Heaven.

There is this place. It's like heaven.

Every house looks perfect. The grass is green. The sand is white. The breeze is always blowing.
You bike to get coffee. You lose track of time. You become intoxicated by this place.
Your children play on the beach for hours on end. You wake up to no alarm and before your kids because they are so tired from the sun. You think you are in a dream.

That's what it is like in Seaside, Florida. It hasn't always been this way, this post made me laugh and cry again, because our children hit the perfect ages to travel with. A few years ago, I swore I would never take a vacation again. Ever. This trip redeemed  every bad trip we have had with babies.

I was so lazy I didnt take any photos, thank you wonderful sister in law Jessica!! Tim's grandparents started this tradition 22 years ago. They made it their family vacation spot.  I met Tim 12 years ago and since we've been married I have gotten to spend 9 years being apart of this tradition. We hope to make it our own life-long place as well. We have made unbelievable memories there.... from being newly weds to being pregnant on the beach, David started crawling there, to now having our little preschoolers run up and down the beach and being 30. It's crazy. We were also so thankful to go with amazing family.... Tims parents and my 2 brother in laws plus wives and 1 nephew! We are so blessed to have family that we are incredibly close with. And big compliments to the Chef- Tim's dad cooked all week for us...... it's a good thing I'm renovating a house because all we did was eat, eat, and EAT!!!

We were sad to leave, but also completely rejuvenated to come home and get a much needed second wind on the house renovation. I have been painting the exterior of our house this week and we just finished getting ALL of our tools organized. No more talk of work.... this post was completely dedicated to the best vacation we've taken as a family of four yet!!

where we spent our entire trip

downtown seaside

all we did was eat

and eat some more- food trucks in seaside

Time for fun.

We are alive!

On May 26th, we became Landlords. We also started our second home renovation.... I am keeping the same website, The Nellie Mae Project. It is because of Nellie Mae, that we developed this passion for real and hope to make this website an ongoing scrapbook of the houses we will take an adventure with!

It was actually harder than I thought leaving Nellie Mae.... so perfectly clean, new, and so many happy memories there. Nellie Mae was a re-birth time for us and it that house will have a little piece of my heart... especially since my great grandfather built it. I swear there are angels watching over that house!

Well, lets hope those angels followed us to the Hope House! We went to quite the opposite! Found out most the people that lived here went to jail for drugs. Also found a Meth Lab in the carport- ha! I am kind of joking..... Meth was being stored and sold there.... all signs appear that it was not made out there. We don't really care about that, we see all things as new and not for what they are. God is sovereign and we know he prepared this place for us.

Anyway, we are absolutely in love with the house. We have tons of space. We went from 960 sq. feet to almost 1600 sq feet when the "addition" is finished. We can walk to downtown Marietta. It is in the historic district so we hear can even hear the train if we are quiet! We have about 4 couples from our church that live on the same street an 2 others just a block away. We feel very very blessed.

The kids love it and picked their own rooms here. They think they are "helping" a lot, which has me very busy keeping them entertained and working on the house. They do like shopping for new things with me... and you better believe I am teaching them a good deal.

The house is overwhelming living in sometimes with what we have to do! With Nellie Mae, we did not move in until it was almost finished. Here we are living right along with it.

Biggest issue is there is not a complete functioning bathroom, hence that is the first project happening! The shower and toilet work in one, and just the sink works in the other.....
There are plywood sub floors in one of the living areas, sliding glass doors in the middle of my kitchen, linoleum peeling up in the kitchen- but, we did find good ole hardwoods underneath! The bedrooms and den are nice though- new fixtures and we will be good to go.

Anyway, no big deal. The awesome thing about the whole process this time is that everything feels super peaceful. I think because I KNOW we can do it, I KNOW and have SEEN things be transformed. I know to expect unexpected-ness, I also know we have little ones......just feels like a well traveled road. These houses have made me just chill out and go with it. 

All that to say, we are having a lot of fun. I think when you are doing what you love, no matter what goes wrong, your passion and drive are stronger.

We are taking a week long hiatus and headed to the beach. Now that our renter is happily settled, we are moved in (whatever that means), we have a game plan set up, we are going to take a time out and just have some fun!

I will be very, very lazy this next week!