We closed on our house this morning, handed over the keys, and we are officially homeless yet again. Yes, the house that we just purchased exactly one year ago. The house that we spent so much money and energy on to fix up. The house that we had our wedding at just over two months ago. We spent the past month purging all of the “stuff” that we accumulated this past year and we are down to just a couple suitcases each and a one way ticket (OK, and a few totes and 2 cars stored at our parents house). It kind of feels like a flashback of 2013. Its pretty bittersweet I must admit.
Since we’ve been MIA for quite some time, lets go back a bit. We came home at the beginning of 2016 after purchasing a house here in FL on a whim…while we were still in Thailand. We were both burnt out from traveling and living out of a suitcase, and most importantly, being away from our family and friends. Having a place to unpack our bags (semi) permanently for a while sounded really nice, even if it did feel like we were selling out to the American Dream. We were excited for a new project and what we hoped would be a great investment.
We really didn’t realize how much work the house and property needed until we showed up on the first day. And then when we decided to have our wedding there in November, the pressure was on to get it into tip top shape. We spent the better part of the year working on the house (with the help of our family) and planning the wedding. Take a look at the photos of our pond above. How’s that for a Before and After? Talk about a TON of work. But we quickly burnt ourselves out on house work and started re-thinking our choice to buy a house in the first place. And while we enjoyed being home and being surrounded by family and friends, it didn’t take long before we were itching to be back on the road again.
We took a few trips throughout the year, such as our great 2016 road trip to Colorado and Utah and then another short trip to Playa Del Carmen for Charlie’s birthday in September.
We thought that would help fill our travel void, but it really had us questioning even more why we tied ourselves down to one place when we could be anywhere in the world.
We were less than a month out from the wedding (to be held at our house), when we decided we were done. We knew we were ready to be back on the road as soon as the wedding and holidays were over. We decided to go ahead and list the house on Zillow at a price much higher than we anticipated it selling for to see what kind of feedback we would get. Wouldn’t you know within 24 hours we had someone coming to look at it, followed up by an offer within 48 hours. The buyers even agreed to closing after the wedding and holidays which sealed the deal. Less than a week later we had a contract and we removed our listing.
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After the wedding was behind us, the next big question was where we were going once we were homeless again. Eager to qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (i.e we wanted to save on Federal taxes!) for the upcoming year, we decided it must be somewhere outside of the USA, much to our parents dismay. We really enjoyed our trip to Mexico and toyed with the idea of going back there and even checking out Puerto Vallarta on the other coast. We liked the idea that it was just a short flight away, or we could even drive our truck down there. Also, we knew our friends and family would be more apt to visit us there. We then threw around the idea of heading straight to Budapest, a city we visited last year and fell in love with, but we decided its much too cold for us Floridians right now.
Argentina and Chile were also big contenders but ultimately, we needed somewhere we could sit still and work on our websites that have been neglected for the past year and we were skeptical of the internet speeds there.
In the end, we decided to go where we always go when its time to get serious and focus on work. Back to our lovely second home in……you guessed it…Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Its the place where we can have an apartment and a motorbike within hours of our plane touching down. There is no figuring out where to go or how to get around. Essentially, we can hit the ground running. It also helps that we already have friends there! We are hopping on a plane tonight and the plan is to spend two months in Thailand focusing on the business side of things and then we will be off to someplace new to settle for a bit. I’m looking at you, Budapest.
We are Brittany and Charlie - we traded the 9 to 5 and the so-called "American dream" to live our own dream and see the world. We sold all of our belongings and left the US in August 2013. For 5 years, we lived primarily in Thailand and built our online business and location independent lifestyle while we traveled to over 30 countries. We’ve had house sitting gigs on 3 different continents and we’ve even appeared on HGTV’s House Hunters International.
There is something about Chiang Mai, isn’t there? 🙂
I love that place, the energy, the mountains, the people, the whole vibe. Is it a Floridian thing? There is that tropical thing. 😀
I was just there for last summer and cannot wait to go back again this summer.
I was surprised that you guys bought a house and were settling down. But I do know that pull of family and friends and just being comfortable for a while. I have been hanging out in South Florida for now too, but the travel bug will always be there.
I am glad that you guys were able to have a great wedding celebration and turn-over for your house. Good luck with all your travels.
Dean
Chiang Mai definitely has a way of sucking you back in 🙂 Every time we think we’re ready to move on, we find ourselves back here. Nothing compares to it! I think we surprised ourselves even when buying the house. It was a very spontaneous decision lol. But think we needed it for a while. Glad to be “free” again with just a few suitcases!
Congrats! It’s so interesting where life takes you! I’m glad you love Chiang Mai so much it was pulling you back! Getting ready to make the big move in about a month to Chiang Mai and would love to grab a coffee with you guys!
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