In August of 2018, we attached our travel trailer to our Dodge Ram to make the journey from our home state of Massachusetts to Florida. We’ve done this many times before. But this time, circumstances were very different. We were not just traveling and exploring the coastline states. No, this would be permanent. We also had a 4-week newborn baby. We didn’t know it then, but we would never be the same people.
The moving truck already left with all our belongings to be stored in a 12x12 storage unit.
Although this move happened very quickly, it wasn’t a rash decision. This decision was the result of 10 years of dreaming that eventually turned into a real plan. Dreaming of an improved lifestyle, a new career path, and following our entrepreneurial dreams. You could say we certainly picked a high-stakes time to execute this plan given the fact we were brand new parents. But Carlin and I tend to have a history of going all-in. We buckled up our baby girl while our 3 dogs were safely in their kennels in the truck bed, and set off on our new adventure.
We were broke. I mean broke. I was on maternity leave prior to this move and there wasn’t enough money coming in. We sold our home for a substantial profit and when we drove out of our driveway we had 30 bucks in our bank account. The wire for the sale of our home would be our lifeline. We refreshed our bank account homepages on our phones at least 20 times on the way out of state. A wave of relief set in when we finally saw those funds. We thought “Ok we can do this, it’s going to be all okay.”
We planned to stop in a couple of states on our way down to Florida. We stopped in Virginia only for one night. Then made our way to South Carolina, where we stayed a couple of days exploring Charleston. I remember walking the brick-paved streets on cloud nine. I was ready for this fresh start. I was burnt out from the mental health field and I felt ready to dive into a new career. I finally gave myself permission to follow a passion and give up some control of the universe. I was always a very controlled and exacting person—a Type A. But I was also the kind of person that if I set out to do something; I would do it.
Our next stop brought us to St Augustine Florida where we explored before hitting the road for our last leg before our final destination. While all this sounds quite thrilling and it was; It was also taxing and tiring. Parenting on the road, nursing a newborn every 2 hours, stopping for tummy time and walks was a complete commitment on wheels; literally. It’s beyond inconvenient.
Eventually, we made it to Bradenton Florida to our designated campsite. We made it to our new “temporary home.”
Our rental home in Lakewood Ranch wasn’t ready for us to move in. We had 6 weeks ahead of us before we could move in.
While camping is super fun, living it day in and day out with a newborn and 3 dogs isn’t a good time. Sleepless nights, Florida summer thunderstorms rattling your trailer walls, newborn parenting fatigue, and living in such close quarters was hard. All the while you are learning how to parent with your spouse. In tight quarters, sleep deprived and watching every dime you spend with no certainity of income. At the same time, our eldest dog Bailey was showing signs of rapid decline. He had no interest in eating, hid away, and slept all day. When we took him to the vet, they informed us that all his internal organs were shutting due to old age. His heart wasn’t properly working and breathing was a strain. He went from a spunky older dog to a tired and visibly miserable dog. He often had accidents and couldn’t even gain the energy to walk outside to relieve himself. We knew it was time to say goodbye. Bailey had a long history with us. We were given Bailey when we first moved in together and I knew him as long as I knew Carlin. He was there for every single milestone and every struggle. It was extremely heart-wrenching to realize he wouldn’t make it to this next chapter with us.
We put him down and went into a depression over it. The remainder of the weeks in the camper were a strain and the increasing stress of establishing our new business was mounting.
In the trailer, we got our LLC. and slowly began the climb to establish ourselves there.
Essentially starting over is like a mountain to climb when parenting a newborn is simply survival. You just try to make it through the day. Eventually, our rental home was ready and wow was that a happy day. Moving into that home felt like a major step in the right direction. Once we moved in; I made every effort to make that rental feel like home. Our days slowly began to be filled with parenting, searching, and viewing investment properties from Bradenton, Sarasota to St. Pete.
We once spent 3 hours at a home for auction in St Pete swapping Savannah back and forth in our arms. It was mentally draining. The game of securing an investment property to flip is a roller coaster. You’re ecstatic after viewing it then once you put an offer in it's more waiting. You have zero control. Often sellers want to wait it out after listing to see if they get a better offer. For investors, time is money, and ours was running out. The profit from the sale of our home enabled us to make this move, to live, and to put towards an investment property. But we needed a property fast. Like now. Our funds were dwindling and every house we were outbid on felt dire. Finally, after months of searching, we walked into a home in Bradenton that an investor was selling. It was in pre-foreclosure and the seller was motivated. However, this house was more than we had planned on investing in. We were running out of options. So we decided to take another risk and put an offer on this home. We didn’t have a solid plan for how we were going to remodel this home financially. We decided to find an investor to help us fund this flip. That was no easy feat as you can imagine! There are scams, and hoops you need to jump through to get someone to invest with you. Once we had an investor on board we felt some relief that we could make this work.
