Heading to the Beach!

Hard to believe, but the day is finally here!  My wife and I have always had a goal/dream to one day live at the beach and today we get the keys for our beach condo rental!  We're very excited!!

I've always had a love for the beach since I was a kid and my wife was the same way.  About 90% of our vacations have been at beachy locations and that was a huge part of why we moved to Florida.  We weren't quite sure how or when we'd make it to the beach, but it has always been on our minds.

We typically go to the beach to relax about every other weekend during the summer, but it's about a 35-40 minute drive each way.  My wife also works at an office at the beach, so she has that same commute every day to/from work. 

There were a few motivators to take some action.  One for me personally was turning 40 this year.  40 certainly isn't the end of the world, I still feel 21 and get carded all the time, but it was the first big number that really made me do a bit of soul searching.

40 seems to be a 1/2 way point in life.  I figured 40 is a good a motivator as any to take some bold action towards our goals and do what it takes to make it happen!  

I also had conversations earlier in the year with a friend here in town on Facebook and he was talking about moving to the beach this summer.  He's a motivational type guy, always talking about taking action and no excuses, etc.  We'd go back and forth and kinda motivate each other and push each other along.  He was saying he'd be at the beach in July, but we beat him to the punch.

I also thought about the fact that everything we're doing in life is to one day end up on or near the beach.  We're not getting any younger, so why wait?!  We've been saving $ for a few years, so we decided to do it up!

We searched for places near the beach, within walking distance to the beach and on the beach.  We had a few specific areas in mind that we liked and several areas to avoid and started our search. 

After checking out existing inventory of homes/condos for rent in the areas we were interested in, we made the decision to do it up and go for a beach front condo.  I figured why go close to the beach, spend the time and effort to move, only to still desire to be on the beach in the future.  Let's take big action now rather than baby steps. 

We looked at several condos and found one we really loved back in April.  It was in one of two locations we really like and it was a very unique place.  It was a 2 story condo on the top two floors (6th and 7th floor) of the building.  We like that no one will be above us.

It has a full ocean front balcony off the first floor living room (shown at the top), smaller ocean front balcony on the upper level master bedroom and also has a full upper deck on the back side of the building that has an inland view as well as a side view of the beach (shown below).
 

Deck Beach View

Deck Inland View

It was slightly more $, but for that additional cost it was a HUGE upgrade over the others we saw.  Only problem was that we weren't ready then, we were only checking to see what might be available in our price range.

We were very bummed out, because we felt it was perfect for us.  We had to tell the rental agent thanks, but unfortunately we're not ready at this time.  At that time the wifey said and I quote, "It will wait for us".  I thought that was a nice inspirational thought, but we really thought it would rent because several we saw were going quick.

At that time we decided to stop looking until we were ready.  We didn't want to be disappointed again.  Fast forward a month and we had gotten some additional info and we were in a better position to at least start looking again.

For kicks, I emailed the rental agent to see if it was rented out and she said someone did sign a lease that same week we looked in April, BUT they found out from the Condo Association that no one new could move in until August 1st.  That was due to the Condo covenants saying only one renter per year.

The previous tenant stayed a year and then renewed for a 2nd year, but had to move about mid way through that 2nd year.  Because of the rules, another renter could not move in until August 1st.

The people that signed the lease in April, needed it right away, so they had to back out.  And the unit had just become available again.  Another person was going to see the unit that same day I emailed, so we told her we wanted to see it again real quick and we were interested!

Things moved real quickly then, we were going on vacation to the west coast 2 days later and we wanted to be sure we had the credit/background check done, deposit down and that we had the place reserved.  It was quite stressful at the time, but it all worked out!

What the wifey said came true, it did wait for us after all!  :o)  

Update:  It was raining real hard as we were heading to the condo for the first time with the keys and I was thinking we wouldn't have a view to enjoy.  Boy was I wrong!  We were treated to an amazing rainbow as a welcome to the beach!  I took that as a good sign!

Full rainbow, welcome to the beach!

We move in Friday morning and can't wait to begin our next adventure!  We hope that it is everything we've hoped and dreamed about and I will be sure to post updates and lots of pictures as we get settled in.

And one quote has come up several times recently when I've mentioned the story that really holds true...It was paraphrased by others, but the full quote really does hold true and hopefully it provides you some inspiration as well:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover."  Mark Twain