New Digs

Well, we haven't closed yet, but we do have a contract on another house in Jacksonville!!! We initially put a contract on a short sale in Jacksonville back in January. After 4 months of nothing, we get the appraisal back and the terms of the sale were absolutely ridiculous (who has 85% to put down!?). I had found another house in Jacksonville that I liked when I went out there alone in April, but that one had a contract on it already. I picked it out the day before I left and the Sales Manager told me he was 99% sure the contract on it would fall through and they would know that Monday (May 1). I flew back on Saturday (the first time I have flown alone in 3 years...and man, it felt good!) and we sat and waited for the contract to fall through. And we waited, and waited, and waited. We are set to leave at the end of June to JAX and we gave ourselves a date of May 20th to make a final decision. We were starting to get VERY nervous and exploring other options. Luckily, that day (May 20th) we found out the contract fell through!! So, we put ours in and it was accepted and now we're just hammering out and finalizing the details.

 It is over 2700 sq ft new construction with 5BR/3.5BA, upgraded appliances, granite counter tops, etc. I really liked the use of space (no formal LR/DR/garden tub in the MBR - I don't need/use those things!) and almost cried as I walked through there.  Also, the house itself also has its own Energy Star rating.  They used some serious wall stuff (?) - R21 and R31 (something like that) and also all Low-E windows which will keep the rooms at a normal temp despite the FL sun beating in on them (our windows in Milton were the opposite of that, and despite the AC being set at 78 over the summer, I don't think it ever cut off).  We are very excited to get to JAX (minus the fact that it will be hotter than you know what) and get our stuff out of storage and get into a new house. We still own our house in Milton and that has been rented out by a nice family since we left there (and hopefully they will live in it for awhile!). If you ever want to visit JAX, we definitely have more than enough room! Here are some pics: