Calvert family wins $1 million Fla. home

Friday, Dec. 12, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo by Erik Johnson for myhomeideas.com Leisa Tobler of Huntingtown won a $1 million home in Florida. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Huntingtown resident Leisa Tobler used to think that the only time she would hear her daughter talk about her beach house would be when referencing a new Barbie toy.

Today, she is still amazed that this is no longer the case.

"This is a very nice Christmas present for me," said Tobler of the $1 million Florida home her family of five won in October.

Tobler won the new house through a contest hosted by the Web site Myhomeideas.com, and because of formalities, waited several weeks before telling people, other than her family, of her victory.

"It was killing me not to blurt it out," Tobler said.

The wait, however, was well worth it and Tobler said that she and her family, which includes her husband Rob, sons Andrew, 12, and Joshua, 9, and daughter Ainsley, 4, could not be happier. Particularly because she already has family living in Florida, and always wanted to move there once her husband retires from the U.S. Air Force.

"We have the beach on one side and restaurants on the other," said Tobler of the house, which is located in Port St. Joe, on the state's panhandle. Tobler described this area as an "old-fashioned seaside community with modern conveniences of today," and added that the town is actually quite similar to Chesapeake Beach.

She said that, for the time being, her family will use the pre-furnished home for vacation purposes and rent it out for the rest of the year.

Tobler said that though she and her husband will eventually retire to their "second home" in Florida, they plan to remain residents of Calvert County due to the "great school system."

Jim Sexton, who is senior vice president and editorial director of Myhomeideas.com, was the person to call Tobler to tell her she won the contest.

"When you make those calls you kind of halfway expect the person to think you're a prank … but she was ecstatic," Sexton said. "We were very excited to have her as a winner because of all of those personal connections [to Florida] she's got."

Myhomeideas.com is a part of the company Time Inc. and is based in Birmingham, Ala. This is a first time they have had a competition of this type, though they plan to offer a second one in March in which the winner will be able to choose a house from four different locations.

Tobler, however, is more than satisfied with both her location and her new house. She said she especially likes the colorful interior of the home and the fact that its living room is upstairs, allowing her family to have picturesque views of the beach.

"It still doesn't feel real," she said. "A lot of people enter these contests, but it doesn't register that anyone ever wins."

lbuck@somdnews.com