Hi! We are Mike and Lynsey Kmetz, the current owners of Pauline Manor. We have two daughters, Sam and Taylor, and a small herd of dachshunds - Leia, Ahsoka, Chewie, Lando, and Fiona.
Mike owns a property management company called Elite Management of Florida as well as a full-service printing business. Lynsey is the Managing Director of a digital marketing agency named Apogee formerly based out of Atlanta, Georgia.
In the summer of 2022, Mike was perusing Zillow looking for available properties to purchase for rental homes. Humored but inspired by what he saw, he called me to his desk, thinking I would tell him he was crazy. Instead, I fell in love with the home and said simply "I can see living out the rest of my days there." That would start a six-month process of highs and lows on the journey to purchase the listing that would later be named Pauline Manor.
Due to the home being in a state of mid-construction on a lot of projects, traditional financing was not an option. It took six months, a lot of prayers, and help from a few family members to make our crazy idea of purchasing this property a reality. Despite many sleepless nights, a few arguments, and a significant amount of tears, we know that it was all worth it to become a piece of this home's story.
In the first 90 days, we used a dumpster to remove old wood and metal from the property, pulled up the hardwood and tile to reveal the original hardwood floors, had the downstairs sheetrock completely redone, painted the entire interior of the house, a fence installed for the pups, removed the siding from the second story and wrapped with protective cover, turned the work shed into a workshop, installed an additional wall in the master bathroom, removed an exterior wall from the master bedroom, removed the fish tanks from the greenhouse, had a new driveway poured, and had a new roof installed.
The second year brought in a large garden, a thriving greenhouse, numerous thrifted antiques that make you feel like you are stepping back in time with themed guest rooms, and a newfound love of Sourdough which led to Lynsey starting her own little Microbakery to share her baked goods with loved ones.
We are excited to continue to share all of the details of this journey and we have been overjoyed at the support from our friends and family as we have embarked on this crazy idea. We were not even looking to move when we saw that listing on Zillow, very happy with our home where we raised our girls and built our life as a family... but there was just something about this home that made us change our course... and in turn, changed our life.
The journey with the house has led us to embrace what we call a "Slowsteading Lifestyle" - a mix of slow living and modern-day homesteading. While we have no intention of getting chickens or livestock like a traditional homestead, growing our own food and baking our own bread while practicing underconsumption and mindfulness has become our new way of life.
We would love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook for updates and a behind-the-scenes look at all of the goings on around Pauline Manor. We are so happy that you are here.
