We were notified by the owner of the house on Elizabeth, in early Jan, that he wanted to put it up for sale. At first we were going to stay until the place sold since house sales here are so slow (average of a year to sell a house in the Keys) and this time of year there is usually not a lot of places open to rent. Starting at Christmas through end of April is 'season' when things are busy here. We have snow birds, just like AZ, and then people who come down to work just while it was busy. Shirley and I met a guy that works the pedi-cab who comes from Brazil to work Jan - April. This usually results in very little options to rent. We found that out last year and were lucky to find what we did. So when the house went on the market and we had a steady stream of people in to look at the house we decided to start looking around. The search went on for a few weeks. Having lived here for almost a year now we had our criteria for where and what we wanted.
First the Where - we wanted to stay in Old Town. Key West is broken into 3 parts, Old Town, Mid Town and New Town. Here is a link to a map if you want to check it out. http://www.keywest.com/map1.html
Old Town is where we live now. We love this area and wanted to stay. There is where we can walk every where and most of our friends are. This is the original part of KW with great old houses and lots of charm. It runs from Truman ave. to the Mallory Square and White St to Fort Zac. This is the original part of the island. None if man-made.
Mid Town is the area just beyond Old Town. This was just a little farther out then we wanted to be. It runs from Truman to White St Pier and Fort St to 1st St.
New Town is the rest of the island that was added to expand KW when the Army Corp of Engineers came in and dredged out the ship channels for the Navy base. The dredging waste was used to expand out. New Town looks like suburbia Florida with newer houses, lawns and boat parking on the channels.
Then the What - we needed a yard for Dyna, space for Misa (the stray cat from Elizabeth that has become part of the family) since we brought her with us, a porch, at least 2 bedrooms (you know who you are that need to visit) and 2 bathrooms. The one thing we have learned is that with both of us home full time we NEED 2 bathrooms! Since many of the places in Old Town are small it is very common to have 1 bathroom. In the older houses they didn't even originally have bathrooms and were remodeled to include just one. Tom also wanted some semblance of a kitchen that allowed more than one of us in it at a time, had cabinet doors that would close and where you didn't have to open the refrigerator door to open the oven door.
In early Feb we were lucky to find this place...... White St. Now this was the farther part of Old Town and we joke that if it had been on the other side of the street we wouldn't of even rented it. The house has the same square footage as Elizabeth, 1000 sq ft, but has a different layout with 2 bedroom/ 2 bath. It is also a newer house that has hurricane windows, a kitchen that is large enough for 2 people, a dishwasher, vaulted ceilings and a great layout. Below is the picture of Tom and Dyna on the porch. That is a great part too. The porch is larger and so is the yard so Dyna has more room to roam. We are going to cut down the BIG bushes! We like to be able to see from the porch. Guest room will be ready soon so come on down and join us!
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