We recently moved. So recently that the chaos is still surrounding me! I’m typing this blog on my husband’s desk, but using my computer, and surrounded by boxes and piles of things looking for their new homes. Now, we asked for this. We prayed for this. A lot. We’re so thankful that we finally moved and are getting settled. Our move was relatively…. simple, I’m sure it could have been much more stressful or complex. I was thinking of the people and things that helped us through this transition and I wanted to share them with others who may be moving into or around St. Augustine.
Pst! Find everything you need to know about moving to St. Augustine, FL at this link
Our Agent
We worked with an agent who sold our home and guided us through the process of buying a new one. We worked extensively with our agent because we explored every possible option for what we wanted, and were able, to do. We worked with Vince Fattizzi , from Coldwell Banker Premier Properties , for close to six months before we closed on both homes. He was patient, answered all of our questions, and probably most important of all, we knew he had our best interests at heart. We looked at many options. Buying land and building right away, buying land and just waiting to build, buying an existing home, buying an existing home that would have needed extensive work {a huge addition so our family of five could fit!}, and we finally decided to buy an almost completed home from a builder. Well, it was finished when we closed 🙂 We had a lot of hills and obstacles to get through and with each one, he was calm, reassuring, and did not put any pressure on us. We’ve worked with other agents in the past, and he was easily the best one we have worked with!
Don’t mind the iPhone photos!
How We Moved
We were very lucky that we were scheduled to close on the same day for both houses. The easiest thing for us to move our belongings was using PODs and a Budget Truck. PODs is out of Jacksonville, so I’m cheating a bit on them not being in St Augustine, but it is the closest PODs office. The people there are wonderful. Truly helpful and kind. This is the second time we’ve used them and we have not been disappointed! We used the Budget Truck location on SR 16 and they were great also. We had a delay on the closing of our new house, and they made it very easy to add additional days onto our rental.
I really did wear our daughters dress up wings while we packed. There had to some kind of fun in such a task!
Where We Stayed During the Transition
We knew that we needed to be completely moved out of the house we were selling the day before we closed. Because of that AND the delay in closing on the new one, we needed a place to stay that was close and gave us enough room. Luckily, my parents live not too far away and they took our youngest and our dogs. I can not even begin to imagine what it would have been like to get through those days with a two year old and two dogs. We finally chose to stay at Bluegreen Vacation Grande Villas and it was such a good decision. We had a very quiet two bedroom, two bath condo with a living room, ding room, and kitchen. I’d venture to say it was larger than our first apartment after we got married. Most importantly, it kept us close to where we needed to be and everyone had a spot to sleep. Spots for kids to sleep stresses me out. Sleep is vital for non cranky children, and moms, so sleeping arrangements are not something I compromise on.
***Note, this iPhone picture really doesn’t do it justice. I was running in the suite/condo to drop something off while my husband waited in the car, and I just wanted him to see how awesome it was! ***
Title Company
Our agent used Island Title LLC and Wendy helped us through the process. She was great. She answered our questions and made sure we had all the documents to her early so we weren’t stressed about getting them in while we were packing. She worked with our builder to ease our transition to the new house and getting them all the documents they needed. Even though we didn’t have an extensive number of things to get done on her side of the sale, she made life easier for the ones we did have to work with her for.
Home Inspection
Originally, we were not going to do a home inspection of the new house. We changed our minds and were very, very fortunate that Greg Strump from Sunspections was available. He helped us with our inspection on the home we just sold and caught things we really would not have noticed. He did the same for our current home. We will use him any time we need an inspection in the future!
Water Softener and Reverse Osmosis System
I am Bethany and I have a water problem. Seriously. I drink a crazy amount of water and to try to make that not so expensive, we added a reverse osmosis system to our old house and have done the same for this one. We also added a water softener. We’ve heard how hard the water is in St John’s county and we knew we needed a water softener. We used East Coast Wells for both houses and could not be happier. We will eventually add a well, yikes the cost, for irrigation. We will be calling East Coast for the as well!
I hope this helps someone who is moving into or around St. Augustine! We love living here!
A view from our new backyard!
Pst! Find everything you need to know about moving to St. Augustine, FL at this link
