Our Mexico Beach Haven

After a long, arduous search and several offers, Neal and I were fortunate enough to close on our dream 3 bedroom/3 bath condominium at Waterside Village in Mexico Beach, Florida on May 28th.  We spent the next 7 days setting it up with the bare minimum amount of "stuff" to be able to go up and enjoy the place at every chance we might have.  The bare minimum sure can grow and needless to say we still feel a need to have some things there, but we made significant headway on our dream vacation/eventual retirement home.

Below are some pictures of what we accomplished in:
7 days
2 Sam's Club trips
2 Home Depot trips
1 Bed, Bath & Beyond trip
5 Walmart trips
1 Badcock Furniture & more trip
1 Sam's Club online order
1 Sam's Club click n pull
1 Walmart site to store orde3 Ace Hardware trips
and numerous hours of online research to choose just the right item in just the right size at just the right price.

These barstools were given to us by Neal's parents.  They are 24" bar stools and our area in the Riverview home needs 30" bar stools.  We held on to them in case Caelum got another home with a bar stool area.  During the course of our many offers on the condo we realized that the eating area portion of the kitchen counter might be just the right height to use these at.  And it was!  So I set to painting them white and then removed the plush black fabric and recovered them with two fun fish prints I had in my fabric stash!  We talked of yellow suns on the backs of the stools but after all the coats of white paint I did not want to have to mask that all off in order to have them be yellow!

This was a spur of the moment stop at Badcock & more furniture on the way to Walmart on Saturday afternoon.  We went with cheap, let's use it, furniture with a fabric that is cleaned up easily with soap and water.  The sofa is not a sleeper nor does it have recliners built in but the price met our immediate budget and sit on something needs!  They are called brick but I think they are more of a tomato color.  The drapes we got at Bed, Bath & Beyond when I found nothing at Walmart that I liked. The pattern is not necessarily what I would have chosen but the color matches the sofa set exactly!  You can't complain about that.  The lamp on the tv tray lost it's shade on the trip up when we experienced tarp problems, over and over again.  we got a 5 pc tv tray set at Walmart.  online they were $129, in the local Sun City Center Walmart they were $69 but we were out of room in the truck bed so we got them up there.  When they rang up they were only $37!  Now that was a good deal and they are well used.  One in the huge master bedroom as an end table, one in the livingroom as seen here, one in the medium bedroom for an end table and one in the medium bedroom holding up the internet modem and the wireless box.  The plan is to actually use them as tv tables once we find and can afford real end tables in the bedrooms and living room.

The tv we brought from home and the stand was a Walmart buy.  The box houses the rest of the original Nintendo set games and was eventually unpacked once Neal got the Nintendo to work. Basic cable comes with our HOA dues.
The table is a clever "harvest" table Sam's Club purchase that measures 63" long and is 31" wide when both long ends are unfolded to make it wider for dining at.  It has two drawers and the right one currently holds local restaurant to go menus for visitors to peruse before dining out.

Here is a picture of one of the two swivel rocking chairs we brought from our home in Riverview.  We rarely sit out on our lanai at the Riverview home due to hot weather and the abundance of dryer sheet smells coming from the neighbor's dryer at all times of the day of night.

The adorable tiny table was a Beall's Outlet purchase up there and is shown in a close up picture of the neat heron tile/glass top.  It is just right for one or two beverages to sit on while we enjoy our lovely view.

Now it is time for a FISHING report!  One of the big draws for us was that this condo complex is on a canal with a boardwalk and day docks.  On Sunday we purchased fishing poles to leave up there and I used some artificial lures brought from home gear.  I am not an artificial lure person and have only caught one lady fish on a saltwater minnow lure while trolling a long time ago, and many freshwater large mouth bass caught in my inlaw's backyard pond where they live.  So it was no surprise when I could not scare up any interest at all using several of them on Sunday and Monday.

