And the house hunt begins

So Tom and I took a (long) drive down to Fort Lauderdale to begin our search for the "perfect house".
We were referred to a Remax agent in Pompano Beach who went out of town and set us up with her associate who told me that nothing whatsoever was available in Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, or Oakland Park in our price/need range. She kept on trying to push us towards Deerfield Beach, which we were not too wild about since we have never been there.
So we called our agent here and had him find us another agent, this time in Oakland Park. Coincidentally, she too went out of town and referred us to her co-worker, who turned out to be the best real estate agent we could have ever found!
She is one month older than me and was very hard-working and honest. Funny, she found us homes to see in Oakland Park. (I thought there WEREN'T any).
We went to see about 5 homes. One had storm shutters, one was owned by Murray Waltrip and Stephanie Murray Waktrip who won the Amazing Race season 7 (and, by the way, basically abandoned their Florida home apparently). It was in complete disrepair. I have no clue how they made the listing photos look so good! The bathroom was completely ripped out, not even a toilet. The floors were the saddest looking Terrazzo I had ever seen and it was CRACKED all over. No love or care given to that home. The owners obviously just want to be tv stars. I can't believe that house was being shown, let alone for the price they wanted. It ended up selling to an LLC for $140k which was $90k less than they were asking typical buyers. Well, of course because the place was a pit. 

  61 NW 48TH ST, Oakland Park, FL 33309

 

We wanted to view one home that had a pool, but the owners had an emergency and could not show it that week. So that was out.

We saw a rather large corner home that looked lovely on the outside and inside it was like a cyclone hit it, a complete mess with a leaking skylight, a torn up kitchen counter, and there were 2 pitbulls left in the yard, so we were unable to even go see it.

And then we found our ~~~HOME~~~

 

STUNNINGLY RENOVATED 3-bedroom home in North Andrews Gardens. Featuring a split open floorplan, this home's newer roof and new impact windows qualify for the maximum insurance discounts and at the same time offer terrific energy efficiency with its new A/C system. Close to every imaginable convenience. Renovations include new tile floors, new electrical panel, W/D, fenced private yard with new sprinklers, shed and room for a small pool.

It is both in our price range, and able to close by the time we close on our home here.

And now the FUN begins...

Now the Looking

I have to explain exactly where we have our home in Illinois. The neighborhood I grew up consists of post-war housing boom bi-level, ranch, split level, and bungalow homes.
See HERE for more details.

In September of 1989, my old elementary school, Blanche Borg which lay abandoned for several years, was purchased at auction by a Muslim Community Center. Most of those connected with the Muslim Community Center have roots in India and Pakistan, not the Middle East, and in 1990 they paid $1.83 million for the school.

In November 2002, Muslim leaders proposed building a mosque on school grounds.
The center used the site for 13 years as a school and held services in its gymnasium. It was turned down on plans to add a mosque to the property in 2003. Village officials said they denied the mosque a building permit because its plans had insufficient parking.

From the outset, the mosque plan met opposition from neighborhood residents who said the school and Friday prayers were causing traffic and parking problems.

Initially, the group's plans called for a mosque for 600 people and 144 parking spots on property next to the school. The center scaled down the proposal and brought it back to the village, but Morton Grove officials would not consider it.

Some residents said the site with the mosque would require 10 acres, rather than the Muslim Education Center's current four.

Despite the ruling, village officials would eventually amend the zoning code and the center would build a mosque on the property. In a $5 million lawsuit, school officials said the village violated the federal Religious Land-Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 by unlawfully restricting religious assembly.

In its lawsuit, the Muslim Community Center said it has met Morton Grove's zoning requirements and the village arbitrarily rejected the proposal. The center allege in the lawsuit that five of the six houses of worship in the village have more people attending per acre than the center proposed. Village officials have said they rejected the plan because they fear a mosque would add to traffic problems in the neighborhood.

The officials said that the action is necessary to "prevent a dangerous precedent for other Muslim communities and Islamic Centers across the nation."

The  members of the Muslim Community Center based in Chicago said they would forgo the money and drop the suit if the village issues a zoning permit allowing them to build a mosque for 500 people.

In June 2004 Morton Grove and the Muslim Community Center reached an agreement.
The agreement, reached with help from the U.S. Department of Justice will allow the Muslim Community Center to request a special-use permit to build a mosque for 525 worshipers, expand its education facility and include parking for up to 224 vehicles.

In 2007, the building of the mosque began and is still being added on to today.

The mosque includes a 55-foot high minaret and a domed building, along with expanded classrooms for its existing school.

The problem with the parking, even though the site built an extra parking lot, is still huge to this day. There have been parking zoning issues, police having to sit outside near the mosque to direct traffic, especially during Ramadan. There are constant violations and tickets being given more to people who come to worship at the church from other places, who do not follow the zoning signs. There is also a lot of traffic, speeding and so forth. So this has been an ongoing issue.

And out house was 6 doors down from it all...

This, in conjunction with the tearing down of homes in order to build very tall and large ones, were the leading factors as to why we chose to sell instead of add a flood system to our home.

So our house went up on the market and sold in 6 days!!!

This reinforced my belief that people really love to near near their houses of worship.

So now we just had to find a home in Florida.

How it all began

I was actually getting prepared for another winter in Illinois, when an event occurred that changed everything and hastened our ever-present plans to leave home and the bitter winters behind.

We had several floods this past summer. Some people were calling it a hundred-year rain. I call it, normal goofy midwest weather. The whole ozone idea is not at all farfetched as I can recall actual changing seasons in my youth that are seemingly not present today.

The floods we had filled our basement, one up to around 3 inches. This caused wall damage as well as losing some items to the flood. Plus, Tom woke up for work and got out of bed, only to step into it. The cats couldn't get around and it was awful.

So we looked into getting, an obviously very necessary flood control system. We were quoted a reasonable price and the work was to start this month.

Then, when they sent someone out to measure for the actual dig, we come to find out that our water lines are under our carport, deeper than they thought they would be, and the quoted price almost doubled! They would have to tear up our newly done driveway and it would be an expensive mess.

So, long story short, we decided to sell.

We had no idea how it would go, how long it would take, what price we'd get, but we decided it would be better.

Dad would stay in Illinois in a senior apartment, and we would use part of the proceeds from the house to purchase our long awaited Florida home!

So, we talked to a realtor, Tom's friend, and he hooked us up with a stager and the process of readying a 55 year-old home began.

Mind you, it was not easy. I have helped friends clean up to move many times. Simple, just throw things away, right?
It is NOT that easy when it is your stuff that needs to be organized and thrown away!

However, it is doable, as the following photos taken to show our hold home will tell you:

It sure doesn't hurt to have a great photographer take them either ;)

Our Virtual Tour