Home Sweet Home

Hi my friends! I'm back online. We have been in Florida for 8 days now, and we just got internet today...finally! So much has happened in the last 2 weeks. As you may remember, I came down here in June to find a place for us to live. I found a lovely townhouse in a great neighborhood and good school district. We signed a lease on it, and we were thrilled with the great deal. However, if something seems too good to be true, there's a good chance it is too good to be true.

On July 29th we were driving between Spokane and our hotel in Montana. Matt had wired our August rent to our landlord as agreed. But that day we received an email from her asking us for the rest of the deposit. Wait...what "rest of the deposit?" She wanted $775 more. We looked back at our lease, which said nothing about there being more deposit than what we had paid. We emailed back and asked for an explanation. On July 31st she replied that she wanted $775 plus a $150 pet deposit. Back in June when I signed the paperwork, I asked and was told multiple times that the deposit amount was correct and that there was no pet deposit. Naturally, Matt and I freaked out a bit that all of a sudden, our landlord wanted an additional $925 and she wanted it now. Because made of money we are...

Then came a strange "coincidence." A friend of ours who is a missionary in Italy has a home in Orlando. They posted on Facebook that their renter had moved out and the next person who was supposed to rent the house had fallen through. Their house was sitting vacant, and they needed someone to rent it immediately, because they were at risk of losing the home if they couldn't get it rented.

To make a long story short, we went and saw the house, and instantly fell in love with it. Because we were so uneasy at the thought of renting a place from a landlord who tries to change the lease terms, we decided to back out of our lease on the townhouse. We decided not to try to get any of our money back, because our backing out left the townhouse empty for the month of August. Our friend didn't need a deposit from us, so it worked out perfectly. Our prorated August rent for the house worked out to be the same amount the townhouse landlord wanted for the balance of our deposit.

So, the house!
2800 square feet
4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms...and the bedrooms are HUGE!
Master bedroom downstairs
Big kitchen with appliances
Living room/dining room combo
Downstairs office and laundry room
Upstairs family room and craft room
Corner lot, on the corner of 2 cul-de-sacs
Gated community
Incredible school district
Convenient to just about everything
And the price? Not much more than we would have paid for the townhouse!
And we are meeting a need for a friend.
And all the colors in the house (except for one room) match our furniture and decor colors!

Here are some pictures for you.

Living room

Kitchen

Master bedroom

Office (in process, as you can see)

Upstairs family room

Guest room (don't worry, we're painting over the turquoise)

Pepper's room

Snapper's room

We are so very thankful to God for providing this great home for us. We have a wonderful work space for the days Matt works at home. And we have a big guest room...so come visit! We are 45 minutes from the Atlantic beaches, 1 hour and 15 minutes from the Gulf beaches, and 40 minutes from Disney! How very convenient! So now we are home. Home sweet home in Florida!