FORE

A few months back my husband starting talking about selling our home and leaving our town.  I had never considered this, ever, and I was blown away when he brought it up.

We've lived in our neighborhood since 1999, raised our sons in this house.  

Just for fun, I played along.  His grand idea was to return to Wakulla County where my brother and sister live.  I was raised in that county and while it made since to consider it, I wanted nothing to do with it.  When he asked where I wanted to live, I looked him in the eye and said, "Navarre".

My dream was to head West and buy a house in the beautiful Panhandle of Florida.  Many of our art shows are in that area as well as into Alabama and it just sounded like paradise.

Over the months that followed, we talked about it more.  He agreed to consider NW Florida but never dug up the seeds he'd planted to get me back to my roots.

Then one day it made perfect sense to me.  We could move to an area we love, to the most gorgeous beach you can imagine, still not be too far away from my family and live in nice house surrounded by people we don't know.  

And suddenly I felt lost. 

Then I knew.

So my Zillow searches moved from the Panhandle to Crawfordville, even Sopchoppy, famous for its Worm Grunting Festival it has every April.

After a location was agreed upon, he happily announced he wanted to build.  Not buy a used house but build one from the ground up and I could have whatever I wanted as long as it was smaller than we have now, is an open floor plan and includes the kitchen of his dreams with a nice pantry.

Okay then.

There's this thing called LAND that used to be pretty inexpensive, especially in certain areas.  The first lot I found was just under 2 acres for the low, low price of $110,000.  It was on the North end of Crawfordville and at each end of the street would be a traffic light.  At one light was a Walmart and at the other, and best of all, was a PUBLIX that was under construction.

Two things.  I really didn't want to live off of Crawfordville Highway.  Secondly, we didn't want 2 acres of dirt.  Just one would do, maybe a little under and truthfully, since we're getting OLD, maybe we should build in a neighborhood where someone could actually hear us call for help should we both fall on the floor and have trouble getting up!  Or more importantly if we run out of wine coffee and aren't dressed accordingly in our pajamas to run out to the Walmart to buy some.

Then one day, as in YESTERDAY, I saw a listing.  It was hot and fresh, less than one hour old on Zillow and I pounced.

I called my niece, our realtor, and she quickly said, 

"Get it Aunt Robin.  It's close to us and that's a good price but act fast because it won't last the day.  A builder will snatch it up..."  But she said it really fast and at a higher pitch than her regular voice because she was not kidding about the timeline.

Quick as a bunny, I called the instigator of this adventure an said,

"DoYouWantToBuyALotOnTheGolfCourseInWakullaCountyFor55ThousandTellMeNowYesORNoWeDon'tHaveMuchTime"  

And as soon as he deciphered what had just spilled out of my mouth, he said, "Do it".

Less than one minute after our first conversation, I had my niece back on the line and told her we wanted the lot.

"How much do you want to offer?" she asked.

OMG she was talking way too slow.

"HowMuchShouldWe?"

"Full price.  It won't last the day."

"DoItButHurryBeforeSomeoneElseGetsIt".

Then she nearly gave me a heart attack by telling me there would be other offers they'd want to entertain but she would keep me posted.

...

And sure enough, less than one hour later, she was right.

So I said, albeit it this time a little slower, "Up our offer by $1500 and  tell   them      we'll       pay         cash."

I would worry about that part later.

...

Tick tock.

Can this day go any slower?

How long does a seller have to accept an offer?

Tick tock.

We don't play golf.

We don't even watch it on TV.

Tick tock. 

Hours pass.

More wine please.

Tick tock.

I don't want to build a house there anyway.

Let's just stay here. This house is paid for.

Tiger Woods gets on my nerves.

Who wants to worry about golf balls shattering our glass?

Man, we'd have a gorgeous view out of those broken windows.

This whole process started around 7:30 a.m. and it was now after 6:00 pm.  I didn't want to bother my niece again but I was so antsy.

I texted her at 6:19 and waited.  And waited. 

She was busy, out at a function, but finally got back to me when I was in the shower so it went unnoticed for a half hour.

And then I saw it.

 

Well then.  

Looks like I'd better dig up some cash.  And maybe go take a look at the .82 acre lot I just spent it on!!!