Move and Modify: Part 2

In Move and Modify: Part 1, I talked about how Team Wayne has aspirations for a little bit bigger house, maybe a neighborhood change, and how we expect to move and modify after outlining our goals. We have two more dreams that come up often in conversation on Sean and my long walks down roads lined with beach real estate.

I. Sandbridge Beach House

I feel as if this goal has a few different pathways as to how we may get there.

What we know: we love Sandbridge, in Virginia Beach. We want a house there. We want not just any house there, but a fixer upper, foreclosed upon, dump that doesn’t need insane foundation, roof, or stilt repair. We want someone’s messy, ugly, outdated beach property of which they are thrilled to be relieved. We love the idea of placing our own tastes, styles and creativity in a home right on the water and sharing it with others!

What we don’t know: we don’t know whether or not we want this house to be our HOME home. Every time we sink our toes and watch baby toes sink deeper into the tops of freshly kicked up sand and see Cooper, our wave riding dog, brave yet another tremendous surf, we think to ourselves… “why wouldn’t we just live here?” We’ve asked ourselves why we wouldn’t just skip goal #1 (buy a house in Lago Mar), sell our current house, and live on the water in a tiny beach town where we spend the majority of our days anyway. I personally don’t buy the foreboding, “don’t move to the beach because you will get sick of it” or “it will lose its appeal” because frankly it’s been calling me back for 30 years and I am ready to listen now. The move seaward would also be a difference of only single digit miles so the change up wouldn't feel so dramatic.

The alternative plan would be to BRRRR some properties and save for approximately 10 years until we have enough money saved up and passive income coming in that we have become financially free. We save enough money from rentals over a 10 year period to be able to afford 20% down on a 500-600k house in Sandbridge. In order to make mortgage, taxes, and insurance, we would rent the beach house out whenever we wouldn’t be using it ourselves. Realistically, we’d take about a month to enjoy it every summer whether we’d spread the 4 weeks out over time or stay in the house for an entire month of back to back weeks. For some people, the thought and actual dealings with renters and/or acting as one's property manager is stressful, taxing, and just plain not fun but Sean and I have always enjoyed hosting and creating spaces for others to enjoy. Air BnB has been a conversation of ours for many years now as to possibly owning several properties that friends, family, and strangers can get together with people they love in a space that Sean and I invested in and designed. We believe that when you have gifts and talents that you have worked hard to fine tune and craft, they are meant to be shared with others and celebrated. This rental beach house could be one of, hopefully, many rentals that we can not only add to a strong and creative portfolio but also could be profitable to our business.

This dream goal is basically inevitable. It’s not the expensive part that will hurt the most or the hosting guests for a rental. It’s the waiting part… not being able to hop skip over to the beach, crash in our imaginary beach house after an entire day in the sun, and falling asleep to the sound of waves lapping up and back upon the shore. Yet another lesson in patience.

II. Coffee and Restaurant Business Investments

Sean and Ann love coffee. Since becoming parents, coffee has been the necessary fuel to start everyday and gives us something to look forward to in the first few minutes of the morning after straining to open our eyes as we await the call of our children. Coffee for us has become more than just an essential life force to help us raise our children safely. It has become a bonding agent for Sean and I to fuel early morning conversations before getting out of bed to face the day. It has become a way to show each other our love by who will tear themselves out of bed first to make the other a perfectly rationed cream-to-coffee cup of joe. Lady Antebellum sings a song called “Heart of the World” where Hillary Scott perfectly describes a wife and mothers perfectly imperfect morning with coffee:

“I leave him sleepin' as I rise early

Always up before the dawn

The house is dark, but I see clearly

Kettle sings a morning song

The bacon's frying, babies crying

I soak up the sights and sounds

Minutes turn to days and I wish that I could slow it down.

If grease is the soul of the kitchen

And coffee the drink of the Gods

Routine too perfect to mention

Time is a thief I would rob.”

Most mornings I feel like the sound of a percolating coffee pot is truly music and coffee grounds are nothing less than a gift from the heavens. There is nothing more satisfying than sitting around our living room on a slow Saturday morning listening to our kids laugh and run around while soaking in the warmth from our hot mugs. And like the feelings I have for my husband, there are some people and things to which I’m perfectly fine being addicted.

This Picture was taken at the Assisi, Italy Cafe

Coffee is more than just beneficial to us in our personal life. Coffee shops around the world have inspired us in not only design but also ambiance. Sean and I first started dating in Gaming, Austria. Our very first dates were all over Europe. Two occasions stick out the most in my memories. The first was within our first week of dating. We both volunteered for a mission trip in Lourdes, France and had a few hours of free time one evening. As we walked down the rocky streets, we stumbled across a 5 euro laying on the ground in front of us. Not seeing anyone around who may have dropped it, we concluded that it was meant to be. We immediately looked up and saw a coffee shop nearby and coined the happy fault as a “God Date.” He must have wanted us to use the euros to enjoy each others company around a warm tiny cup of espresso. This little coffee shop was quaint, charming, and filled with French ambiance including metal chairs placed on either sides of little round bistro tables complete with a gelato counter at the end of the room. I hardly remember the conversation we had but what I remember most was how happy I was being there with Sean enjoying a cup of coffee and soaking in the atmosphere that only a special french cafe could provide.

The second cafe we remember visiting was a little Italian coffee shop located on the hills of Assisi. Assisi, Italy is by far one, if not the most special places to Sean and I in the whole world. We have had the privilege and honor to visit the location twice in our life and with the second time being just as magical as the first. There is one center of the city that contains offshoot roads including one that points upward on an incline toward the top of Assisi. A little ways up in a darling cafe serving gelato and espresso. Sean and I sipped espresso while soaking in the experience of Europe on one of our very first dates as twenty-one year olds. The second time we visited, we made it a necessity to visit the very same cafe and sit in the same metal chairs that we sat in almost 7 years before, this time married, two babies deep, and still so very much the same people yet so much more grown up.

Again, this world in Italy that runs so much on the presence of the bean, yet again provided an experience for us that enhanced the speciality of our first years together. To be able to create four walls and a roof of our own, inspired by the European cafes that first brought Sean and I together would be a dream come true. To create a space designed by us where other couples could meet for the first time to fill up on a warm latte and create first memories, bring families together to laugh and plan their days, or fuel locals and professionals around the area with their first cup of energy and positivity keeps me up at night with the joy of possibility.

This dream could also be recreated with another type of food industry theme. Sean and I have thrown around a pizza shop and brewery combo where the same social and people loving environment is nurtured and captivated. Either way, I think this goal brings me back to the fact that we love people, we love hosting, and we love aiding others to come together to just be in each other's presence and make new memories.

How to get there? Well, this one may take a while. We believe the reality is, that we may have to become financially free before taking steps into the restaurant and food investment industry. Even though it is still real estate, there are still risks and educational steps we’d need to take before taking the plunge. Or...something happens, an opportunity pops up and we start sooner. Move and modify, baby. This leads me to talk about our final and most important goal in Move and Modify: Part 3.

Ann | DESIGN