We've secured a rental home in FL!

When G accepted his FL job offer we began discussing what we should do about our living situation. Since we're going to be trying to sell our house here, we'll be new to FL, and I have no idea exactly where in FL I'll be working, we decided that renting for at least a year was the smart and responsible thing to do. It's going to be an adjustment going from being a home owner to a renter, but we'll manage for the short term.

It was quite a bit harder to find a decent rental house than we expected it to be.

After much scouring of the Sarasota Craigs List, the local newspaper classifieds, and a lot of drive-by searching by G, he's managed to secure a rental home in Venice, FL! And it has grass that I'll get to mow! I'm so excited! I've truly missed yard work since moving away from NE.

We were surprised to find that there aren't a lot of 4BR homes in this area of FL, unless you want to pay $1400-$1500+/month in rent, which we do not. 2BR and 3BR homes are much more common. Perhaps it's because many people that live there are retired couples, or "snowbirds" and don't need the space that a single family of 4 needs (or likes)?

We were also surprised at how quickly the good rentals got snapped up. Several times G would respond to an online ad, the same day, and leave a voice mail message saying he was interested in scheduling a time to walk through the house, only to be told it'd already been rented!

G found a lot of rather dismal, ill-kept houses for rent during his search. Knowing how picky I am, he realized that if he wasn't thrilled about them, I certainly wouldn't be willing to consider them either.

But with determination and perseverance, G finally scored us a nice house this past weekend!

It's 3BR, 2 BA, a bit over 1700 sq. ft (about 300 sq ft smaller than our current home so not bad), and although it doesn't have a pool in the back yard (we'll miss our current pool but we'll have an ocean instead), the back yard is entirely fenced in (that means we can take our turtles with us) and it has lots of plants, grass, a spa, and even a tire swing. And I'm quite happy that the house has an attached 2 car garage, rather than a carport or just street parking.

Best of all, this house is a 2 minute drive to the nearest beach, 3 minutes from the Venice fishing pier, 2 miles from the Venice Island Harbor Blvd (where there are restaurants, art and craft fairs, etc) and 5 miles from Caspersen beach, where a bunch of fossilized shark teeth are found! It's also close to two elementary schools, the YMCA, a baseball field, a park, and a grocery store. We'll be able to bike to just about everything we want!

The couple that is renting it out has lived in it with their kids (13 year old son, 11 year old daughter) and they decided to move into a larger 3BR home with a pool, just a couple of blocks away. They love the close-knit neighborhood and didn't want to leave it. They rave about the quiet, friendly neighborhood.

When G walked through the house with the landlord, he was invited over to the landlords own nearby home to meet the wife and kids. G ended up sitting there talking with them for over an hour. They seem to be genuinely nice people who wanted to rent to another small family who would enjoy their home as much as they have.

Now that we have a new place to live, as of 1 August, I feel a bit more motivated about getting in gear to get this house packed up. I don't have much time left anyway...only 5 1/2 weeks to go before we're on our way to FL.

Here are just a few more pictures of the of the house that G took with his iPhone:

front yard

2 car garage

back yard

back yard spa

the landlord showing G the spa

front entry way

dining room area

living & dining room areas

kitchen