Sight Unseen DIY

Introduction

Hi!

My name is Meredith and welcome to Sight Unseen DIY.

About two years ago my husband and I ventured into the world of small business ownership in a food service/retail business.  We had previous experience and both of us grew up in the business so hard work and great customer service wasn’t the issue.  Sad to say, circumstances were what they were and we lost pretty much everything.

Basically, we spent two years unemployed, which meant any kind of money we made was cash or eBay or freelance writing.  I might have even sold a kidney if push came to shove.  (Joking…sort of)  That money was to keep the lights on and food but not enough to pay the mortgage.

Times were kind of hard, you know?

We learned to down-size, economize, compromise and any other “ize” you can think of.  Well, if you don’t pay the mortgage, the bank is going to want it back.  And if you don’t make your car payments they’re going to be repossessed.

Fortunately, my husband was hired with a great company but our options of living in the State of New York was limited.  If we moved somewhere that we could afford with his paycheck then he was driving over an hour to get to work.

We have a great friend that gave us a line on a decent used car so we had wheels again and now we were faced with possibly being homeless in New York.

What to do?

We looked at areas where we could transfer and afford a mortgage and taxes on one paycheck.  That’s when we started looking at Florida.

Here’s the breakdown:

New York mortgage = $1500/month plus about $9000/year in taxes.

Florida mortgage = $675/month plus about $900/year taxes.

Monetarily speaking, it was a no-brainer.  But the BIG deterrent was the fact that our family lives and works in New York.  The kids…  Well – that’s another story but let’s just say they are young men and everyone’s perfectly happy keeping in touch through Skype, email or phone calls/texts.

So we got online and started searching for a home.

Location was kind of important to us.  Being that neither of us have never lived in Florida and only visited places like Disney World, we were very limited with our geographic/neighborhood/real climate or critter knowledge.

The East Coast was out.  With our luck, we would conjure up a super hurricane.  No Thanks!  (You’re reading about a girl who almost never had a dry camping experience because rain follows me.)

South Florida was out.  Swampland, bayous, sink holes, and being that much closer to the equator is not my idea of paradise.

Northern Florida…  It had possibilities but for some reason it simply wasn’t appealing to either of us.

That’s when we targeted areas close but not on the Gulf Coast.  Thanks to technology we Google “walked” through neighborhoods.  If there were bars on all the windows we moved on.

We’re country folks.  We like trees, nature, lakes…quiet.

We happened upon a city called Brooksville.  We found a property where the owner would hold the mortgage (with outrageous interest…  but that’s another story too) – was close to where my husband was going to transfer to – was in the woods – and an older house that probably needed some fixing.

Thus launches the idea for this blog.

Buying a property sight unseen.

Showing up with a moving truck with few expectations and a lot of hope.

Having faith that we will manage through any of the challenges.

Feeling good about starting fresh in a new place.

I hope you follow along with our journey – our projects – our challenges and triumphs.

Welcome to Sight Unseen DIY!