So work began on the  house.  The outside is stucco and required a good power washing and painting, with work done on the eaves and trim.  A totally new roof was added.  Then it got a coat of paint.  I spent a good amount of time picking out the paint colors…with help from Mr. Sherwin Williams.  But,  it seems no one thought I had made a good choice for the outside.  Well, the men, at least.  They said I needed something…anything…else as an accent color other than the green I had chosen.  But, no.  I knew it would look good, so I insisted.

The colors were a beautiful aqua, a green, and an off white with grey undertones.  And, we put on a metal roof.   The front porch was a custom mix right on the job, as I wanted a slightly darker shade of the house color.  It turned out to be a shade of teal, which I liked very much.  We worked on the porch color back and forth from PC to Dothan via our cell phones!  Isn’t technology wonderful?   See what you think about the colors…

We replaced windows, and added the storm doors and outdoor lighting.  Fortunately, we were able to use the original front and rear exterior doors which made me very happy.  They have loads of character.  And, as you can see a little in one of the pics, we painted the trailer the same colors as well.  At least now everything matched and looked clean and cared for…on the outside, at least!  We redid that storage room with the missing door, and now it has its door and is filled with shelves.  Plans are on hold to finish the front with a white fence…but we have to get all the rest finished first.  They also put in an area for an outdoor shower.  We are waiting on some landscaping work before we completely finish the outside work.  There will be a gate added to the fence so it will be easier to go back and forth.

(These ominous clouds are part of Hurricane Isaac which was expected in these parts, but turned another way.  Remember, it delayed the Republican National Convention in Tampa Florida.)

PS…They had to go back and paint the shutters green on the trailer!

Isn’t this a great old tree in the front yard?  The ferns have taken up residence in between the spaces around the trunk of the palm.  I think it needs a little haircut, though!

(Sorry, the grass wasn’t cut in the above picture.)  And, that’s the look on the outside…next we’ll get into the inside.  Oh!  what a mess it was!  But, our builder, Mike , worked his magic and now it looks terrific!  I can hardly wait to show you!  And, in case you couldn’t tell…that’s our beach way up top…gorgeous, isn’t it?

Oh, by the way…the house has its own name now…THE SAND CASTLE!

Because…who lives in a castle…….?

See you soon with the inside!  Oh, it looks so good!  I think you’ll love it!  I bet you’ll even want to come and spend some time with me.  Well, I think that is a fabulous idea!  Come on…we’ll have a beach party!

So…He bought the beach house and I didn’t like it and then I decided I did.  So, you are up-to-date.

Of course, now that I have a house at the beach…sad that it is…I want it to be fixed up and finished yesterday!  So, I can go and live out my dream of having a place at the beach!  It seems that he could get our electricity turned on by telephone from here.  But, to get the water turned on, he had to go the the ‘water place’  in Panama City and do it in person!.  Crazy, huh?  And, so he took off one Monday and went down to take care of business!  And, much more happened on that trip that I expected.

We knew that there was a house on one side of us that was kept up nicely, and a mobile home across the street that had let the yards grow up, even though the house itself was in good shape.  (I already told you that big groups of folks had lived there twice and they were trying to block their view)  They really must not have wanted to see anything!

There was also a ‘quite-a-bit older mobile home’ on the other side of our house.  It looked pretty rough, but the new owner was busy working to clean it up and redo the inside.

Don went straight to the water store and got ours turned on.  Then he decided to drive by the house.  When he got there, he found that ‘quite-a-bit older mobile home’ that the man was fixing up, was for sell.  He immediately called and asked the price.  There were 2 other bids.  But Don placed a bid anyway.  The owner then asked each bidder to send in his best bid…Don did…and when he walked in the house from his trip to handle the water issue…we had bought ourselves the trailer next door to the house!  ( This is how it looked as I snapped it when I first saw the house.  The yellow carport is the corner of our house).  The chain link fence separates the yard of the trailer from the carport of the house.

(This is how it looked as the man got ready to put it on the market.  He repainted it so it would have a better appeal to buyers, bless his heart)  And, obviously Don and I have a very different aesthetic from him when it comes to color choice and matching colors.  BTW…there were 8 flamingos strutting proudly through the little yard…8.  Looks like a few got out of the yard….

Now, I could make you laugh out loud…and I will…just not now.  Suffice it to say that we own a house and a sideways trailer with a small yard…and a chainlink fence on 2 sides…and a partial white picket fence across the front.    Can you see how the yard in front of the trailer meets the side of the house?

