VLOG City Life: New Home Owners in The City! Our Story...Buying A House I Didn't Even See

Moving has been a very "suite" moment that I guess could have easily been bitter sweet for me. My husband and I first moved out to South Tampa to expand our opportunities; All of my opportunities were out here and he worked in St. Pete, so we were loosing money owning a house over an hour away. Our first house was basically a "starter house" according to my parents and people who were older than me that encouraged us to get it. We were basically kids who owned a house and did not know what to do past that except go to school and go to work. As I lived there longer and longer we both knew we had made a mistake in moving so far out and realizing our potential and need to be closer to the city.

Condo time: I feel like we really became adults in the condo; we went through a LOT. But owning a house and then renting a condo in one of the most expensive areas of Tampa taught us both a lot of things. Socio-economical  things and life lessons. I learned that for some reason, a lot of people who live in the area that is my hometown Mango, Seffner, Brandon, Riverview view living in Tampa through a lens that a lot of times is very inaccurate. And I thought like that too for a while right, but traveling and spending all this time in Manhattan made me see this is small city and you can still have a yard, quietness, even a picket fence and be within walking distance of everything you love.

The house: So, we had been looking for a home in South Tampa for the last 3 to 4 years. We both had the same styles in mind, but once we stared exploring and looking at different areas we had to set goals and plan. After we had moved from the suburbs I pretty much adapted to living in the city immediately. Since we had to do a short sale I figured we probably would buy another home until we were in our early 40's and to my surprise that turned out not to be the case. My main "want" to was to stay in the area we already lived in by the water which unfortunately, is the most expensive area of South Tampa. So, as the time passes we look, look, look and nothing really meets both our requirements. Well, to my surprise it was a media/press event I did years ago in South of Gandy when I fell in love with a particular home.

Now, fast forward to the end of February 2020 I finally had a chance to meet our realtor  Janet Coverly. I was pretty annoyed at the time because hubs and I started bumping heads a lot over the house because he started looking at homes that were way outside the area that we agreed to, some not even in this county. Well, once Janet and I talked she literally looked at my husband and said "Your wife is very intelligent, you should really listen to her more often." And from there everything moved lightning fast. My husband is very very hard headed and a lot of times it takes another person to tell him "she is right" for him to admit he is being hard-headed. I am not going to get into all the details of what we discussed, but long story short, I worked in the housing industry handling back end short sales before I started my businesses. I know a lot about buying and selling homes and he just didn't want to listen to me.

Anyway, so I got him to agree to show Janet the place we liked off of Gandy and it was everything we wanted, but he did not want to be off South of Gandy and for that price which is understandable if you are familiar with South of Gandy. So, I got sick (I don't even know now if it was Covid to be honest) and then one of his co-workers found this house that we eventually did buy and said "Its in a better location and its cheaper". I am literally in the heart of South Tampa. I can walk to Soho or Hyde Park and I am closer to the water now being in between Bayshore and where I was before. Its literally kind of perfect. So, bck to what I was saying...I couldn't go to the open house so I never saw the house; We made an offer that week and I knew I could trust that he would get something that we both liked. Then we all got put under quarantine on March 12th and they accepted our offer so I basically was just packing from there, we were moving in 4 weeks!

Moving under quarantine: I am still feeling sick: I AM NOW HAVING PANIC ATTACKS DAILY. Lord, I would not wish this on anyone. The idea of not knowing where I was going to be living and having some photos that hubs took was stressful enough, but in the mist of a pandemic I was wondering if we would even be allowed to close because we weren't sure if it was considered "essential". Janet was like, "unless the government says we can't close we are closing!' So, I got to see the house the day of closing in the final walk through... Remember those photos where I had a panic attack? That was when I saw the house, that was my first time being out of my small condo since March 12th.

The babies hated us for moving lol. I have never seen my cats so angry in my life. They wouldn't come out of the bathroom for two or three days and at night they just cried and cried for hours. Now, you can't tell them anything! They love it here. The thing they both seem to love the most is playing on the stairs.

Before masks were even on the table as something you should wear mandated by the CDC I bought a mask. KTR Style makes really nice face masks. I got this one for 14.00$ in April, but the prices have gone up. She makes them in batches, first come first serve from whatever material she has in. Well all wore masks and socially distanced ourselves during the final walk through and the closing.

I know you guys have probably heard of the Purple mattress, let me tell you this mattress is the TRUTH!!! Its the most comfortable mattress I have ever slept on. I am a side sleeper and a lot of reviews said it wasn't good for side sleepers, but nope! When you lye down you fall asleep immediately every single time! It arrived rolled up and when you remove it from the bag it inflates on its own. The bed frame was easy to assemble and it comes with holes pre-drilled so you can attach a headboard.

One of the house warming gifts from our realtor Janet Coverly.

I ordered plants from a store in San Francisco called Pigment. I am iffy on if I would recommend them though, some of the plants arrived damaged, some had diseased spots and I needed up having to chop all the leaves off of two. Its touch and go and its no refunds...Their shipping also takes weeks and they don't really give you updates that say more than "we are working on fulfilling your order"

The kitchen is what sold me on the house, the kitchen is absolutely beautiful. I love cooking and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and to have a nice, open kitchen with great lighting is great!!! I have cooked so much and made so many cooking videos since moving. Cooking in my condo was an absolute nightmare, there was no room, a lot of the appliances weren't working, the light wasn't working and I couldn't get anyone to fix things because of Covid 19. I am still on the fence about showing more photos of the house, I am really not that big into blogging and posting photos like that. What I can say is that it won't be anytime soon because of Covid 19 a lot of workers will not enter your home past the front door. So... I couldn't get my couch, headboard, or blinds installed. Everything is kind of "unfinished" until some businesses are willing to take that risk.

What I can say is Best Buy did a great job delivering my smart fridge and washer and dryer. They came wearing gloves and were masked up. They installed everything (even though on the website it says they won't due to Covid). They were polite and in and out in about 5 minutes.