Friday, June 10, 2016
Island Dreams Become Reality!
Well the time has come, island life is upon us! Last week we arrived for the first time EVER to St. Croix. This was initially supposed to be our pre-move visit. We would come down, rent a house or a condo for a week, do things like grocery shop, look at furniture, cars, banks, etc. and decide, is island life really for us? Well, that idea lasted all of about one week...we quickly started to get excited after booking our flights and began looking for someplace to stay. This search brought us to the realization that one week would cost us nearly the same as one month if we just started a lease on June 1st and officially moved at the end of June. We could load up our 2 suitcases each with everything but the kitchen sink and then do the same thing again at the end of June. So with many hours of research, discussion and HGTV's the Caribbean Life we pulled the trigger. We officially have a house in St. Croix, we are moved in, we have furniture and we have a lovely little island truck.
Everyone was so kind, we met a number of people from the midwest, had dinner, drinks, etc. with some wonderful people that we will soon be able to call friends!
So now here we are, back in Wisconsin forever changed, getting ready for the final move! By July 1st we will all be in St. Croix beginning our new island life!
Friday, May 13, 2016
Background:
In February of 2015 we all decided it was a great plan for the 5 of us to move in to one large house, or as we call it, "the commune". By we, I mean 2 couples, Ben and Lori and Jamie and Joe and our single friend "Gif" (Geoff)....aka 4 men and a lady! The 5 of us were just a part of our larger friend group that we had always referred to as the circle, a never ending, unbreakable group of really cool people that I am happy to not only call my friends but my family. When we announced this to the rest of the circle and to our families, we were initially looked at with blank stares and the never ending, well don't you and your husband want to be alone, aren't you worried this will ruin your friendships, why are you doing this????? We of course likely all had these same thoughts running through our heads but financially it made sense, it allowed us a rent a 3000 square foot home that sat on 40 acres with a large pond and a pole shed in the middle of nowhere. Fast forward one year.........February of 2016 - Ben and I returned home from our 3 week vacation to Fiji and New Zealand where we visited another member of our little circle who made a huge move oversees a few years ago. Needless to say, I came back happy but sad that it was over and a little jealous that she had done such an amazing thing and took a risk like moving to NZ! It was something I had thought about doing but had always been scared to do. Upon our return we were chatting like we often do about the possibility of buying a small hotel (a few of us are hoteliers with big dreams!), nothing huge (yet!) but enough to support at least a few of us. We decided maybe it was the right time to seriously look at where we could do this. We first started looking in our home state of WI, slowly started expanding to other areas of the region, and then outward towards the coasts and then we discovered the Caribbean Life on HGTV...... We saw all of these people moving to the Caribbean, if they could do it why can't we? Then we looked at real estate prices...and realized, we can do this!
May 2016:
Well, we have pulled the trigger - in 2 weeks we will be making the first part of our journey to St. Croix to get the keys to our new place (which we have rented only based on pictures and a really fantastic realtor), to look for jobs, setup PO boxes, etc. etc. We decided it was the smart thing to initially rent a place and get jobs, rather thank just diving into purchasing a house or business in a place we weren't familiar with.
At this point we have sold all of our living room furniture a couple of our TV's, one of our vehicles and many more things that we sold at one of our many garage sales that has and will occur before we leave. We spend most evenings gathered around an old kitchen table (because we sold the good one) that has only 3 chairs, we pull up a computer chair and some other horribly uncomfortable thing while we research, share our findings and talk about what life has in store for the 5 of us. We are not sure what our future looks like but we know there is always power and numbers and having each other for support will not only make moving away from our families and other friends easier but will make it all that more fun! At this point we have all notified our employers that we are going to be leaving at the end of June, we have sold most of our things and have signed a lease in St. Croix so one way or another, this is happening!
We will miss this place but looking forward to all of the adventures to come!
In February of 2015 we all decided it was a great plan for the 5 of us to move in to one large house, or as we call it, "the commune". By we, I mean 2 couples, Ben and Lori and Jamie and Joe and our single friend "Gif" (Geoff)....aka 4 men and a lady! The 5 of us were just a part of our larger friend group that we had always referred to as the circle, a never ending, unbreakable group of really cool people that I am happy to not only call my friends but my family. When we announced this to the rest of the circle and to our families, we were initially looked at with blank stares and the never ending, well don't you and your husband want to be alone, aren't you worried this will ruin your friendships, why are you doing this????? We of course likely all had these same thoughts running through our heads but financially it made sense, it allowed us a rent a 3000 square foot home that sat on 40 acres with a large pond and a pole shed in the middle of nowhere. Fast forward one year.........February of 2016 - Ben and I returned home from our 3 week vacation to Fiji and New Zealand where we visited another member of our little circle who made a huge move oversees a few years ago. Needless to say, I came back happy but sad that it was over and a little jealous that she had done such an amazing thing and took a risk like moving to NZ! It was something I had thought about doing but had always been scared to do. Upon our return we were chatting like we often do about the possibility of buying a small hotel (a few of us are hoteliers with big dreams!), nothing huge (yet!) but enough to support at least a few of us. We decided maybe it was the right time to seriously look at where we could do this. We first started looking in our home state of WI, slowly started expanding to other areas of the region, and then outward towards the coasts and then we discovered the Caribbean Life on HGTV...... We saw all of these people moving to the Caribbean, if they could do it why can't we? Then we looked at real estate prices...and realized, we can do this!
May 2016:
Well, we have pulled the trigger - in 2 weeks we will be making the first part of our journey to St. Croix to get the keys to our new place (which we have rented only based on pictures and a really fantastic realtor), to look for jobs, setup PO boxes, etc. etc. We decided it was the smart thing to initially rent a place and get jobs, rather thank just diving into purchasing a house or business in a place we weren't familiar with.
At this point we have sold all of our living room furniture a couple of our TV's, one of our vehicles and many more things that we sold at one of our many garage sales that has and will occur before we leave. We spend most evenings gathered around an old kitchen table (because we sold the good one) that has only 3 chairs, we pull up a computer chair and some other horribly uncomfortable thing while we research, share our findings and talk about what life has in store for the 5 of us. We are not sure what our future looks like but we know there is always power and numbers and having each other for support will not only make moving away from our families and other friends easier but will make it all that more fun! At this point we have all notified our employers that we are going to be leaving at the end of June, we have sold most of our things and have signed a lease in St. Croix so one way or another, this is happening!
We will miss this place but looking forward to all of the adventures to come!
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