Carlin worked at our investment property every day and we subbed out a couple of small jobs on the project. It was a full gut. The home had not been cared for due to the seller’s financial difficulties. It was not in the best shape and required a full renovation. In addition to that, walls needed to be taken down, and a second bathroom was added by converting a utility room. Savannah and I visited Carlin every day on the job site. It was thrilling at first. I loved designing the home from top to bottom and watching it transform. It allowed me to stay at home with Savannah and gain some type of routine.
But the clock was always ticking. We were paying interest on our investor loan and our bank account was taking a hit from this huge renovation. Trying to fund a large-scale rehab, pay your bills, and live with all your eggs in one basket is terrifying.
You live with the fear that if you go over budget, something happens unexpectedly or you can’t sell the home fast enough we would be drowning.
A 3 month turnaround is pretty good for a full home remodel but it felt like an eternity. Listing that home we call “Roslyn Ave” was an exciting time. All our hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifices were about to be all worth it.
We were beyond thrilled to hear that we had an interested buyer. She was so in love with the home that she offered an aggressive offer over the asking price. You can imagine our reaction. Then came the appraisal for the buyer's loan. We got this far and this was the final step to a solid sale.
The words “the home didn’t appraise for the asking price” were a total gut punch. The market was not what it was today. Homes were selling for way less then. We fought it best we could, but at the end of the day, we felt like we were between a rock and a hard place. Accepting a lower asking price and losing thousands on the table was s bitter pill to swallow. We simply didn’t have the time. The funds were so low we needed this sale to get by.
What we ended up making on that home after paying our investor and paying our seller fees let me just say we made close to nothing. Yes, we technically made a profit but if you divide that into 4 months of no income and the amount of work we put into the project we made severely less than minimum wage.
The business is tough. It was a different world than for investors in Florida pre covid. But Carlin and I didn’t want to give up so we again hit the ground running for another property. In the meantime, Carlin did some local tile work to help sustain us. Our second flip “Avila Ave” felt a bit different. We were a little more experienced and the home didn’t require the same amount of work. Although it was still a full remodel the home felt less overwhelming. Carlin did every aspect of the home to save money. The home was a farmhouse with a darling front porch and metal roof and we leaned into the style. Once we were ready to sell Carlin had his real estate license that he did online after hours to maximize our profit.
I like to think that Carlin was our first-ever true client. Looking back I felt I somewhat designed with him in mind on our flips. As I began to take on clients, I never imposed my own design style. I had a natural ability to take their style and create my interpretation of that. I think in many ways that’s what made our firm very successful.
Our ability to perform the actual work in tandem with design was also a huge draw for people. Working with a small local business and Carlin's craftsmanship allowed us to steadily grow.
I look back on these times with both joy and sadness. They are bittersweet. It was so much simpler in a way to only have ourselves to please yet the financial stress was miserable.
Today the camper is home to Carlin's brother Brent who works for the company now. It seems to be the starting point for all of Savannah's employees apparently lol!
There was so much growth during that time. So much struggle. There are still hardships now but they look differently. We were just two parents and new entrepreneurs trying to figure it out. Merging 3 major life events rolled into one and on top of it trying to just make it by.
I mean we survived that! We made it through, intact, still married, in love and we have raised an amazing little girl…so I remind myself often “Ok we can do this, it’s going to be all ok.”
Below are some photos of the day we bought our travel trailer. We were so excited. We took it on many trips before Savannah was born.
It was a very basic trailer and extremely functional.
The day we sold our home in Massachusetts was surreal. We took a photo as a family with the new home buyer.
Followed by photos of us during our trip to Florida and while living in our travel trailer.
It was so amazing visiting beautiful cities. We want to go back one day very soon.
The black and white photo of Savannah on me was taken on the day we moved out of our trailer into our rental. It was a tiring but good day.
A couple of us in our flips and the exterior of Roslyn Ave with its stained shutters. I didn’t realize at that time that we were pairing rustic coastal.
Fun fact: We named our business after our daughter Savannah for two reasons.
My pregnancy with her catapulted us to follow this dream.
We visited Savannah GA, Charleston, and southern historic cities on our way to Florida. The trees captured our hearts. They symbolized to us home and a fresh start. They inspired our logo. See my early sketch of our logo. Not the best sketch but it turned out pretty great.
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