Finding Our Lake House in Florida

Our Lake House in Florida

Condo hunt, June 22-30, 2007

Well, we are at it again. Yet another home. This time we looked in Florida, on the northeast coast.

Consistent with our long term retirement plan, for the "endless summer," we decided we wanted one more seasonal transition location in addition to New Hampshire and Chile. Having lived in north Florida for nearly a decade, we liked the area, and the friends and family who are nearby. So we began the search with our friends, Bob and Carol, who are retired and living in Flagler Beach.

We spent two intensive days looking at condos in their area, before we headed north, where we had already set up an appointment with another Realtor.

East of Jacksonville is the beautiful coastal town of Fernandia Beach. Many happy memories of being there flooded back as we drove into the charming historical downtown for our appointment. It was like coming home.

After looking at one house quite near the beach, we made a quick stop to climb up the steps over the dunes to see the beach close up. More great memories! We made new memories and decisions before the sunset the next day, for we signed a purchase offer on our future home while the sun was still in the sky.

Where is Fernandina Beach? There it is, up in the top right corner of Florida, east northeast of Jacksonville.

Look for our lake on the inset map above to right of the dip in the Buccaneer Trail.

We found our future home on this spring fed lake, located on Piney Island, just west of Amelia Island in a development called...

Marsh Lakes

Our house, below, is the left side of the duplex, and the green arrow on the map points to our mailbox.

We were captivated by the lovely views of the lake.

And we were delighted with the fact that we wouldn't need our own dock, since the community one was just next door, to the right of Margy, beyond the palm tree. Also, we are only a few doors away from the pool and tennis court. What a great location!

Well, this turned out to be quicker than we thought! We headed back down to Flagler Beach to share the news with Bob and Carol.

The next day they took us to see the Princess Place Estate, an historic Adirondack camp style hunting lodge and the first in-ground concrete swimming pool in Florida.

We also had time to sit leisurely with them, enjoying the view of the intercoastal waterway as the sun set.

The next day we headed south to Melbourne to spend a few days with Margy's sister Anne Fay and her husband Peter. Margy helped file hundreds of documents that Anne has been collecting in her genealogy hobby which has become a passion.

We drove to Orlando for our flight home. Artie's Aunt Bessie and cousin Ira picked us up at the airport after we returned our rental car, so we got to spend some quality time with them, including a stop at their house to see the wonderful photo albums that cousin Selma had made for her mother's 90th birthday. They took us to a local deli for lunch before taking us back to the airport.

Our flight home was filled with many happy thoughts of being able to more easily see Florida friends and family in the future. We are looking forward to spending enjoyable times at our Florida Lake House!

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		Consistent with our long term retirement plan, for the "endless summer," we decided we wanted one more seasonal transition location in addition to New Hampshire and Chile. Having lived in north Florida for nearly a decade, we liked the area, and the friends and family who are nearby. So we began the search with our friends, Bob and Carol, who are retired and living in Flagler Beach.
We spent two intensive days looking at condos in their area, before we headed north, where we had already set up an appointment with another Realtor.

East of Jacksonville is the beautiful coastal town of Fernandia Beach. Many happy memories of being there flooded back as we drove into the charming historical downtown for our appointment. It was like coming home.


After looking at one house quite near the beach, we made a quick stop to climb up the steps over the dunes to see the beach close up. More great memories! We made new memories and decisions before the sunset the next day, for we signed a purchase offer on our future home while the sun was still in the sky.

Where is Fernandina Beach? There it is, up in the top right corner of Florida, east northeast of Jacksonville.


Look for our lake on the inset map above to right of the dip in the Buccaneer Trail.


Well, this turned out to be quicker than we thought! We headed back down to Flagler Beach to share the news with Bob and Carol.

The next day they took us to see the Princess Place Estate, an historic Adirondack camp style hunting lodge and the first in-ground concrete swimming pool in Florida.


We also had time to sit leisurely with them, enjoying the view of the intercoastal waterway as the sun set.

		The next day we headed south to Melbourne to spend a few days with Margy's sister Anne Fay and her husband Peter. Margy helped file hundreds of documents that Anne has been collecting in her genealogy hobby which has become a passion.

We drove to Orlando for our flight home. Artie's Aunt Bessie and cousin Ira picked us up at the airport after we returned our rental car, so we got to spend some quality time with them, including a stop at their house to see the wonderful photo albums that cousin Selma had made for her mother's 90th birthday. They took us to a local deli for lunch before taking us back to the airport.