laid back, but we had a late celebration of Brian’s birthday and an early celebration of Braxton’s 12^th birthday that evening. A friend of Brian’s since he was little had a wedding reception that evening that he headed off to and it felt like a really fulfilling trip that so many big events happened while we were there again. Sunday, we went to church and visited all of Brian’s grandparents that we’ve really missed seeing every Sunday! Monday, we had to head out again but not before shopping a little at Station Park and grabbing more Utah food! It’s always how we end our trips LOL.

It was nice to really get a lot out of our two trips out there, but we’re both happy to not be traveling west again until November! Tatum is such a trooper on airplanes but the long flights aren’t easy on anyone, especially with layovers and tons of delays... Airports just don’t seem to be able to get it together as much as they used to these days. Another busy month in the books! And we’re very happy it ended much better than it started…

Here's a mixed up compilation of photos of our adventures!

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We Bought Another House! In Florida... (June 2018)

Most of our friends and family know we still own our Utah house and rent it out, and after much debating back and forth and a few weeks of looking with a realtor, we decided to put an offer in on a house here in Clearwater, FL. It was killing Brian and I that we were paying more for our crappy two bedroom apartment with no yard here than we pay on our mortgage for our 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in Utah with a garage and fenced in backyard at the back of a quiet neighborhood. When we found this house, I was certain it was what we were looking for and I made Brian go look at it with the realtor that same afternoon after I saw it. In the end, it was a bidding war but ultimately we got it and didn't go any higher than what we said we would bid overall.

I've probably ranted about it before but housing in Florida is the worst. The really nice places are $2100/mo. for a 2 bedroom place, or it's government subsidized and we make too much money to have a decent place for a decent price. We wound up renting in a crappy apartment complex that would shut our water off randomly because of "water main breaks" because it was the only place available for a decent price when we needed to move. People ask me all the time what it's like living in Florida and I tell them it's a great place to vacation, we're not in love with living here. But with Brian starting his MBA in August, that will keep us here at least until December 2019, so we decided to buy a small house, put some work into it, and hopefully get a return on our investment, instead of just throwing the money down the drain on rent.

We had a very small window on the map of where we wanted to buy. We wanted to be in the boundaries to go to the same church we go to now, we didn't want Brian to have a long commute to work in Tampa (it's currently 15 mins or less), we didn't want a HOA (ours in Utah is a TRAIN WRECK), Brian had to have a garage and decent backyard, and we didn't want to be off a main road. Between sink holes and flood zones, it was not easy but we started looking at the perfect time, put an offer in, and were able to close on the house between vacations at the beginning of June. We have our apartment lease until the middle of August so we've been able to do all the painting and cleaning we wanted to get done before moving our stuff (which we've already done now, I'm just behind on posting this).

We were looking for something specifically that we could renovate and update some and this was the perfect house. It's 3 bedrooms, one bathroom, with a huge fenced in backyard. It's pretty small but there's no wasted space. Each bedroom has a big closet and the rooms don't feel too tiny. It's also nice because we have wood or tile in all the rooms. After our Utah house and all the renovations we had to make with that, I'm very skeptical about houses with carpet now!! We're working on the permits and plans to expand the third bedroom, add a master bathroom and walk-in closet, and transform it into a real master suite. The outside is a gross yellow color and I can't wait to paint the exterior in September. I'm not a fan of "Florida house colors." Before we moved in we painted the living room, dining room, hallway, two bedrooms (excluding the one we're going to renovate), and the bathroom.

My awesome stepdad is a contractor at home in West Virginia so he's going to do most of the work for us when they come visit in September. We're going to extend the front porch, rework the landscaping out front (waiting for my talented mama to come down to help me with this), add a screened in back deck, and update some other things along with the renovation (new tile floor in kitchen, backsplash, reworking the garage a bit, etc.). Brian has already planted two trees: one grafted lemon and orange tree, and one grapefruit tree! We also have garden boxes that we'll be planting soon, and our backyard is up against a park so we don't have any neighbors behind us which is great!

I'm resisting posting more pictures until we have more before and after photos, but I'll put a few up of the changes we've already made! The people who lived here were renting it from an older couple and they were able to make changes to the home--- which was not a good thing. The people who lived here had a weird obsession with "distressing" things-- doors, cabinets, walls-- which to them was just brushing some paint places that it shouldn't have been. The bathroom cabinet and all the doors to the bedrooms, garage, and closets were all "distressed" and I'm so glad that's been fixed LOL. 

It feels good to be back in a place that's all ours, with no neighbors on the other side of a wall, people to tell us how to keep our grass 1/18 inch tall, or steal our parking spots. I also enjoy not having to carry groceries up a flight of stairs or drive our trash down to the trash compactor. You take for granted walking down your driveway to the mailbox when you don't have to drive to the post office to mail a letter. 

I was overwhelmed with all that we have to do with this house but now that we're settled in, we both feel good about it and Tatum is obsessed with the house. We painted her room purple and bought her a pool that's big enough for the three of us to all play in comfortably. I feel like I have so much freedom now! I can lay out and soak up some sunshine while she's outside, getting some sunshine, corralled and playing happily in the water. As much as I love the beach, it's really nice to be outside without leaving home and not be dying of heat stroke! Our neighborhood is pretty quiet and I love the location. I feel like we've learned so much from buying our first house and now we're that much wiser! There's definitely adjustments to buying in Florida, like prepping for the current hurricane season, buying window clamps and hurricane shutters just in case, etc. But we're excited for a new challenge and more renovations!

Bathroom BEFORE

Dining room/Living room BEFORE

 Hallway BEFORE (more ugly yellow)

Bedrooms BEFORE (all three bedrooms and the bathroom were this neon blue)

Living room AFTER 

We painted the living room, dining room, hallway, and one bedroom this neutral gray

Here's an example of the hideous "distressing" that I mentioned before. These doors are all white now!

Hallway AFTER

Tatum's lilac purple room. It actually looks kind of like the gray but you can see more of a difference with her toys and furniture in there (see photo #2). 

Bathroom AFTER

We painted the walls a dark greenish blue and decided to turn the "distressed" cabinet black. The other walls are covered in white tile so to accent all the white we needed some darker colors. Also, bonus points for the double sink! Getting ready for church has never been so easy haha. 

Being an adult for me is getting way too excited over a brand new washer and dryer! But I LOVE doing laundry now, so that's enough for Brian LOL. 

Our backyard needs to be reseeded heavily and it's on our to do list for the weekend, but here's part of our backyard with a very happy baby in her pool. 

I'll do more renovation posts as we get things done! 

Xo- Jess

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