It Is Now Official - We Are Moving And Why??

Last week Veronica and I went to the Outer Banks. It originally was for a couple of days just to get away, enjoy ourselves and to take in a few of the sights that the area had to offer.
Things ended up changing rather quickly right before we left on this little getaway. Veronica is currently a store manager for a large discount retail business and they offered her a new store that is being built on the Outer Banks. So as it turned out, we ended up looking for our future place to live. I did some quick research on the internet and Veronica made several telephone calls so that when we arrived, we would have several places to look at.
This trip ended up being very hectic and rather stressful at times. We had 2 full days in which to locate our new residence.
Besides the sticker shock, we were blown away by how few quality places that were actually available for long term leases and at a reasonable price point. Most places catered to the weekly summer rental crowds. So many of the places were really run down and that was sad to see. I guess that is what happenes when you have a lot of turn around with tourist coming in and out for a week or two at a time.
Because we were there during the off season, other than the locals, the place was rather quiet.
We noticed that many of the restaurants close up for the off season. We found a few that were open and they seemed to cater to the locals that live there year round.
After much looking and being very disheartened at our possibilities, we did find a place that we could make do with. It was not an ideal choice but we could and would have to make it work...we just could not find anything else in the time frame that we had..even though we had gone through about 5 -6 realtors and property management businesses.
Late Friday afternoon, we decided to stop at one last property management business just to see what we might stumble onto.
As it turned out, we got very lucky and stumbled upon a gem.
For just a little more money than we were going to have to spend on the original place, that we felt stuck with, we ended up getting a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath beauty. This was a condo that was made in 2007 or 2008 but had not been leased out until we showed up.
We walked into the place and it was brand spanking new....never lived in.
This condo has so much space and tons of storage too. It is away from the beach front area and the main hectic travel corridor. It is a very small development area with only a few condo buildings...2 Five unit buildings and a few newer homes.
There is a club house and pool.
The development sits close to the sound, so from the back condo windows, you have a sound/water view.
The garage/carport area can hold up to 3 cars...it is very deep and in the back of it, there is a enclosed 11 1/2' x 6' storage area.
This unit comes with a brand new washer and dryer too.
We will be moving into it around March 1st.
There is so much work to be done before that date that at times I feel very overwhelmed by it all.
This definitely will be a year of change and lots of travel.

First We Had Snow Moose And Now We Have Snow Deer

In a previous blog entry, I had photos of Snow (albino) Moose and now we have photos of these beautiful Snow (albino) Deer.
These photos were provided to my by our friend, John Jakobs, from Ontario Canada. Unfortunately I do not know who took the photos, so I can't give them their proper credit.
These twin Snow Deers were seen and photographed behind the Gray Rock Cafe in Grayling, Michigan.
These really are beautiful animals. I would love to see these deer and the Snow Moose too, so that I could personally see and photograph them. Thank you John, for sharing these with us.

Our Visit To the Outer Banks aka OBX

Veronica and I took a couple of days to go and visit the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was a mixture of business and pleasure. There will be future blog entries about the business portion of the trip but this blog entry will focus on the pleasurable aspects of the trip. Here are some photos that I took while we are on our way to Manteo. There were some expensive condos and it looked like everyone that lived there owned a rather large boat. Funny thing...all of the boats looked basically the same except for the owner of Piglet..the little boat that wanted to be a big boat.. It actually made for kind of a cool looking photo.

Here are some views from the Ramada Inn we stayed at. During the off season the rates are great...$49. As you can see, the seas were rather calm. I really wished that there was an off shore storm or something like that. The photography is more interesting when the seas are active.

Man and his best friend going for a stroll on the beach

This fine feathered friend is Sabrina, the hotels mascot.

Our trip to Cape Hatteras

There were sand dunes of all sizes along the road

Fishing boats that could be seen from a bridge that we were on

A lone bicycle rider along a desolate sand dune lined roadway

There were so many houses on and near the beach. Each one had its own identity and character. I say identity because most of the houses are given names to represent something or someone that is important to its owner.

If you are a movie buff, you might recognize the photos of the house below. It is the house from the film...Nights In Rodanthe. This film starred Diane Lane, Richard Gere and Christopher Meloni. The name of the house is Serendipty. Supported by pilings at the edge of the surf, the three-story house stands farther out in the ocean than any other on the beach. It has the authentic weathered look achieved by only the sturdiest Outer Banks cottages. It is situated on the southern border of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, providing a vista of wild, undeveloped beach. When he built Serendipity in 1988, developer Roger Meekins sunk the pilings more than 14 feet deep and poured concrete around them. It was the first house constructed in Mirlo Beach, a subdivision on the northern end of Rodanthe. For more on the story of the house and of the filming of the movie, please click on this link..... Serendipity There is a really great video on the link of the storm that rolled up the coast and had an impact on the house and the filming of the movie. The house is in the process of being moved up the coast. By looking closely at the photos below, you can see the house on a special moving truck. As I am writing this blog entry, the moving of the house has stopped. The truck and house is stuck in the sand and an upcoming Nor'easter, over the next couple of days, will probably slow the move down further. I wish that our trip had been a couple of days later. I would have loved taking photos during the storm. For more info on the Serendipity, please check out these links... More Serendipity Info and Slideshow of the Actual Interior of Serendipity Last but not least...here is more information on the house and of the actual move.... The Moving of the Serendipity

Below is an actual video of the moving of the house or at least their attempt to move the house.

Here are the photos that I took of the Serendipity. This house had so much character to it.

I found this van parked close by to where the Serendipity was located.

Other beach houses in the area

A lot of these houses were huge and almost all were on really high stilts/pilings

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This lighthouse was moved from its original location, which was located closer to the beach. It was amazing that they could move this structure in one piece to its current location.

There was another couple viewing the lighthouse. They were from Austin, TX but had previously lived on the Outer Banks. We took turns taking each others photo.