Where the Heck Are We Going to Live? °o°

How do I describe the blur that was our arrival to the Orlando area? After six days of driving, we arrived on my lucky day; Friday the 13th... in the state of Florida, anyway; we still had four more hours of travel south to Central Florida. We decided to stay overnight in Tallahassee and then continued the last stretch after we were rested for the evening.

That night I received a call from a landlord that I had emailed from a listing on Craig's List. She agreed to show us the house the next day at 2:30.  On Saturday after that four-hour drive, we saw the "Welcome to Orlando" sign at 2:20, 10 minutes before the appointment!

It turns out that the house was not to our liking because of safety concerns in the area (driving through the streets we saw a lot of run down homes, broken down vehicles, and bars on windows), but at least we knew to eliminate that neighborhood from our list.

It was still early so we spent the next couple of hours driving through neighborhoods in different towns that we knew we were interested in. We were charmed by Maitland and a few areas of Winter Garden, but found that unlike many neighborhoods in Phoenix, there were no "house for rent" signs in the front yards to be found, and to be honest, those beautiful neighborhoods were still quite a drive from the parks. I figured I would be doing my homework that night on various rental web sites, and calling our real estate agent that we had established a relationship with last year on our scouting trip.

Since it would be getting dark soon, we thought it would be best to secure a place to stay for that night and until we could find a house that we wanted to rent.  We pulled into a parking lot so that we could start making phone calls to find an extended stay hotel, which costs less than a single-night hotel room.  

We settled on Super 6 Extended stay because they advertise that they are pet friendly, and were the cheapest out of the three that we called. For $430 we had a "home" for seven days, with a kitchenette, refrigerator and two HBO channels! Not exactly the most warm and inviting of homes, however. 

Sunday and Monday was spent doing more of the same; driving around, looking for "for rent" signs. We are concerned about the fact that we are trying to rent a house without having jobs yet, so we were trying to avoid Property Management companies that expect you to prove that you earn at least twice the rental amount.

We found a few and called right away. Some would not allow pets at all and some were out of our budget range. Somehow, during those two days we decided that we were really comfortable with the nighborhoods right in the area of Northwest Kissimmee where our hotel was located. After touring through three or four of them, we were impressed with how nice and neat most of the homes were. We decided that although Kissimmee didn't carry the prestige of a Hunter's Creek or a Winter Garden address, the area was still very nice and more of the homes were affordable to us. Additionally, in the right zip code, we would be less than ten miles away from the parks.   

Our agent sent us a list of houses that were available for rent on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) that were in the Kissimmee area. However, many of these homes would not be vacant until a later date, were run by property management companies, or did not need meet our needs (a two-car garage is required, considering how much we have to move into the house).  Heavy, heavy sigh.

I have to admit to you that things were not looking bounteous.  We did not have a plethora of rental  houses available to choose from and although it was early, I was starting to worry. It takes time to drive around town, set appointments with busy home owners and if we should find a house that fit the bill, I also knew that it would take time for background checks to clear, or other paperwork to be processed.  Our goal was to be out of the Extended Stay by the end of that week so that we could get the POD delivered and at least have Christmas week to settle into our new home. Maybe even set up our Christmas tree.

After a lot of pavement pounding, we found only three houses that we wanted to pursue. The first was eliminated quickly because after calling about it, we found it was handled by a property management company. They told us right away "no jobbie, no rentie".  The house in second place seemed like it was going to work out without a hitch. We were so confident that we even called my folks to tell them that we had found our house. I guess we were counting our chickens before they hatched, because although we had a great meeting with the husband that owned the home the night before, the wife had different plans by morning. She told us she had already accepted payment from another tennant. That was a heavy blow. 

We were left with the house in third place as our only option. We did like it, but it was still in rough condition with a hole in the living room wall, dirty walls, and an overgrown lawn. A diamond in the rough.  We called the owner and set a time to meet so that we could fill out her paperwork. My biggest fear being that something will happen that would sour the deal; a cousin of the family was going to be in town for six months, and they were going to rent to her, or some other crushing development. We were already losing valuable time because we had stopped looking.

