Sometimes when a life transition is meant to be everything aligns effortlessly to get you where you are supposed to be. That is our story moving from the Kansas City area to Florida in August of 2013.
Disclaimer: This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you purchase an item using one of our links we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
We bought our house in the Kansas City area in 2011. Shortly after, housing prices bottomed out in 2012. We decided to put our house on the market in February 2013. If our house sold for a price where we would come out on top we would move, if it didn’t we would stay. The odds seemed to be against our plan at the time. Our house sold in five days.
We had a short period of time to prepare for the downsize from a 3 bedroom, multi level home to an apartment less than 1/3 of the size of our home. Skylar created many craigslist ads. We had people coming in an out of the house constantly. It was a relief when our closing day finally came.
For the next six months we lived in a 650 sq foot apartment to save money, and we were ready for the next chapter in our lives. We didn’t know how long our chapter in Florida would be, but we were ready.
We had sold everything that couldn’t fit in a U-haul U-Box and our two cars. It was quite freeing letting go of so many possessions, realizing how little one truly needs. When it was time, we said our good byes and headed toward St. Louis. The drive would be about 20 hours.
We booked last minute hotels outside of St. Louis, Missouri and Atlanta, Georgia. We experienced the extremely hard rain storms of the rainy season for the first time. Through every one of these storms I drove with my fists clenched around the steering wheel. We also experienced what I call sun rain – the sun is so bright and reflects off the rain, which means everything shiny and bright. Perfect for driving right?
On day three of our drive we made it to our destination, Sarasota, a city along the gulf coast of Florida south of Tampa Bay. We drove straight to the beach to breathe in the salty air. We ended up at Lido Beach for sunset.
Our first meal in the area was a fast food chain that advertised scallops. We should have known it was a bad idea to eat scallops at a fast food restaurant. Skylar really wanted to have scallops and we thought there was a chance that along the coast fast food restaurants prepared good scallops. We were wrong. They were the worst scallops we’ve ever tried! But it was at this restaurant that we secured our “home” for the next two weeks. We used a name your own price site and ended up with a great deal at a nice Holiday Inn. When the staff realized our situation they were so accommodating and brought a microwave to our room so we could prepare meals at our temporary home.
For the next two weeks Skylar settled in to his new office space, I started my job search and we secured an apartment where we would spend the next six months becoming familiar with the area.
We were very grateful for our relocation experience. When we left Kansas City we had no place to live and no idea what it would be like moving to a place we have never been before. Within the first weeks of moving we found an apartment in an area we had previously researched, and I secured a job. After five months living along the gulf coast, both Skylar and I knew we were here to stay – at least for awhile. Our next chapter began – house hunting in Florida. That story we will save for another day.
To follow our journey subscribe to our blog and YouTube Channel!