2008, a New Year!!

Well, we have been off to a fast start of 2008, the month is almost over. Wow!!

A lot has happened to the Hymes family since 2008 began. Abby came back from her Texas vacation with a new goal: move to Houston after graduation. Elijah had a new goal, too: get my black belt. Duane and I have a new goal: Make it to 2009. Smile.

Last weekend, we went to Cocoa Beach, FL for a karate tournament that Elijah and Ethan competed in. Abby opted to stay home because she had a friend's party to go to. (My how quick they desert us!) So me, Duane, Elijah, Ethan, and Robin took a road trip.

At the tournament, Elijah and Ethan competed in sparring and forms. They did real well with Elijah bringing home two trophies - a 3rd place in sparring and a 4th place in forms.

 

The next day, we were tourists, going to the Kennedy Space Center and spent hours there. It was freezing and seeing as I underpacked, it was a very uncomfortable experience. Until I caved and bought an overpriced Kennedy Center sweatshirt.  Then the rest of the day was awesome. 

We went on this ride that simulates being in a shuttle as it leaves earth and goes into orbit. Awesome! We saw an IMAX movie coupled with 3D glasses about man's trips to the moon. We took a tour of the galaxy museum which taught us about the solar system and the planet sizes.

We wanted to go on a bus tour, but we were too late.

Our hotel was right on the beach. Day 1 it was nice, warm weather. Day 2 and 3, it was arctic weather.

 So we only had an hour or so on the beach and the waves. Oh well, the boys loved it.

All in all, we had a great time!

As I type now, Elijah is beginning a day-long Black Belt testing experience that includes physical fitness and other things. Then after he is finished, we will all out out to eat tonight to celebrate Duane's 35th birthday. He is the big 35 today. 

Up next: Duane's birthday dinner and our new imac computer.

2008

In the beginning ...

Ok. In my quest to research our plans to sell our townhouse (pictured) and build a new home in our lots in South Tampa (also pictured), I spent hours pouring over websites about these very things. Unfortunately, what really interested me were the blogs of people who were doing or had done the very same as what our plan was. I say unfortunately because I really couldn't find many of these blogs easily that could take me through the process.

So I thought, why not create a blog about my experience in the hopes of guiding others who are thinking of doing the same thing as well as informing friends and family about these projects. So here goes, my transition from a suburbia townhouse to a single-family new constructed home in the city.

Every story needs a back story. Mine is quite simple. We need a bigger home because we quickly outgrew the townhouse. So we have land, two side-by-side lots (thank you father-in-law) , and in order to upgrade to the type of house we want, we need to sell the townhouse and use the (fingers crossed) large equity to put down a hefty downpayment on the home construction loan.

Well, the housing market sucks for sellers now. And in order to get the (fingers crossed) large equity, we decided to spruce up the townhouse so that it stands out from the other 50 million townhouses in our neighborhood. Hence the title: Transition from a townhome to a newly made home.