On my first trip to the small local Ace hardware  noticed they had frozen squid and shrimp.  I invested in whatever size package you got for $3 and the fishing improved immensely!  On Tuesday I caught this redfish.  It was maybe 12" long and rather full for it's size.

On Wednesday I caught this tiny crab and I do mean tiny.









And this super skinny red fish shown next to my foot for sizing purposes.

I did not fish on Thursday.

on Friday I fished for a couple of hours and did catch a tiny greenback which the pool man took of the hook for me before I could get a picture of it. And I did take two pictures of the small bait fish I caught but alas, they were not in the camera when I looked for them later.

Now I return you to further pictures of the actual condo....

The hallway/guest room bathroom has an inexpensive shower curtain with shells on it and some lovely Tide Pool colored towels and rugs from Walmart.

And the Guest room which is all bed!  We will need to be very clever to fit a bedside table, dresser with drawers and possibly a small desk in the this room!

And the Papa bear bathroom has dolphins in it!

Papa bear likes blue so there are gobs and gobs of blue in this bedroom and adjacent bathroom as you can see.

A well stocked pantry.  I think this is meant to be a linen closet as it is in the hallway outside of the guest bathroom, but as we are big Sam's Club purchasers which means huge quantities of the same item it makes a better pantry for us.

And the inside of the fridge and top are well stocked too!  Got to have your priorities straight.

The utility room has turned out to be the catch-all in the condo. Originally we planned to have the fishing gear in here and maybe even a bike or two, but as we put in shelves for the pots and pans and laundry detergent etc we moved the beach and fishing gear to the hall closet as you walk in the condo.  Which makes more sense in the end as people do not need to track all that sandy, fishy stuff through most of the house to put it away.  I forgot to take pictures of the "beach" closet.  But here are pictures of the shelves and the broom/mop holder and water heater (huge) and A/C handler.

The kitchen has less cupboard space then our Riverview home and has a different use of counter top space.  The bar stools are just on the right hand side of that deep double sink in the right of this picture.

Mama bear's bedroom is the largest in the condo as any crafting type supplies she brings up there need to be stored and used in that room.  So I wanted the room done brightly and at Walmart, where there was a very limited amount of drape choices and very expensive in my opinion for walmart quality, but oy these pink drapes turn the whole place PINK pink PINK when the sun shines on them!  Gratefully, we got a double rod for this 95" wide sliding glass door set and I hope to make some pieced quilt type panels to hang over these pink drapes and see if that tones down the pink any.  I love pink and orange and lime green but gosh almighty those drapes are too much even for me!

This set of drapes is just to cover up that small window that looks out on the second floor area near the elevator.  There are a TON of lights out there and this has two layers of the room darkening paper the tenant left before the drapes and light still comes through!  This window will eventually be covered in something that matches the above mentioned sliding glass door quilt panels.

These are the drapes we got at BB&B that so perfectly match the tomato red sofa and recliners.  I thought there was a picture of the sofa, recliner and drapes all in one but I can't find it so here you get to see them separately.


And because you have waited so patiently here are just a few pictures of the only sunset we got to see while we were there.  We were busy.  Always making a trip for some thing or another or waiting:

Friday was closing
Saturday was trip to Sam's for our truck bed filling trip and trip to Walmart equally truck filling and ordered sofa and recliners
Sunday we went to Home Depot and Sam's Club and got the table we had seen the day before
Monday the sofa and recliners were delivered more store trips
Tuesday the internet was installed more store trips
Wednesday was to be "open" but we found out we had to order the mailbox keys to be made so Wed it was!
Thursday were the much awaited california king mattresses.  The first ordered and the last item to arrive :(
Friday we were going to leave but I noticed a posting of the quarterly HOA board of directors meeting was being held at 9 AM in panama city beach at Burg Management.  So we stayed an extra day and attended that meeting.
Saturday we left for our Riverview home dreaming of returning for the long July 4th weekend.

Hope you enjoy the sunset pics taken from the newly extended Mexico Beach fishing pier that is but a two block west and one block south walk to get to.