This is an older picture from when we were renovating our kitchen last winter. We pretty much gutted the whole thing and installed new cabinets, counters, paint, walls in some places, tile back splash, electric outlets, lights...you get the point. Plus, who wants a red ceiling anyway?
The whole renovation process pretty much burned us out for the last year. But now, with our new focus on what we want to do with our life, we have started some more renovations to get the house in shape to sell. The big dilemma is whether or not we finish our attic space with walls and insulation. There is already one room up there, but it is kind of isolated and cut off from the rest of the house. With some walls and lighting up there it would feel a lot more connected and complete as a three bedroom house. The key here is just to get motivated to do it. We have to keep our goals and dreams in mind, and I'm sure the motivation will come.
We met in college working on a theatre show (both being techies.) We didn't date until about nine months later and within five months we were engaged! On 10/28/2006 we had a beautiful wedding in Upstate New York, it was a perfect day!
Bill had bought a two family house after graduating college, and we lived on the first floor and rented out the second. Before getting married we bought a one family but remained landlords for about year, but eventually we got sick of shovelling snow out of our drive way and our tenants so we sold our rental property. For anyone looking to get into real estate where your money isn't going to waste and someone else is paying your mortage starting out with a two family is a great move than can help you gain finanical independance and equity.
We have always been "do it ourselfers" Bill bought the two family for a great price, and we updated a lot of it ourselves. Same with the home we have now, it was built in the 30's and it had lime green carpet, asbestos laminate flooring and black and yellow tile counter tops in the kitchen, and not a single drawer in the kitchen (which I must admit I didn't realize till we moved in, but really who thinks to make sure there is a single drawer in the kitchen?) We had planned to renovate the kitchen anyway, which we did, along with many more upgrades! It is a great house for a young couple or young couple planning to have a baby...we are not...it is time to move on.
We love our house, and enjoyed all of our trips to Home Depot, Lowes, Bed Bath and Beyond, but we are done being consumers...its time to break free from the typical life and sail away to a new adventure.
Trish is a receptionist, Bill works in accounting (not by choice, strictly by accident and hates it.) We love our friends, family, neighborhood, and city, all of which will continue to be around and in our lives. But as for the material items we have no more need or want for them.
We like to be outside, hike with our dog, kayak, sail, bike ride, all of which is very enjoyable in Upstate New York but not year round. Neither of us are winter sports enthusiasts we usually end up hibernating. It is time for us to head to a warmer climate where we can enjoy more of our 365 days a year being outside in the sun!!!
We are young enough to risk it all. We can do anything we believe in, and if we lose everything and end up broke, well, we will just get new jobs and stay afloat, but we both much rather be floating out on the open sea experiencing life!
This dream is way more exciting and worthwhile than making money for someone else doing something we really don't care to do for 40 hours a week every week for the rest of our lives. We have always felt that our time on earth doing the things we want to do together as a couple is infinitley more important than the amount of money we make or the things we own. We may only live once, so why not spend every moment doing something WE want to do?
So what will follow will be our journey towards our dream, the work we will do and the experiences we will have. We still have our home, we are looking at used sailboats on the market, we met with a realtor who told us what we needed to do to our home in order to sell it for a good price. We have a long journey ahead it won't all be easy but it sure will be an adventure, one we will have together!!!
