Home again, home again

After living "on the road" for the past year and a half, we decided to have a home base again.
Part of the purpose of our traveling and workamping was to find an area we liked to settle down.  Working at the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement for the past year has given us the opportunity to learn the area.  Get a feel for the type of folks, see what services are available, was it somewhere we could call home.
Once we decided on this area, the hunt began for our new home.  We looked at many, many places.  We have truly seen the good, the bad, and the ugly!
The housing market here in the panhandle has been interesting, to say the least.
After Hurricane Michael hit, many folks lost their homes or decided that they never wanted to go through a storm like that again.  Most homes suffered some level of damage.....roofs partially blown off, damage from trees falling on their homes..all meaning water damage.  With water damage comes black mold.  Having dealt with that in New York, we were vigilant about storm damage to any house we considered.
Besides the mold issue, there are termites.  Hungry little buggers. One house we put a bid on looked great.  Then we had inspections done.  Termites had been snacking on that house for quite awhile.  (They managed to compromise the whole main carrying beam!) So, we withdrew our bid.
Another home looked nice in the pictures.  Then we went to see it in person.  Oh my.... those pictures had been taken years ago!!  (You could tell from the outside vines that we're now growing inside the house!)
I'm pretty sure that each home buyer goes through trials and tribulations until they find THE house.
Having found the house and land we wanted, we now had to wade through all of the bureaucratic red tape.  We were blessed with a great real estate team.  They not only worked with us, but they worked for us.  They advocated for us every step of the way.  I'm pretty sure it would have been a very different experience without Ashley & Joey.
Okay, we bought a house!  Now its time to get all of our treasures, that have been patiently waiting for us, from New York to Florida.  Years ago, we would have simply rented a U-Haul, loaded it up and headed south.  Not so much anymore.  While we would have had tons of help to load up, the unloading would have been a different matter.  We decided to go the smarter route and hire a moving company.  Side note to anyone thinking of doing this; pack everything better than you would if you knew there was going to be a major earthquake.  While all of our belongings that were loaded on the truck made the trip, not everything made it unscathed.  But, who's to say they would have traveled any better if we had moved it ourselves.
Moving forward, now came the unpacking.  Oh the boxes!  Oh the overwhelming number of boxes, totes, bags, etc.  Oh the humanity!  Oh wait......got carried away there for a moment.
Opening each box was like Christmas morning.  Finding my favorite coffee mugs (that didn't make the jump to the camper).  Clothes that I haven't seen in almost two years (sure hope they still fit!)
Pictures and knick-knacks that chronicled our children through the years.  All the things that make a house a home.
Now that we've found a place for everything it's feeling like home. Old memories will now blend with new.
When we set out on this journey, our motto was "Adventure 18".  Two years later, the adventures continue.  Here's to many, many more.