We went to look at 2 new houses the other night (we decided not to waste time looking at the third as it was even smaller than the 2 we did look at). The first one was really close to work/where we live now and was built in 2005, so we were excited to see it. It was dirty. No, you don't understand, we tripped over shoes and clothes in every room. There was food and dirty dishes all over the kitchen. Papers, bills, kids drawings, coupons, etc on every available surface. Poop in one of the toilets - God I wish that I was making this up!! And it was way small! Hard to tell if was really as small as it felt or if it felt overly small due to all the clutter. The floors were hard wood, the kitchen had all white appliances with a flat top range, the kitchen also sported dark cherry cabinets and faux granite counter tops. I really, really tried to like this house, but it was just too small. Add to that the lack of good parking, tiny yard and possible lack of resale value (it had already been on the market for 263 days) and this one was a good, hard NO!
The second house was the same layout and size as the first. It still felt small, but much less small than the first house. It was in much better shape as far as clutter and had new carpet instead of the hard woods. But the kitchen was still to small for my liking and we did not care for the neighborhood. Again, we tried to like the house, but it had too much stacked against it.
We decided to go back to the Reedland house and take another look and see if we still loved it as much as we had before. On a whim, I called my Dad and his wife and my Mom and they all came out to take a look. They all noticed things that we had missed and brought up good questions to ask. We left there still loving the house, but still wanting to proceed slowly with the decision.
The next morning several new listings popped up, one of which seems to have a good size kitchen and is very close to work. I think that, for me, the only stumbling point on the Reedland house is the fact that it will take us 20-30 minutes to get to work each day. I would love to find a house that has everything that the Reedland house has, but is really close to everything that we do (work, school, family, etc.)
There is another house that is about 20 minutes from town in Shawsville (God, that is a redneck sounding place!!). It seems to have a bit of land with it, so Smug-Hub really wants to check it out. I am finding myself extremely resistant to moving out of the city center. I grew up very isolated up in the sticks. Add to this the home schooling and I had no friends, no sports, no group activities. I was miserable a lot of the time. Now, Smug-Hub and I are not planning on home schooling and we both want to make sure that our kids have lots of outside activities, but I know that I would not be happy driving 20 minutes to get milk! I told him that we would look at the house, but unless we fell head over heals in love with the house itself, I would not be open to it. The thing is, it would probably take less time to get to work from this house than from the Reedland house. My point is that it would take 20 minutes to get ANYWHERE.
I want neighbors, sidewalks for bike riding, kids for my kids to play with, post office, bank and library close by, stuff like that. I don't want to be in boonies losing power all the time, not able to get anywhere when it snows, no one hear by to help if there is trouble. What if we lived there and I went into labor, we might not make it to the hospital in time. OK, I know that we have not even seen this particular house and it might be in the middle of a great neighborhood and the only reason it is a bit of a drive is due to there being so many stop lights or something. But, I would say that I near panic mode when there is even a possibility of being out of the city. I love the city, I love people, I love traffic (OK, not really, I can deal). I never want to go back to being trapped.
OK, let's look at that a second... Why did I feel trapped? Because I did not go to school, sports or whatever. I relied on others to take me places and they did not. I was trapped by my age. Now I am a grown person with a full on driver's licence, I can go anywhere I want, anytime I want. As long as I have my car, I will never to trapped. Do I feel better about living in the sticks??? .....
NO
I must calm down! Everything will be fine. I am not going to agree to buy a house that I am not totally happy with! It will all work out fine (I am now doing some deep breathing). I am calm....
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