Yeah you heard me. 1 bedroom.

So here is the story. Living on Amelia Island is very important to us right now as a family. It is a safe, family friendly, very charming place to live and raise your children. So we do what we have to do to be able to continue to live here

Packing it up and heading out
After living in our pretty large 3 bedroom 2 bath rental home for a couple of years, the owner wanted to sell. We didn’t want to buy that particular home but we decided we would begin the journey to buying a home. Wellll everything is ALWAYS easier said than done. Baby Ella was just born and it was time to leave our house, we couldn’t find one for sale that we liked so we decided we would pack it up in storage and stay with dad for a bit until we got settled in our very own home. Well that didn’t last long. Living with dad was hectic and uncomfortable at times, especially since I was still nursing Ella. We had to go.

So Mark and I take a day and drive around to look for little rentals that would get back into. We found a craigslist post for a “very large 1 bedroom” in Amelia Park. Amelia Park was the first hooker. If any of you are familiar with the Amelia Island area you know that neighborhood is adorable and in a great location, safe, the whole 9.

So we thought we would just drive by. Then drive by again, then park and go up close and on the porch and look through the windows. Upstairs, wrap around porch, 900 sq ft. Pets allowed! Only 1 bedroom though….

We signed the lease a couple days later. Now here is the interesting part. Where are we going to put all of this furniture? Turns out the bedroom the bedroom was half the square footage. I kid you not we put a queen size bed, a full size bed, a crib, 1 bedside table, 2 dressers and a large TV in there. It was amazing. Things like extra kid furniture, couches, decor items, kitchen table and lots of other stuff had to go to dads house in a spare bedroom.

How did you all sleep in the same room with kids? Well like I said before we were able to get everyone’s bed into the bedroom comfortably so that helped A LOT. We made sure that Riley’s bed was set up just like it was before, same with Ella’s crib. We invested in a small sound machine to put right next to Ella’s crib, and of course I had to have my box fan running, those 2 things definitely help with sound and with sleeping babies.

no problems with sleeping here or here Everyone slept pretty good :)Was it cluttered and unorganized? Surprisingly no not at all. We Had to really focus on the best pieces of furniture to use that would hold the most stuff but also not be too big. We had to re evaluate quite bit of our stuff that we used on a day to day basis. You would be surprised at what you actually NEED and don’t NEED.

Where did the kids play? We set up Riley’s large toy chest behind our two lazy boys in our living room and made a little “play space” for her with almost all of her toys and some floor space of course to play with them, also we had a wrap around porch so the far side of the porch became an outdoor play space for them as well.

Excuse the mess but the play area is tucked back in there, when the christmas tree was gone it was bigger :)Where did your guests sleep? If you know me well or have been following this blog then you know that we have family members at our house NON STOP. It is never ending. But that is ok with us, we are family people and we enjoy it. Also thats what happens when you live on an island SO, in our living room area we skipped on a coffee table and left it open,one for the kid’s to have space to play and also for guest to set up an air mattress and sleep. We also had an unbelievably comfy couch that was slept on many times. Comfy couch alert note the floral comfy couch in background Playtime!What about the intimate time between you and your husband? Well you figure it out It is tough for parents even when you live in a large house with multiple bedrooms.

Was there a laundry room? YES duh I have 2 kids, I don’t just have laundry, I have laundry mountains, its like a laundry zoo. WHERE DOES IT ALL COME FROM??? We had a stackable, pretty large size set in a closet between the bedroom and bathroom.

How did the bathroom situation work? We shared one bathroom and it wasn’t bad at all. Ella was still small enough to bathe in the kitchen sink and Riley and I took showers together (much faster that way and less bending over the tub trying to wash her) There was a ton of storage under the sink and a large linen closet for the dirty clothes basket, lots of towels, and all the in-between stuff!

bath time!This is obviously not the ideal situation if you have older kids, but while the kids are young it is a totally do able thing! We saved almost $500 a month in rent compared to what we were spending. AND ALSO I got to stay home for over a year to be with the girls! We weren’t in “house prison” having to spend almost all of our money on a rent payment. We made it work in a nice way and had extra money to do other fun things! Hogan party of 4We spent Thanksgiving & Christmas there and it was one of my favorites Christmas’s with the girls and Mark! We set up a tree in the living room and on the porch, and strung lights all around the porch. It was very cozy and we loved it! We had guests in town almost every weekend and enjoyed every minute of it! Christmas tree inside and christmas tree outside on porch :) Dad & son hanging out Little turkey Christmas sweater day at school! besties four generations :) Playdoh
Let’s not forget the perks of living in one of the best neighborhoods on the island (in my opinion). Our apartment was right across from the park area, there was a large grassy area and park benches, a pavilion and even a little library “book box”. We took our dog and the girls to run around and play in that area while walking the sidewalks at nights.

It was a fun time and definitely would do it again! We will miss that little apartment and it will be a memory we will never forget with our little family

XO-Ash!