Last winter when we decided to plan a vacation to Rosemary Beach, I searched online for vacation rentals and fell down a virtual rabbit hole ogling at all the possibilities. There were townhouses, flats, carriage houses and extravagant beach houses. And they were all beautiful.
One thing I noticed after a little research was that the rentals just outside of Rosemary were less expensive but still within biking distance to downtown Rosemary and the beach. I also noticed that we could save a ton by visiting during the off season. We weren’t sure what to expect weather-wise so we wanted a place we could spread out and hang out in comfortably if the weather didn’t cooperate. I whittled down the list of possibilities to ~10 rentals then we selected one of them as a family. You never know what to expect when reserving a vacation rental sight unseen (at least in real life) but we lucked out. Our vacation rental was clean, family-friendly, homey, convenient and in a great location on a dead-end street.
We chose to stay in Seacrest Beach which butts up against Rosemary but is a little more economical. The house came with four adult bikes and we used them to bike to downtown Rosemary (~5 minutes) every day. We biked to the beach, too. We biked everywhere.
The house had four bedrooms (three of them were master suites with a king bed and an adjoining bathroom), three bathrooms, and was three stories high. The night we arrived, we were blown away. It was much larger than we had expected. The ceilings were at least 10′ high which made it feel even bigger. Coming from a 3-bed, 1-bath rancher, we were very spoiled.
We loved the big porches on the first and second floors and took full advantage of the swings.
The first floor living room opened up onto the dining area and kitchen. We liked the open floor plan. I also appreciated the furnishings. Many beach rentals have generic decor (which I totally get…it’s a rental) but this house felt really homey with all the wood tones, natural textures and nubby upholstery. There were all kinds of books and magazines available to read. We really felt like we were staying in a home – notsomuch a rental.
Layne, our oldest, made the comment, “Look mom! This house is perfect for us. It has poufs!” Atta boy. Haha. We watched movies as a family almost every night in the living room. The kids would drag down bean bags from the bunk room (more on that in a minute) and we would pop popcorn. It was so cozy.
I loved the rustic coffee table. It had a great patina, was kid-friendly and oversized. The kids would pull up the poufs to the coffee table and we played board games or worked puzzles. (Or spilled glasses of water. It happens.)
The full kitchen (while very beige) was stocked with dishes, glasses, flatware, serve ware, pots, pans, Keurig, traditional coffeemaker, blender, slow cooker…basically anything you could think of. I liked that there were two sinks – one under the window and one in the peninsula. There was a large pantry which came in handy. We ate most of our breakfasts and lunches at the house to save money. Our *three* kids fought over the *two* stools at the bar. It was a popular spot.
The dining area was one of my favorite spaces. The table sat eight but could be extended to seat larger parties. It was great for card games and Everett did his homework there every evening, too.
(Did I mention we pulled the kids out of school? Layne only missed three days but Everett missed an entire week. I felt guilty about them missing school but both of their teachers / schools were really supportive. Everett’s teacher gave him some work to do while he was away.)
The apples are fake and there were 28 of them. I know because Mabrey made Steve count them over and over. I may have thought about stealing the chairs. And did you notice the basket on the floor in the corner? There were large baskets in nearly every room in the house. They were great for keeping our things out but tidy. When we were packing up to leave, I just went around and emptied all the baskets.
I would like to point out the palm leaf on the buffet and the pinecones on the bar. The neighborhood we stayed in has a nature trail. The palm leaf and pinecones were souvenirs from my walks. If you happen to be the guy who was driving a golf cart near the trail about a month ago and came upon a strange lady loading pinecones into a shopping bag and hacking palm leaves with a steak knife, I’m sorry I scared you. Also, at this very moment there’s a large bag of said pinecones sitting my garage waiting to be strung into garland. #pineconecaper
The stairs lead up to the second and third floors. We were not used to living with stairs and there were so many here because of the three floors and extra high ceilings. It only took a few days for us to get lazy and choose not to go back up / down the stairs to retrieve a forgotten item. The stairs were a fun novelty but by the end of the week we were all ready to go back to living without stairs. Isn’t that crazy?!
Each bedroom had its own balcony / porch. Steve and I claimed this bedroom. Technically, it was Mabrey’s room, too. She slept in the walk-in closet in a pack-n-play that was already in the closet. She kept calling it her room. I’m pretty sure the closet was bigger than her bedroom at home!
The master suites had wall-to-wall seagrass carpet. I’ve owned seagrass rugs before but I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live with seagrass carpet. I really liked it in person and it seems like it would hold up well to heavy traffic and abuse.
This bed? It was the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in. Steve and I meant to check the mattress tag before we left but forgot. Oh well. We’ll just have to go back.
When I was posting to instagram during our vacation, someone made the comment “rental homes always make me want to get rid of all my stuff.” Ditto.
MORE STAIRS up to the third floor. My legs are burning just thinking about them.
The third floor bunk room was a hit with the kids. Everett claimed it and slept in a different bed each night before deciding that the bottom bunk on the far left was the most comfortable. He is such a funny kid. Do you spy the bean bags I mentioned earlier? There were three which was perfect for family movie nights. The bunk room was stocked with children’s books (for all ages) and puzzles.
The bunk room included a TV, wet bar and mini fridge. Everett stashed some water and an apple in the fridge just in case he woke up hungry in the middle of the night. I told you he is funny.
Maybe the only drawback of the entire house was that there was no door on the bunk room and the center stairwell was open from the first floor to the third floor. It was a super cool architectural feature and fine for the boys (they’re 6½ and 9½) but I didn’t feel comfortable letting Mabrey (2½) have free rein in the bunk room. She had to be supervised.
The balcony off the bunk room was another favorite spot.
The hammock swings did not go unnoticed ;)
We picked a different porch to eat on every day but this one was our favorite even though it required carrying our lunches up three flights of stairs. When the most difficult decision of your day is “Hmmm, which porch should we eat on?” that’s not a bad day.
And, finally, the view from the third floor balcony was pretty amazing. Can you spot the palm tree-lined cobblestone streets? It was such a happy and charming lil’ neighborhood.
The ironic thing about our time spent in this awesome house is that, for the most part, we all used the same bathroom! (We’re used to sharing one bathroom.) And we usually traveled as a pack from room to room. (We aren’t used to not being in the same room together.) It was nice to have the extra space to spread out for a few days (the boys enjoyed having their own rooms) but it was superfluous and I was glad I wasn’t the one responsible for cleaning it. If / when we go back, we’ll bring more people or we’ll probably stay somewhere smaller.
That being said, we had the most amazing time. The house truly was everything we could have asked for – and more! Very accommodating, truly hospitable. We’re so grateful that we were able to make some memories here.
So what do you think? How do you feel about vacation rentals? How do you save money on vacation? Do you have a favorite spot / feature of the house? Have your kids ever missed school due to a vacation?
P.S. – Because I know someone will ask, I searched for vacation rentals on VRBO. The property management company for our house was superb. They have an app for you to download during your stay that has all the info you could ever want or need about the house and surrounding area. I would highly recommend the area, house and VRBO! That is an unsolicited recommendation.
images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking
budget decor, family life, inspiration, interior design, kid-friendly