Sarasota, Here I Come!

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been on PNN as much as usual lately. That’s because I’m working on buying my first house—in Sarasota!  Boy, buying a house is sure time-consuming and stressful, not to mention expensive. There are about 8 million things I still need to do, and I’ve already spent a month or so house shopping and preparing for the move. I’ve basically stopped eating and sleeping, so I’m not the best person to give health advice right now, but I’m hanging in there and it should totally be worth it!

I’ve wanted to live in Florida for more than 20 years. I grew up in Baltimore and I have lived in Norfolk, Va., for the past 14 years. I’m soooo sick of long cold winters. I’ve been thinking about moving for quite a while, but change is hard and coming up with reasons to put it off is easy. For years, I said I was “saving up,”  but since you can never have enough money, it's hard to move beyond that point. But I guess the good buyer’s market, the first-time homeowner’s credit, increasing rent prices, and another impending winter helped kickstart me.

I always planned to move to the warmest part of Florida, like the Ft. Lauderdale-area, but after researching a few different cities, Sarasota turned out to be the most promising option, for now at least. I’ve only seen photos of my soon-to-be-house (I’m supposed to close on November 9th) but my parents flew down and looked at it for me and said it’s pretty nice for my price range.  

My dog, Carly, doesn’t travel well and we don’t like to be apart from one another, so I knew I wasn’t going anywhere until I was staying. But the house has a nice, private fenced-in yard for her, so I think when we finally get there and she sees her new yard (and the house that goes with it), she’ll forget about the ride down.

By coincidence, Sarasota is the best place to buy a house I the nation right now. I didn’t know this until my realtor sent me a link to a Today Show segment on real estate after I had made an offer on the house.

I’m excited because a good friend and former neighbor, who currently lives in Oregon, is planning to move to Tampa in December. It’s about an hour away from Sarasota, and another friend just happened to move to Venice, about 20 minutes away from Sarasota, six months ago or so.

Starting this February, my favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, will start spring training in Sarasota too. Spring training only last for about a month and a half, but it’s still a huge plus for the area!

Of course, since I am “Veganchick,” one of the things I’m most looking forward to exploring and telling you all about is all the vegan-friendly restaurants in the area! According to www.VegSarasota.com, there is an all-vegan Indian restaurant not far from where I’ll be living, and one place even sells vegan donuts! OK, so they don’t count as “health food” but occasional vegan treats never hurt anyone. Yum.

Anyway, if there are any Floridians reading this-- especially anyone in Sarasota--I’d love know any tips you may have. And everyone please keep your fingers and toes crossed that everything goes smoothly!  Once I’m a bit more settled, I’ll be on PNN more frequently and I look forward to writing and reading more blogs again!