Although I have been able to share this news for two weeks, I got a little hesitant. Not entirely sure why, maybe because it seems like by sharing my dream come true it would make it less real. But, alas, I did promise so I am going to share it.
I have been visiting Rehoboth Beach, Delaware my entire life. My Father has been going for almost sixty years. When Hubby and I started dating, he had to pass the Delaware test, did he like it, would he go again, would he fall in love with it as much as I did? Well, as you are well aware, Hubby passed the test. Although I dreamed of owning a beach house since I was a child, the dream was now shared. Before Hubby and I were even married we talked about ‘One Day’. We made attempts over the years, then the market went crazy and everything we ever hoped for was well out of our reach. We continued to rent our little beach house each summer, one week stretching to two and then almost three.
Then this past February my beloved Aunt passed away. Although she is not the reason we go to The Beach, she is certainly the one who kept it in our hearts all these years. Aunt Joyce lived inland a little, but we would stop at her place for a night or two before we started our annual vacation. Even as children we would arrive the Friday night before and camp out on the living room floor all jitters and excitement with our cousins ready for our week at the beach. Aunt Joyce always dreamed of owning a house at the beach, they even owned some property in a neighboring beach of Lewes for many years, but never had the chance to build on it.
Before heading down for Easter Weekend with my Cousins and their family, we I started talking about ‘what ifs’. What if we could get a beach house and rent it out? What if we moved inland a little? What if, what if, what if? Hubby laughed at me and told me to forget the ‘what if’s’ it just wasn’t possible, we just couldn’t do it. That didn’t stop me though, I kept on my search. For the first time, I stopped concentrating on the beach town section of Rehoboth, where we rent, but out a bit further on the highway. This would change our vacations and how we did it, but we would then have a little place to call our own. That was when I stumbled on this cute little place, at least in my heart it was cute, when I was able to look past all the junk and stuff that was cluttering it up.
We stayed at a hotel on the boardwalk the night before we were to see it, I was up with the sunrise, eager and anxious. Hubby kept telling me he was just humoring me, we would not be buying it, but he knows me well and knows that I would not rest until I saw it for myself and knew we couldn’t do it.
Our drive out to the neighbourhood was lovely, we passed some gated communities, mansions a public golf course, then we got to the end, before you get to the Bay. We drove around the little neighborhood before the agent met us. It is a trailer park, I am not going to lie, we were a tad bit nervous. A trailer park?!? Surrounding the trailer park was an amazing community. We drove past the property, sitting there looking so sad and tired. We weren’t sure. Then we got to the end of the street, where there is a crabbing pier, a pool, a park and sand for the kids to play! You can’t swim in the bay for the rocks but you can wade out with your crabbing pot and catch some dinner. If you don’t feel like driving up to the beach you can swim at the pool. It was more than we imagined and I think, Hubby started to fall in love with it before we even got inside.
And here she is!! As we first saw it. She is a little old and a little tired and I can say with all honesty, she doesn’t look like that anymore… but you will have to wait to hear about that, first you need to see inside.
You walk into a three season porch, and then into the living room, where you can see Hubby and our amazing Agent Paula Castiglione from Jack Lingo Realators in Rehoboth. Paula was amazing, we know she could be out showing a $2.5 Million home, but she made the time to take us to our little home by the Bay. Paula made sure to show us a few others in different communities that were in much better shape, but really we fell in love with this one. Somehow, we were able to see past all the clutter and stuff and see how we could make it our own.
Our tiny kitchen and the front bedroom with ensuite.
The smaller middle bedroom (perfect for a bunkbed and children to sleep) and the larger back bedroom that has a full ensuite attached.
And a view of the bathroom, just to show you how it once looked.
This was our initial meeting with the place. The bright sunlight coming in and the fact that there was enough room for all of us made Hubby change his mind very quickly. He went from ‘no way’ to “YES!!!” in a matter of minutes. His mind started racing on how to fix it up and mine started racing on how to decorate it.
We have since been back many times, the inspection, the keys and the clean out! 21 Bags of garbage folks, 21!!! Nothing that could be passed on or recycled, just garbage. The owner was already taking the living room set so we told her to take the beds (I am not sleeping on those) and whatever else she wanted. Sadly she left us her old toothbrushes and quite a bit of disgusting stuff. but we got past it. We cleaned and scrubbed and cleaned and scrubbed and spent our first weekend, just doing that. Hubby has since been back, to make some flooring repairs and start laying down the new stuff. He will be making a return again to finish up as flooring is the one thing that can’t really be done with children running around. Then we will slowly start changing other stuff, like bathroom sinks and kitchen cabinets, but they can wait a little while longer, we need solid footing under our feet.
As I write this, tears are in my eyes yet again, this is my dream come true. We have a little place at the beach! BeachMama now has her Beach House!!! Follow our travels, renovations and #BeachHouse finds this summer.
