Our Realtor did the most incredible thing: while we were still in the option period for the lot with the difficult sellers, she told us about another lot that had just come on the market in the same subdivision. It was right next to the lot we wanted this summer – we couldn’t believe our luck. We rescinded our offer since we could not get financing for the purchase price on the first lot, and immediately put down an offer on the second lot. It was quickly accepted, and if all goes well, we close on it this week. We will be St. Croix landowners!

Just to address a couple of the comments that I have received – H and I have never lived on the beach. When we came down to St. Croix this summer, we looked at properties all over the island, including properties that were not waterfront. We decided that for our first home, we wanted to be on the beach. We want to be able to walk out of our back door right down to the water. We have 2 big dogs that love the water, and we want them to be able to easily enjoy the beach as well.

When we bought our lakefront property (that we sold very quickly this spring now that the lake level is back to normal), we had very specific ideas about what we wanted. We wanted open water, H wanted a sunset view, and we wanted to be close to town. We looked at close to 50 houses before we found one that met all these requirements.

We also had never lived on a lake before. Some of these things that we felt we could not live without required a bit of an adjustment. Open water means that your dock is not protected when the strong winter storms blow in from the North. Shortly after we bought our jet ski, one of these storms blew in, and the strong waves knocked it off the lift. Luckily it was locked with a cable, or we would have lost it, but you would not believe the superhuman strength that it took to get that thing back up on the lift while the storm was beating down on us.

A sunset view was beautiful in the winter when we bought the house, but by summer, we were miserable. The entire back wall of the house was glass facing the sunset view. There’s really nothing like having the 110 degree heat pounding through your windows for most of the day. We quickly adapted with both sun-blocking shades and curtains.

I guess the point of this long story is that until you experience something yourself, there’s not a lot that people can say to talk you out of that something. H and I are dead-set on living out our beach fantasy. We know there will be a period of adjustment, just like there was at the lake, but we are determined to make it work. We’ve done the research – we know that our appliances will rust, our electrical equipment may not make it a year, and our clothes will likely mildew. We also know that plenty of people make it work, and there are trade-offs to living just about anywhere. We would love for this property to become our forever home, but if it’s not, we will find the place that is.