I still can’t believe this is real! As long as I can remember, I have dreamed about having a little place by the ocean. We arrived here a little after midnight on Saturday night. I was so excited, I could hardly sleep that night…. I think I made it about 4 hours. I kept wandering around thinking, oh my god, this place is really ours! We thought we’d get up bright and early on Sunday and pick up our paint and supplies to begin the painful process of eradicating the butt ugly colors in here. That didn’t happen. We just had a lazy first day. Coffee on the balcony while gazing at the ocean….. Jenna came over for a quick trip to the grocery store, a little lunch and lying out in the sun. We met a lot of our neighbors out by the pool-it’s a very friendly group of people!
I think I had every last piece of kitschy artwork off the walls within the first half hour of being here. I placed a rather large pile of it in a corner of the living room. We went to bed early and got up really early on Monday so we could get started on our planned projects. First item on the agenda was getting our patio doors serviced. Two of the three of the floor to ceiling sliding doors did not open. We were concerned that they might have to be replaced. Luckily that was not the case. We had a tough day of gathering our painting supplies and began the search for beach decor and a table and chairs for the balcony. This is SO not Rick’s idea of fun but I kind of enjoy the decorating part of this process.
I always thought that the Atlantic coast felt weird because the sun doesn’t set in the ocean….whenever I mentioned that, people would tell me that the sunrise is beautiful. I assumed I’d never be up early enough to see it….well, I saw it and it’s true. It is spectacular!
On Tuesday we headed to Lake County to see Jenna and celebrate her 30th birthday. I remember when I turned 30. My mom called me and said “if you’re 30, I’m old!” I refuse to buy into that! Our celebration started with her husband bringing her a new pair of running shoes, which he does every year for her birthday. Only this year he picked a pair to reveal to us the gender of the baby. One would think he would pick a color that would be either pink or blue….but not this guy. He got a pair that were a grayish color, that looked at first glance to be blue. As she opened the box, I saw them and said it’s a boy! It’s not though, it’s a girl! The insole was pink with a pink swoosh on the side of the shoe. Anyway, her dad may have blown that, but we are beyond thrilled to welcome our new granddaughter this October! They haven’t decided on a first name yet, but are thinking Charlotte might be her middle name! Whatever they choose will be great, as far as I’m concerned. I will not put in my two cents on this! My mom suggested Heidi or Erica as a girls name or Wolfgang for our son…..so, yeah, not going there! We went to Leesberg for a great dinner at Turner’s. Jenna has her moms ability to find a great restaurant anywhere!
We headed back to the beach bright and early the next day and immediately began our prep work, spending 11 hours prepping, painting and cleaning up after. We were wiped out! It was so worth it though! We painted every room except the kitchen and bathrooms, and it looks terrific! The next day we felt like we had been in a car accident and couldn’t even drag our butts out to the beach. It was a good feeling though! I just love this place! And every day it feels a little more like us.