This time it turned out that three really is a charm, and we walked away with the lease with no problems whatsoever. They even had a team of people repainting, cutting grass, and scrubbing all surfaces when we drove away with a smile and a contract in our fists...  Next stop, GUEST RELATIONS at Downtown Disney!


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MouseketeerKen and MouseketeerMark

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Exploring the Area - Fun Spot/Old Town or; Do You Like Wine With Your Cheese? °o°

Until we can establish an address so that we can purchase Florida resident annual passes to Disney World, we took some time to explore an attraction called Fun Spot, and the nearby shopping complex called Old Town, both just a few miles away from the Magic Kingdom in Kissimmee/Celebration.

Fun Spot, we learned is a collection of state-fair-like thrill rides with free admission, but you have to buy tickets to go on the rides. Each ride cost from 4 to 6 bucks. Old Town is a long street of stores that looks like it was designed directly after Main Street, USA at Disney.  The shops were mostly t-shirts, beef jerky, and "as seen on TV" type stores, but there was a bit of Florida Tourist Cheese worth turning your head for...

Like this hideous 8 foot tall Marilyn statue:

And this stuffed dog mounted over the entrance door:

busty barmaid statues...

even this awesome haunted house façade...

They tried to mimic Main Street, USA:

complete with a teacup ride:

a carousel:

and a monster truck:

All this only 10 minutes away from the parks, and free admission!... why weren't there more tourists in the area taking in the Christmas Cheese??? 


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MouseketeerKen and MouseketeerMark

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Day FOUR of the Journey °o°

Another uneventful day. We finally made it through Texas, and have landed in Baton Rouge for the night, to rest before we hit our final 700 miles (give or take) before we arrive in Orlando.

Pongo (our chocolate lab) sleeps through most of the drive, and is not showing any signs of stress, really. We make sure to give him walk and potty breaks, which is a good thing for our comfort as well. One thing I thought we would have trouble with was finding hotel rooms that accepted large dogs.  So far, all of them welcomed him.  The extra charge however, ranged from $10 to $25.

We are both getting a little tired of fast food. It seems like the "healthiest" food available on the road has been barbeque... At least its not deep fried first!

So, tomorrow we will arrive in Orlando around 5pm, if everything goes well; i.e. we leave early enough, traffic and weather cooperates, and we don't take too many stops.  Our first task is to find an extended stay hotel in a decent area so that we can land there for a week and not have to worry about paying full hotel rates. We will still need to unload the U-Haul trailer into the extended stay room (ugh), because the trailer needs to be returned by Monday the 16th to avoid additional charges, and I doubt we will have a house or condo rented by then.

Meanwhile, we are both looking forward to the end of this grueling part of the journey (5 days of driving!), and beginning step 1: finding a place to live!


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MouseketeerKen and MouseketeerMark

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Day TWO of the Journey °o°

... was uneventful...  and long..   and we expect that today will be more of the same because we will be crossing Texes for 8 to 10 hours.  At least the weather is gorgeous, and the roads are flat. Traffic was only bad one time when we got into El Paso, but that was during their rush hour, and it was just slowed to 40 mph for about 5 miles.  Can't complain about that.

Pongo has adjusted very well to travel. He sleeps comfortably in the back seat.

More later as we get even closer!


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MouseketeerKen and MouseketeerMark

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Sorcerer Mickey Antennae Ball to Lead the Way.... °o°

 

See this little guy? This Sorcerer Mickey antennae ball was a gift from Mouseketeer Phil who asked us not to put it on the truck's antennae until the day we left Phoenix, and Mickey would lead us safely to the Magic Kingdom. We decided that Mickey may be making a few appearances as we cross the country. Keep an eye out for him as he will be making these special appearances primarily on the Facebook page "Living a Disney Life"!

 

 

 

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Hugs to all of our new and old MouseketeerFriends,

MouseketeerKen and MouseketeerMark

Comments are welcome. Positive feedback encouraged!

