Things didn't exactly go as planned though and I ended up at Oneneck. They weren't allowing me to work full time from home at that point so we sold the house. Natalie really wanted to stay in Anthem so we bought a house in Anthem. Then 6 months later I started working from home. During this Corona BS they made me permanent work from home so I don't ever have to step foot in the office again.
So back to when we moved here. I had "Joe's Jungle" that I invested 3 years into. I had 5 mango trees, about 100 bananas with 8 different varieties, starfruit, passion fruit, lemons, lemoncillo, guava, jackfruit, etc. Then we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment in the desert. It was a rough start. I used to have dreams of being back in my jungle and then I would wake up in the desert. From the time I moved here I've been thinking about moving back.
Well finally I hit my breaking point where I just can't take it anymore. Don't get me wrong, Arizona isn't horrible and Anthem is a great community. There's a lot of things we love about where we live but a few things that I just can't stand. Growing up in Riverside I never thought I could get too much sun. Riverside gets fog, lots of gloomy days, cool semi-humid nights with ocean breeze, etc. Then I moved to Florida where it's wet. I got used to the rain. I actually couldn't get enough of it. Then I move to the desert where it's constantly sunny to the point it gets depressing. It's on the opposite side of the spectrum as Portland but just as bad in it's own way. I look at the forecast and there are three days of rain on it and we end up getting 2 minutes of rain out of that or sometimes nothing at all. I'm just always waiting for the rain that never comes. The heat doesn't bother me so much but I can't stand how dry it is. I have to bathe in lotion every time I shower, which is often 2-3 times a day. It's dusty and more and more people are moving there and now they are starting to get air quality alerts more and more often.
On top of all this I'm looking at what is going on in our country and around the world and thinking I need to get some land and be self sufficient. If there was ever an infrastructure attack Arizona would be the worst place to be. I could survive in Florida without electricity, not in Arizona. It's too hot and no electricity means no water. I've been growing fruit trees (against HOA rules in Anthem) but it's hard to grow and if the water shuts off they'll die. Even without an attack the Colorado is running dry.
All of this has been on my mind for years. I don't want to stay in Arizona forever. I've considered Utah, Idaho, etc, but I don't have anything there and the rest of my family doesn't want to move if we move. Then back in February I was watching a show called The Swamp, and it was all about how they drained the Everglades and built up South Florida. Watching it was a little depressing. Again, I like so much out here, but it just made me miss Florida that much more watching this show. I talked to Natalie and told her I want to go back in 3-5 years.
Well 3-5 years became 3-5 months really fast. Adri is getting to the age where it's just going to get harder to move. If we wait 3 years she'll be in high school and hate me forever for moving her. I can't wait until after high school. Then I'm at the point where she might say see ya later and I have to choose between my daughter and Florida. If that was the case I'd be stuck in Arizona til the day I die. So I decided it's now or never. Yeah the kids will be sad for a while about it but they'll adapt. Beach trips and some Universal Season passes will help them get over it. I need to make these kids Floridians that don't want to leave me when they grow up.
So we talked to our realtor and got the house ready to list. Zillow at the time had my house at 590K but I told her I wouldn't be surprised if I get nearly 700K. She told me she didn't think any of her clients would want to pay that much. Haha....... By the time we were ready to list, just a month ago, Zillow had us at 617K. Our realtor says lets start at 600K and get in a bidding war. We did an open house one Saturday and by Sunday we had multiple offers, two at 710K!
It's obvious at this point that we are in a bubble. People are FOMO buying and I'm not going to have any part of that stupidity. Our plans to take the money and buy another house right away didn't work out. There are too few homes and I am picky. I could have a tiny mortgage if I wasn't picky and didn't want a yard but I know what I want. I don't want to move to Florida to get a small lot. I have certain criteria that must be met. So for now the plan is to rent, which even that is a joke, and then either buy in a year or build. I'm leaning towards the build. I have my eye on a 2 acre lot that we'll be looking at when we get there.
On April 26th we closed on our house. We live there until May 29th, rent free, and then we have until June 26th when our rental is ready. Our rental is half the size of our Anthem house and the rent is just as high as our mortgage. It's a weird feeling. I'm excited about the future and getting my fruit orchard going but at the same time Anthem is the place I've been longer than anywhere in my adult life. My kids have so many friends, it's a great community, I'm pretty comfortable here. We have a big house and we've had all of us siblings and our kids and my dad in the house for holidays with plenty of room. It's probably the thing I'll miss the most. But at least we'll be moving to a place that people want to visit.
So we'll see what happens in a month. It's happening fast but I feel like that is how it needs to be, like ripping a Band-Aid off.
May 29th we are heading to Clermont, Florida!
Here's some pictures from our listing, and a few others I took myself.
The rolled beam was falling apart. I finally fixed it.
Before.
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