Oh, the story of the trailer is too good not to tell…but since I do things neat and orderly  (HA!) I’ll take on only one story at a time.  But, oh, do please stay tuned…it’s a doozy!

In December of last year (2011), my friend Shirl called and told me of a mobile home across the street from her place at the beach.  It was for sale.  This was out of the blue, for we had not talked about it in years.  But, it seems that years earlier, Shirl had been talking to these friends in the mobile home and told them that if they ever wanted to sell their place, she knew someone who may want to buy it.  (She and I would talk in our “one day talks’ about how we would love for me to have a place there also, so all our kids and all us ‘old folk’ and all our grandchildren could go and be together and play and laugh and dance and sing and swim and cook out and other such nonsense as people do at the beach.  I don’t think we even had any grandchildren then).  Anyway, these friends were selling and called to give her friend…ME…first chance!

I passed along the info to Don, just knowing that that would be the end of it.  He and I had not talked about a beach place at all and he usually has to get warmed up to an idea before he makes any moves.  He is not one to move impulsively, which, I must honestly say, I am.  I have more fun…He keeps us out of trouble!  But, surprisingly, he said we would go down and look at it.  And, a day or two after Christmas, we did.  It was not a possibility for us due to the size and the age.  But, while we were there, we spotted another place, and he called a realtor to show it to us that day.  I really don’t know what happened…I think he got a double dose of Christmas Spirit or something.  We looked at it and were sort of impressed, but not really.  He asked her to keep her eyes open for us, if anything came available…on that stretch of beach.  And, I really thought that was the end of it.  Because he was not keen on spending the money and even though I had always wanted a place at the beach…he had not.  Besides, this was not in any of our plans.  (Below, Laguna Beach, 2012)

Now, the place we were looking at was in Panama City Beach, FL.  This is about 30 miles from Destin, FL.  Panama City was THE place to go when we were children and teens.    I went the first time when I was just a baby!  (Below, Mom and Pop and me, 1954)

There was once a wonderful community of little cottages where people from all over AL, and GA, and Fl. and further would come and spend all or part of the summer.  There were tons of Mom and Pop type motels along the strip, and a huge amusement park for the kids would come along soon.  (Below, this card is from the 50’s…this 2 lane road is Hwy.98)

When I was a little girl, we always went to The Laguna Beach motel, that was owned by a fishing buddy of Pop’s.  Such fun there.  I can still remember the look of the rooms and the fact that the floors always felt wet.There were also  swing sets in a pavilion at the back,  set into the sand.  And, if you didn’t have a cottage,  or money to stay in a motel, it was close enough to us who lived in Dothan…80 miles…to go down for the day.  (Below Don and I at Miracle Strip Amusement Park…appr.1973)

And go, we did!  It was THE place to ‘see and be seen’.  And, then when Don and I married and had the boys, this became a favorite place for them as well!  (Below, on the beach, appr. 1986)

Poor planning by the city fathers in later years has allowed buildings practically touching sides and tall as can be to line the beach side of the road.  So, today, as you drive along the strip of highway next to the ocean…you only see buildings.   A majority of the little cottages were demolished and huge high rise hotels, fancy restaurants, and tons of beach shops and condos were the replacements.  This has continued to recent years when someone in two areas had the sense to restrict the building to the the side opposite the beach and leave this ocean view open to motorists!.  It is such a shame that this has happened in this beautiful area of the state.  However, it was our good fortune that Shirl’s place was close to this stretch of beach and this was where we wanted to be also…Laguna Beach.  There were many, many cottages left standing in this area and these have been continuously occupied since then.  It is the area of these older cottages that we were considering, due to the distance from the most popular attractions and hotels, the open roadside next to the beach, and the sense of community that still exists among the residents in this and neighboring areas.  Also, new ordinances now in place will insure that the areas will continue to be upgraded. (Not to mention THE best little doughnut shop 1/2 mile away!)

And so, after our day of looking in December 2011, Don and I drove home.  Soon we heard from the realtor.  She had found two lots for a wonderful price and they were side by side which would give us the chance to put a mobile home on it and have a little extra space.  So, Don agreed to buy it and even sent in a binder.  Then while looking closer at the documents, he discovered that the two lots were separated by a road.  No deal.   And then we looked at two more places, but what we thought we saw was not what was actually there.  By then, I had had all the ups and downs I could stand and I just said “let’s forget it”.  And, I did.  Unbeknownst to me…Don kept in contact with the realtor and they exchanged pics of houses back and forth for some time.

TO BE CONTINUED….

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