The Beginning

Welcome to our journey, Igor and Casie and our four kids.

If you like to read check out our blog, it’s worth reading and I like to write.  If you’re not into that, check out our REELS for a highlight of our life.  And if your more into the DIY check out our YouTube for more detail.  If you don’t see what you are looking for just ask and we can make a video for you or set up a facetime. 

Back to the beginning. This was NOT our plan.  We had a different plan in our heads.  Igor would stay a police officer for another 20 years and I would go into law and practice but still be home in time for school pick up.  Life had other ideas however and we realized we didn’t WANT to live a life that was on someone else’s terms and someone else held the reigns.  We found this love for working together and being creative daily when renovating RVS, thinking of ways to give back.

So, the plan began, we had to move.  But where?  Definitely somewhere warmer.  Okay, the Carolinas?  No, they were warm enough, Florida, too humid, Arizona, too much desert.  Why don’t we try Texas?  To which neither of us have ever been.  So, we booked a flight, loaded our three toddlers onto the plane and took five days to see if we even liked it.  

Even from the start of our conversations with family, I don’t think anyone actually thought we would like it, buy something, non the less quit our job and move.  And we didn’t. We looked at a different location every day.  We looked at hill country, which is stunning.  STUNNING.  One was built into a cliff and was the most amazing home, but my kids would be parachuting down the cliff.

The next was close to hill country and so stinking ugly it was cute.  We were thinking, this was it, 8 acres and a playground in the back.  This super cute, dried creek bed out back…. Dried creek bed with sunlight.  (we’ll get back to that) So we left and stopped next door to the neighbor’s house to ask him what he thought of the area.  He said how peaceful it was, just always wear boots.  Boots??  Because the creek bed was usually swarming with rattlesnakes…. He had killed on just that morning about five feet big and it was weekly.  Okay so obviously we had a steep learning curve there.

Next, we went to Waco.  I mean, this is Chip and Joanna territory and obviously they are our idols right next to Denzel.  The little area with the Silos was so perfect.  It had food, stores, and this quaint atmosphere.  But outside of that, everything was so far apart compared to what we knew that it just didn’t give us goosebumps.  So, we trudged on, trying to not be defeated.

We went east the next day.  Not having any true standards, but a home and land for horses.  We looked at a moldy double wide with great land.  And I mean mold.  But the land wasn’t ideal, and they wanted a pretty penny.  We tried a house next to our realtor, but this was against the train tracks, and if you’ve seen Fried Green Tomatoes you understand why I just couldn’t.  So quickly we had gone through our trip and not found anything.   Neither Igor or I wanted to make eye contact with each other or verbalize how disappointed we were.  This was supposed to be it.  We would find a place, cheap and it would just work…

So, we went back to the hotel and my bestie said push your flight a day, it’s supposed to storm back in Boston, and she didn’t want us to get stuck in the airport.  So, we pushed a day, and decided okay we’ll go to the San Antonio zoo tomorrow and just relax. On our way our realtor called to recap and we told her where we were going.  She said, okay, I have one more suggestion for on your way home.  Stop at this land, it’s out of the budget you wanted but just look.  Just look.  I still shake my head.

We had a great day, just being silly, we headed back to see this land, really just expecting nothing.  We pull up to this gate and I felt the goosebumps, but still, we didn’t look at each other.  Our realtor met us and brought us to the final lot for sale.  As we stepped out, the purple tops of the hay fields blew in the breeze.  The sun came out and Igor and I both sighed.  It was stunning, it was huge, and way more than we expected.  How in the world could we get this and what did we have to sell?  The answer ended up being, well everything ha-ha.  Check in for our next blog of what happened next.