Day ONE On Our Journey °o°

We did it. We have completed all tasks and jumped through all the hoops of selling the house, purging what we no longer needed, and packed up everything. Now the next obstacle facing us is the TWO THOUSAND, ONE HUNDRED and FORTY EIGHT miles that we have to cover to get to our destination!

We've said our goodbyes, gave our hugs and kisses, and shed our tears, and we finally hit the road.

7 days ago, this is what we were facing:

 

16 feet of trailer and a garage full of boxes and bins.

 

 

 

3 days later, we had reached about 50% capacity. We were taking our time and we were feeling fine!

 

At the end of the 6th day, the day before the Pod was scheduled to be picked up, we were packed from head to toe, side to side. That was a modern marvel of packing engineering to get all that in there!

 

Alas, we had to say goodbye to a few items that just could not fit...

 

- The firepit.

- The 2 full length lounge chairs and their cushions.

- The "haunted" dollhouse (a doll house that I built and painted to be a haunted house. Don't worry, I have plans to make a bigger one!  The next one will be three stories!).

- All of the camping gear.

- An antique vanity (didn't want it anyway, and we were able to sell it for $40 at the last minute!).

- A 3-drawer dresser from Ikea (gave it to a couple who needed a dresser for the newborn's nursery).

- Quite a few odds and ends that we just could not force in.

 

I am in charge of my own destiny!!!!

 

 

Later that day I received a call from our real estate agent saying that the sale had been recorded, which meant that everything was officially done. The mortgage and equity line of credit was paid off, the agents were given their piece of the pie and all other fees were settled. By the end of the afternoon our left over profit was deposited into our checking accounts.

 

As we were finishing up last minute cleaning, the new owner popped in for a final inspection. Everything went just fine, and I officially handed the key over to her personally in a small little symbolic gesture; "from the previous owner to the new one; I hope you enjoy many years of living in our old home".

 

 We wrapped it all up, and I locked the door one last time:

 

 



....  and, below... our final look back at the house as we were driving away, at 4233 N. 2nd Drive.  Thanks for memories, little house.. Thanks for keeping up safe for the last 13 years!

 

 

 

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Mouseketeer Ken and Mousekteer Mark

Follow Your Bliss (a blogging RERUN) °o°

This was originally posted in April of 2012, and remains one of my favorite posts that we have written. I wanted to share it with all of our new readers now that we are just a few days away from our actual move. 

Ken and Mark

“Listen with your heart, you will understand.” -- Pocahontas

Why SHOULDN’T we move to be near Disney?

Many times the first response I hear when I tell someone we’re moving to Florida to be near Disney is an outright laugh, or a snort.  That’s ok, I don’t mind it, sometimes I even think it sounds like an odd decision.

There was an author and orator by the name of Joseph Campbell who appeared in interviews on a PBS series and later published the transcripts called “The Power of Myth”, who coined the philosophical term “Follow Your Bliss”.  The phrase has permeated pop culture, and most people are aware of it; but most aren’t aware of the rest of what he was saying.  He said:

“Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else." 

This philosophy touches me deeply and causes me to reflect on what I find blissful in my life.  These are things I return to time after time.

• Disney
• Theatre
• Art and drawing
• Reading
• Love
• When Mark gets home from work
• When our dog rests his head on my lap
• Christmas
• Halloween
• Mashing any combination of these things into one!

I don't think very many of us follow our bliss.  We may visit it as a hobby, or we may be too frightened to disrupt what we already know.  As an experiment, I took the words “your bliss” and replaced them with the word “Disney”.  Now it reads:

“Follow Disney. If you do follow Disney, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of Disney, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow Disney and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. If you follow Disney, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else." 

Who is say that Disney does not qualify as “bliss”?  Mark and I both find happiness and fulfillment from everything that Disney has to offer, on a daily basis.  It’s not just amusement parks, or animated movies. It’s a sense of community, a feeling of nostalgia, the longing to share those feelings with other people. Snort all you want my friend, but the signs were there all along.  You won’t snort when you want a place to stay when you come to Disney World on vacation, and we have a spare room for you!

