It Takes Vision

By 2000, after vacationing here since 1990, we knew that we wanted to retire here. We looked at property all over the island but nothing really grabbed us. And we really wanted to face the water if we could. A week before we were to return to Minnesota, the cold and our jobs, we found this:

A whirlwind of activity took place and B flew back down in late April to close on it. We never really planned to live in it. We thought maybe a nice remodel would be in order. For the next 3 years we did nothing with it. There was a family living in it at the time (not the owner) and we allowed them to stay on, rent free, in exchange for taking care of it. As we found out later, they did a, shall we say, horrible job.

As luck would have it, in March 2003, while still vacationers, the house next door went on the market. We took a look, just out of curiosity. We fell in love with the house and immediately bought it. Our plans then drastically changed regarding the first property. We decided to use the same floor print but totally redo it and use it for rental income. This is what we have on the same spot today:

Sometimes it just takes vision. (and a good architect!)