Our Story
Inspired by Family, Driven by Passion: The ReVision Residential Story
Go East and see where we land!
How about we sell everything, grab the RV travel trailer, and see where God leads us?
The ReVision story began after we (Jason, Rachael and our three kiddos, Anthony, Mattie and Daniel) left Sierra Vista, Arizona in a sedan packed to the rafters – not only to seek out an adventure near the Atlantic ocean, but to also renew our focus on our Christian faith.
It is hard to believe that this was so many years and so many projects ago! Grab a good cup of coffee and read our story below.
Jason loves taking photos of the local areas where the ReVision Residential tradesmen work (and play)!
Like any good story, it’s best to start at the beginning… when my world was small and my family was even smaller. My wife, Rachael, and I were living in Sierra Vista, Arizona – a small, high-desert mountain town near the Mexico border, about 85 miles from Tucson. I was a military brat and had lived there since middle school, but Rachael was from the Jersey Coast, and she found being landlocked in Arizona difficult. We owned and operated a CrossFit gym called Cochise CrossFit for several years. The demands of running a membership business that was open 16 hours a day, including the physical demands of training young customers, were wearing on me. We noticed our customers taking vacations and time off from work while we worked long hours tirelessly just to get by.
Neither of us was satisfied with our lives, both spiritually and relationally. Although we had good times, we knew we were not living Christlike lives and, like many others, were up to our ears in debt. What appeared to be a good life on the outside was just a facade that didn’t reflect the truth.
So we closed our gym, and I landed an online, remote work recruiting position with a Chicago-based company named Next College Student Athlete. NCSA connects high school student-athletes with college coaches. I was basically working as a high-tech sports scout, and I enjoyed the job when meeting parents and students in all variety of sports around the United States. As a college sports recruiter, I could work from anywhere as long as I had access to fast internet.
While we weren’t sure of the details, we knew we needed a life change and an adventure. We also knew that the Atlantic ocean would be a part of that adventure, so we got started raising some money for a big move.
The brand new house we rented and lived in for more than a year was up for its lease renewal. We opted to not renew the lease, and instead, had a massive moving sale and sold 95% of our possessions! We had no plan, but we were traveling light! In hindsight, I wish we would have simply hiked the Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona and northern Mexico.
We used our money to fill up our packed-to-the-rafters car, and our family of five headed out. We received varied responses from those we shared our dream with. Most commented, “You What?!!!” And of course, very few said, “Good for you. Go, live an adventure. I wish I was coming with you.” It was a time of fear, excitement, and a sense of the unknown. It was just what we needed.
Although I am not a preacher, our story is not complete if I don’t include this. A big part of our adventure and life change was connected with a renewed desire to follow Christ and to depend on Him in a more real, day-to-day manner. I often find people are surprised to find that God is not some huge cosmic kill joy. He actually cares about our dreams and, in fact, Jesus Himself said that “He came so that we might have life and to have it fully.” John 10:10
Our first destination upon departing Arizona was New Jersey. We had a 28-foot RV travel trailer and an old broken-down Ford Expedition truck in storage there. We planned to pick up the trailer, fix the truck and travel the USA. After traveling for days in a cramped car, we arrived in New Jersey and visited with Rachael’s three sisters, her brother Mike and her mom and dad. We spent a week preparing our rickety trailer and our hearts for our next adventure, this time South. I cannot describe how monumental this trip was for us. At the time, driving down the East Coast with no plan to set roots seemed so surreal, irresponsible and crazy for a family of five. But, oh it was so exciting to visit the small Southern towns like Savanna camping in our little RV each night not knowing where we would finally land. We just knew the “right” community would come along.
While camping and traveling I was continuing to work full-time on the road. Rachael was constantly searching for RV parks and campgrounds with fast internet. We soon discovered this was more fallacy than fact.
As we traveled South we spoke to a lot of fellow campers asking them about places to live. Florida seemed to crop up a lot in our late-night campfire conversations. We heard about the beautiful beaches, the warm winters and the orange, yellow sunsets along the Emerald Coast.
Upon our arrival we found an affordable RV Park in Destin, Florida. We instantly fell in love with the communities along the Emerald Coast. It relaxed us, and we enjoyed all the camping and outdoor activities the region had to offer. We described it as our Gilligan’s Island!
After living in our RV for several months, we knew we would have to find a real home. Full-time RV’ing with a family of five in a 28-foot box does test one’s patience at times! We discovered through the local bamboo grapevine a new construction home for sale that was being built in Santa Rosa Beach. We thanked Our Lord the day we moved out of the RV into our bright, new, shiny three bedroom castle!
During the Pandemic, like millions of others, I lost my remote work job with NCSA. This was my wake-up call from the Good Lord to go into a business that I would truly enjoy.
I have always enjoyed working in the trades. When I was in college I worked Summers building new homes in Phoenix, Arizona. When I was out of college living with my oldest brother, I made custom poker tables. I built additions to our gyms and always enjoyed custom woodwork. I am a creative, and designing projects that solve homeowner issues is right up my alley.
Since 2018, we have seen our business in Florida grow as well as our family. We feel blessed to be able to live, work, and play right here in the 30A Highway pipeline.
Cheers,
Jason, Rachael, Anthony, Mattie and Daniel
Almost 3 years ago, God directed our path to the Destin area, and when we see the beach like this, we are reminded of many memories of the incredible process of uprooting our family and getting here, and the reward for persevering through the hardships and many struggles as we pushed through to finally see the blessings. We sold everything and came here in our RV and now we are homeowners.
When we got here, I was working a remote job over the phone in the sports world, and I got laid off during COVID, and now we are once again business owners. All along the way, we did everything by faith trusting that the Lord would work it out no matter the challenge. There were scary times with COVID and losing my job and battling through our kids’ sicknesses, but through it all God never left our side and he is still our Rock and always will be.
Jason, October 16, 2022