Salty Haven

In mid 2021, Jesse and I decided that we wanted to sell our urban home and move onto his family’s land. My husband’s side of the family lives on generational land that’s located in a rural area. It takes about 20-25 minutes to “go into town” and Target runs aren’t a thing lol. Before listing our home, we completed some touchups around the house, a fresh coat of paint including the front door, freshened up the landscaping, and staged it with the greatest help from our parents and my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law. She was actually our Realtor. We jokingly called it Case De Smurf because when we bought it the house was this awful shade of blue and tan that had faded over time. We had all the intentions of painting it after we bought it. We did paint the whole interior and felt like our money was better spent on the interior at the time. Our house was in a great location, but with great location comes high traffic and the community just kept getting larger and larger. They began construction to widen the highway we lived off of and built a high school across the street from our neighborhood entrance. We bought Casa De Smurf back in March of 2017 (below on the left) and we got married in December of 2017. It was considered “waterfront property” because it was located on a retention pond. The yard was pretty large compared to others. We had two dogs at the time and they loved it!

Before we bought our house, we actually toured a very similar house right around the corner and had put an offer in on it, but our offer wasn’t accepted. We were so devastated. Then we found our house. It had a larger backyard and side yard, carpet throughout the home that we ended up pulling up and laying laminate down, and it was further back in the neighborhood away from main traffic. We knew it was meant for us to buy it when we went around back and it had all these beautiful succulents growing under what was Ada’s windowsill! Succulents are one of my favorite plants, other than Peonies.

We lived in Casa De Smurf for 4 years. It was a very difficult time for me when we finally listed our house on the market. I knew God had far better plans for our growing family than I could ever imagine for ourselves. This was our first home and the one we brought Ada home from the hospital to. I am a very, very sentimental and nostalgic person. I save every little thing! I just recently gave all of Ada’s premie to 9 month baby clothes away because I’m that sentimental. It took me days to decide which ones to keep and I cried. A lot. We knew this wasn’t going to be our forever home but it was still difficult leaving the home we had so many family firsts in. After we listed our house on the market, it sold within two days. TWO DAYS! It was the craziest two days of our lives lol! The photograph above on the right was our last day in Casa De Smurf in July of 2021. We grabbed our things and moved in with Jesse’s parents until September. Then we became roommates with my parents until January of 2022 when we found out the process of getting our mobile home onto the property was going to take a little longer than expected. I was pregnant with Shep and we still had Penny, our beagle, at the time. Ada and her grandparents thought it was the best thing being able to live together! Jesse and I are so blessed that most of our families live so close to us and we are so grateful for our parents in this season of life of having and raising kids!!

The day after Ada’s 2nd birthday party we moved into our mobile home. She loved cows at the time so the theme and location were only fitting. I remember it was the COLDEST day of the year! The wind was so strong blowing from the North that we had to move the party and 50+ family and friends inside our unfurnished home! We had some IKEA cabinets, two sofas, and a random desk lol. The older cousins were playing Nintendo Switch in our laundry room and all the bedrooms were empty. It was one to remember for sure and then this year it was 84 degrees the day of her 4th birthday party! *insert sweating emoji*

Fast forward to now, we live in a 2021 Clayton Homes Mobile Home on generational land in Western Florida and we absolutely love it!! It’s quieter, we have so much space for the kids to play outside, and more freedom with not having a HOA! The sunrises and sunsets are by far my favorite things about living where we do. My in-laws live next door to us. We put a little double gate in between our fences so that we could just walk over whenever we wanted to! Jesse’s grandparents, his Dad’s parent’s, live just another pasture over. I guess you can call it a family compound! My Dad’s side of the family lived on a family compound when my sisters and I were growing up as kids before they moved to North and South Carolina. There are definitely some learning curves to living in a mobile home! I tried searching online and different social media platforms for tips or hacks about living in a mobile home, even DIY’s in mobile homes, and couldn’t really find anything. So I thought it’d be fun to add little mobile home living hacks, tips, and little projects on along the way to The Salty Haven Blog! So stay tuned for that! :)

My sisters and I lived in a mobile home when we were growing up as kids and they’re some of the most vivid memories I have, other than of our childhood home that our parents still live in now. Back then it just seemed so grand! I’m not gonna lie, when we seriously began touring mobile homes I was a little skeptical and almost embarrassed to tell people, even some family members and close friends, that we were looking at mobile homes and not a “house”. I am a people pleaser and was in a mental state where I thought self-image was more important. What would people think of me? Of our financial situation? Of our kids? I would literally say, “It’s a mobile home, but newer and up-to-date. It’s not like the mobile homes they built in the 80’s!” Lol, what? Looking back now, I laugh and want to pinch myself because I shouldn’t have put other people’s thoughts and opinions over my happiness and what was best for our family. But in the thick of it I sadly did. I knew no one who truly loved and cared about us would ever say anything rude and demeaning in response. Guess what, NO ONE did. My kids have a playroom, their own bedrooms, I have a laundry room, we have our own master closets, double vanity sink, a massive kitchen island, and a large enough space for a mudroom bench/storage area. Plus acreage! We’re living the dream! Even though some days may not feel like it when a piece of trim pops off your wall or you open a door and it puts a hole in your wall lol. One day I’ll make a blog post of a tour of our mobile home!

Fall sunset 2023

When we think about our childhood homes, we want our 1,568 sqft. mobile home to be as much as a safe haven for our kids as ours were for us and centered around Jesus Christ! We want our kid’s friends to want to come to their house to have bon fires, feed the cows, fish in the pond, and do all the fun stuff you can’t do when you live in a city. With lots of praying, life challenges, patience, and giving all the glory to God, The Salty Haven Blog was created! Ah, this is my first blog post on The Salty Haven Blog-it’s lengthy but a needed one! I can honestly say that I am as excited for The Salty Haven Blog as I am on Christmas morning!! Thank you for hanging out on my first blog post!

Talk soon!

Lindsey