What is your bliss? What is your passion? What makes you happiest in life?  Are you following it?  Please comment.

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Mouseketeer Ken and Mousekteer Mark

A Vision for the Future °o°

When we began this blog, it started as a vehicle to document our path in detail as we relocate to Orlando to be near Disney World, as well as to start a new life in a new environment.  As the months progressed, and now as we approach the actual move date, the reason for the blog will have to evolve.

We have been thinking about ways to expand the topics that we write about, always with a thought of how Disney is always in our lives, even when we are not at the parks. 

After a good year of following other relocation blogs, Disney fan sites, and Disney-dedicated Facebook pages, we started to see that we can fit in there somewhere and bring Disney "through our eyes" to our friends, family, and extended community. I don't know how much Disney news I would ever get first hand knowledge of, but I DO know that both Mark and I love aspects of the Disney parks that are often overlooked.  We get so excited when we see something new pop up somewhere, and we follow all of the stages of growth when they announce a new attraction or area.

Mark wants to document his growth as a Chef, and if it's in the cards for him to work for the Disney Company, he will want to share his experiences. He knows he will be starting someplace at the bottom, just starting out, but he also knows he's GOOD at what he does, and will progress quickly.

Marks' dream job at Disney is to be front and center; something he is very good at.  His number one postion is to be a ride operator, followed by parade performer with a special dream of being a part of the show that  welcomes guests to the park first thing in the morning (even though I know from experience that he is NOT a morning person!).  As for a regular job, he wants to find a position as a Chef in a trendy restaurant in the area that caters mostly to locals, and not to tourists if possible. Here in Phoenix we have a number of independently owned restaurants (The Culinary Dropout, The Arrogant Butcher, Windsor, etc.) that we both love and we hope to find similar ones in Orlando.

Personally, I don't have a burning desire to work for the parks. I'm an office drone, so I wouldn't mind working in some Administrative role for the company, but only if that's in the cards for me. I hope to find a position for a local company and hopefully not a nationwide call center.

As for my DREAM DISNEY job?  My friends and family know that I am an artist, but I never pursued it professionally. Something I regret, but hey... live with no regrets, right????  So, my dream job would be to work in their prop shop manufacturing park items, or on their Resort Enhancement Team. Outside of that, I would like to be able to license my own Disney themed art designs at the parks and their galleries. Most of my art work is Disney themed, anyway.

I mentioned in previous postings that we have been thinking about how this blog can continue AFTER we have made the move. Now that we are beginning to attract readers as we approach the one-week-before-moving date, I still want to be able to bring a perspective of "Living a Disney Life" post-relocation.  Well, we will be taking suggestions of course, but I see being able to share our discoveries with you as we experience them on a daily/weekly basis. This is the first time that I have ever moved to a new state in my adult life, and I suspect that are many people who have never done that either.  I have lived in the Phoenix Metropolitan area since 1984 (!), and I expect that I have major changes coming my way!

We want to bring Disney culinaire to you as we experience new restaurants and cafés.  We want to bring photos of Celebration to you, the town that Disney built. As I mentioned earlier, as new things pop up in the parks, I want to share them right away... I have always devoured those bits of Disney news when I found them online or on my Facebook newsfeed. I am also a fan of small details, so you can expect to see photos of hidden objects, or areas from the park. One of my favorite photo subjects is the areas of a ride that are hidden from view, or sneaking a flash photo in a dark ride.  I hope to share with you our first run-in with an alligator; something I'm both dreading and strangely intrigued by. I will also be updating our progress on purchasing a home in the area, and how we upgrade and remodel to our preferences... though, I promise not to focus the blog on D.I.Y, too much!  Lastly, being a gay couple, part of our (Disney) world view will often include that perspective.

In short, I have so many more things that I hope to explore and share. I hope you will be along with us on the ride.

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Comments are welcome. Positive feedback encouraged!

Don't forget to "like" our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LivingADisneyLife?ref=hl so that we can communicate even more "The Great Mouse Move" details with you, and you with us! 

Mouseketeer Ken and Mousekteer Mark