Our planning all started when my husband was deployed in 2017 to the Mediterranean Sea on the U.S.S Nimitz CVN 68. Aboard the ship he got news that we were going to PCS (permanent change of station) to Meridian, Mississippi! We we elated and thrilled. There are no words to truly explain the excitement he and I felt to hear that news. What did I do? I started looking at homes, of course! Why not?! Keep in mind that we didn't even have soft orders yet, so it was really all impulsive. You'll find that I am a bit impulsive when it comes to decisions and purchases... oops! Anyways, we applied for "Pre-approval" for $500,000. I know, I know. "What were you thinking Samantha?!" I'm impulsive, remember? We got approved for up to that much and we started shopping for homes in the Meridian, MS area. I found a few here and there that I liked but nothing really STOOD OUT. Then there was "the one". The home that makes your heart race and your palms sweat. The pure agony from not being able to live in it now kind of home. It was one story, it had six bedrooms, it had two and a half bathrooms, it had a barn for God's sake! What could make this home any better? It had a fenced in pasture with 10 acres and stables for miniature ponies and goats. I HAD TO HAVE IT. IM.PUL.SIVE.
Over the next few weeks I battled with the Mr. over this home and tried to convince him that it was a great idea and that we "NEEEEEDED" it. I bought books about homesteading and growing gardens. I started researching how to milk different animals and how to butcher others, I went all out with this. Do you see the impulsiveness yet? If not, just. wait. I went as far as to drive from Gadsden, AL to Meridian, MS to look at homes. The first time was a disaster because about an hour into the drive a very unintelligent individual decided to slam on his breaks because he saw a cop. The man was driving 90 mph and I was driving 75, but apparently I am expected to come to a complete and total stop from 75 mph. I rear ended his car. My then one year old was in the car with me and I was probably 4-5 months pregnant. On top of that, my car was not drivable and it was like 90 degrees outside. I got a ticked for riding too closely to this morons vehicle(I wasn't) and we had to pay the deductible to have my car fixed, which took two weeks. Shouldn't that be sign enough that I shouldn't go look at these homes?! Nahhhh. Let's just test our luck here and go anyways! The second trip was ok, I guess. The realtor that I was working with kept trying to sell me really old fixer uppers that had no land or any value whatsoever. I did not get to go look at my dream home because guess what! It sold. I didn't find a home in Meridian and thank goodness because impulsive Sam here would have probably bought it.
Towards the end of my husbands now third deployment we found out that he was not accepted to go to Meridian and that we would be staying in San Diego. My heart was crushed and I felt like it was over for my dream of a farm in the south. I spent the remainder of the deployment sulking on the inside and really upset that I now had to travel back to San Diego to live once again. Oh! I was in Alabama during this whole thing staying with my in-laws and my family for the duration of his time away. It's always a fun and interesting time staying in other people's homes, isn't it?
I get back to San Diego, California and set up shop once again. At this point I'm probably 6 months pregnant with a now two year old in an empty house living on MCAS Miramar. I moved on base because of the previously stated convenience. We later learned that that convenience comes with a price called a "surcharge"! Tax free my ass. I stayed there for a month before my husband returned home from his 6 month deployment and tried to make it home as best as I could. I had movers bring the stuff I had shipped from Kentucky and place it were I wanted it and then had them move it a little here and there, you know the works on moving into a new home. I think it was about 2 weeks that I slept on a twin sized air mattress with my toddler, it was a wonderful time that I do not want to relive, haha.
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| My husband and son |
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| My husband and daughter |
My husband returned about two weeks later and reintegration started again for the third time. This means getting him settled into a home environment again and more importantly getting our child used to him again. She remembered him this time, much different than the second time he deployed. But it was still very odd for her. If you are a spouse to someone who leaves for extended periods of time, you know the toll it takes on the children to not see their father/mother and then have them jump right back in. It's confusing to them, to say the least. But, as always, we managed to all come together as a family again. You'll find in our life as the Molett Family that coming together in times of struggle and weakness is what makes us a great family, in our humble opinion.
That's not why we are here though! I'll save our struggles and triumphs for another time. We are here because Ol' Samantha here and her impulsivity always manage to land us in a pickle. A few months went by as we got readjusted and we found out that Douglas got picked up as an instructor in the great Pensacola, Florida! We wanted the south and baby we got it. I'm sure you already know what is coming next.... but I'll humor myself for a moment. I said..... "LETS BUY A HOUSE!" No, I don't always learn the first time. But guess what? That is life and this is how we find out what we're made of. My husband is made partly of patience and the other part endurance. Thank God for this man and his willingness to put up with me, LOL. Again we spend a few months looking at homes and debating back and forth whether we should buy or rent. There were ups and down to both options but buying ultimately outweighed renting at the time. We partnered with a Realtor that I will not name due to being a little upset with the agency and the person at the moment and maybe for life, who knows. Here is where the title comes in, "Sight Unseen". See settled with a quiet little double wide on 5 acres out in East Milton, Florida. The Birdseye view made this place look perfect! Lush green trees, wide open land for a garden and some chickens. It all seemed amazing! The realtor sent us photos of the home, they clearly weren't up to day now that we are here. But we trusted his judgement and wanted to believe that someone would not stab us in the back and put our family at risk. It's a funny thing, life.
