We’ve moved!

After renovating our last house in Louisville, Kentucky for 12 years (it was a foreclosure that we gut remodeled ourselves), we sold it in 2020 and have moved to our dream location, Sanibel Island, Florida!

We always wanted to live on Sanibel Island, and all our hard work finally paid off. We almost gave up so many times, but a little voice kept telling us to keep going because it was all for something greater than we knew.

Well, listening to that little voice was worth it.

Long story, short:

After trying to sell our house in Louisville two times (over two years) with no success, we decided to do even more renovations and updates (it’s always something when it comes to a house, isn’t it?) and try one more time. We pulled it off the market and set to work.

While we did more work on the house, my husband and I started thinking about where we should move. Originally, we had plans to travel in an RV full time, but when the spread of COVID-19 began, we saw lots of RV parks and campgrounds closed. That told us to scrap the RV plan (for now) and search for a new home base.

We started looking at real estate on Sanibel, looked at our finances, and realized there were some homes we could afford. We decided that if Tommy got the job he had been interviewing for (which allowed him to work from anywhere), we would seriously think about moving to Sanibel. The very next day, he got the job.

No joke. It was like magic. I think God works a little magic when you finally move towards the right path.

Tommy settled into his new job and we finished the house. We decided we would try to find a new awesome realty team to help us the third time around, and we did just that (after looking at several local groups’ social media and selling statistics AND conducting interviews). We also found a wonderful realty team on Sanibel to help us with our transition there.

With our new great team, our Louisville house sold in ONE DAY. Yep, one day. Then things started moving fast. We packed and packed during the 30 day closing period. For even easier transitions, we moved into a hotel for a couple of weeks while we closed on our Louisville home.

We had a moving company store our belongings while we transitioned to Florida. We interviewed and researched movers too…that’s something I highly recommend for anyone looking for movers. Especially when moving to a new state.

Then we traveled to Sanibel (with two cats and two dogs in tow) and stayed in a rental vacation house for two months while we found our new home. Being able to look at real estate online was a blessing so we could narrow it down to what we wanted to see as soon as we arrived. The Sanibel realty team also helped us by emailing us properties that fit in our budget.

We arrived on Sanibel on a Sunday and went to see our two favorite houses on Monday. We put in an offer on the second house on Monday night. Yep….it all happened just like that. Fast.

Now we have closed on the house and want to share it with anyone that would like to see it! While purchasing this house, there were lots of things to do (especially when it came to insurance as Sanibel is in a hurricane zone). If you are thinking about moving to a new house in a new state, do your research. There are many different laws, rules, taxes, etc. and you should definitely know what they are so you can make your plans work for you instead of against you.

We are very thankful to our real estate agents, banks and all the people we worked with to make this all happen. You can’t do something like this alone. It definitely takes a tribe, lots of patience and time. But, it’s all worth it to us.

Take a look at our new house in this virtual tour video I put together:

Wanna see our new home via a bike tour my husband and I conducted? Check out the video below:

More of our DIY’s can be found on our YouTube channel, “Carolyn Braden”.

If you have any questions for us, visit our Contact Us page and send us a note! We love helping other DIYer’s out there!