On August 18th, 2018 we started out journey across America in a Ford F150 driven by my husband and a Chevrolet Suburban driven by me with my two children and my mother. A long drive it was and a frustrating one at that. It took us 6 days to journey across the big U.S.A. To put it bluntly, it kicked my ass. One kid was always screaming and crying or pooping or hungry. One adult was always wanting to stop somewhere and use the facilities or take a photo. It was just something the whole trip. On top of those stresses, it was mandatory that we made the trip in 6 days or the rest had to come out of pocket. Who has thousands of dollars to feed and board 5 humans? Not us. BUT WE DID IT! Yay! We make it to Florida. We are about 30 minutes from our new home in amazing Milton, Florida and BOOM. My husband rear ends my suburban with over 1,000 pounds of our stuff in the bed of his truck and 600 pounds of our stuff in mine. We don't discuss who is at fault but we can all agree that we were very lucky to have been unharmed. Douglas's truck was unable to be driven due to his front bumper being pushed up into his massive tires. Luckily mom mother has AAA and they come out asap and assisted us fairly quickly for the area that we were in (on the side of the highway on the off ramp). Everything was fine though and we were taken to a hotel about 20 minutes from where we were in the opposite direction of out house and we stayed there until the next morning. That is all water under the bridge now and we have moved on from it, unharmed and stronger as a couple.
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| The huge eyesore the owners left for us! Surprise, welcome home! |
It't the next morning and we are on our way to do what needs to be done to get our home in working order. The water was turned on and the electric was transferred to our name. Fast forward to arriving to our new home.... We missed the turn into our "drive way" because the road was grown up. That actually didn't bother us! If it looks like there isn't a house back there, no one will come back there. Ha. We drive up the road and cautiously make our way to the 2,400 square foot modular home. What we saw when we drove up was beyond frustrating. There was broken glass and garbage on the ground. A dumpster was left on our property overflowing with garbage and the screens that were supposed to be on the windows were torn out and laying on the ground and under our broken stairs up to the door. The grass was over grown past my ankles by about 3-4 inches and there was not a single sign that someone had tried to fix it up. But, there's more! When we entered the home the first thing that indicated that something was wrong was the awful smell. It smelled like a mixture of dope, cigarettes and cat urine. It was so foul that we could hardly stand to stay in there, but we did. The initial walk around is why we regret buying without seeing the home first. There was an overwhelming amount of rat feces and urine on every flat surface of this home. There was no caulking on anything, that includes the tubs. The carpets weren't stretched properly and were bunched at the middle. One of the windows was even broken! There was water damage on the wall from what smelled to be cat urine in two different rooms. The list goes on and on, really. I get it! We bought it without looking at it and it's our fault, whatever. "Stop being impulsive, Sam". What really got me though, when investigating the homes unmistakably foul odor we discovered that the previous owners never used air filters on their unit. It was about 2 weeks into living in the home that we found this out and by that time we had all gotten sick, including the babies. I did what anyone would do and contacted the realtor about the issues because a home in that condition should not pass inspections and should not be sold, but he had nothing to say of course. Which is actually totally fine! We may be out more money than before but as the days go by and we get more established and more stable in this home and on these unusable 5 acres, we are finding that there is more than meets the eye. We have adequate drainage for when we sow a garden. We have wonderful neighbors on one side of our property (the other side is infested with thieves and burglars, we'll get into that on another day) who seem to be the sweetest people we've ever met. The locals are kind and welcoming to us. There is even a race track where they do demolition derbies less than 2 miles from our home (HILLBILLY HEAVEN!). There is an upside to everything. The point of this story: Don't buy sight unseen and don't use the realtors inspector.
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| Our heating and air system before we got it cleaned. It was coated in mildew, dander and animal hair and who knows what else! |
In the following weeks/months/years we will turn this double wide and sandy soil into a livable homestead where we can thrive and provide for our family. That is why I have decided to write this blog. I want to show that even through with impulsivity and bad sense of judgement, sometimes you can prevail and make something great out of the worst situation. I hope you will join us on our adventure to becoming self sufficient on 5 acres. Thank you for reading and please subscribe for updates on my next post.
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| The day the dumpster finally left our property!!!! Oh happy day!!!! |
*Oh yea! We got the dumpster removed after calling the code enforcement! It only took us a month and a half of calling and complaining to the owner of the dumpster. Yay.
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