i want a new house. don't i?

We weren’t exactly looking seriously. Well, on and off we were serious but most of the time we found ourselves driving home from a showing talking about how we would rather live in half our house than buy that ginormous, weird house with the ridiculous floor plan and no shower for three times as much money.

Do people really take baths in the morning before work? I’m just saying.

It would get tiring listening to Renee moan “No look at house, Mommy” and don’t get me started on how much fun it is to lug around a twenty pound brick whose idea of a good time is trying to swipe things off of the dressers of strangers or randomly dive bomb the floor. We’d quit looking on and off telling ourselves that the $500 per month in equity we are getting on our current house and the neighborhood are enough to make us stay.

We like our house. It is a colonial-style house with 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths. It has character and it is built like a rock. It is ours. Everything in it was purchased to go with our house, the rugs coordinate with the paint, the furniture has a 40s feel to match the era of the house. I’ve spent five years making it just how I want it and with the exception of STILL not having a fricking dresser in our bedroom, we are out of things to buy for it. We love our neighbors. There are 30 kids under 10 years old within a three block radius of our house and we live in what is considered to be some of the best school districts in town. While Renee isn’t quite old enough to play with other kids, she is getting closer and I can almost count the days until I can send her out to play with the kids and then sit on the porch and drink margaritas while the neighbor kids essentially babysit each other.

Can you imagine the awesomeness?

BUT.

We are OUT of space. There are toys piled EVERYWHERE and not a weekend goes by that I don’t flip out about not having anywhere to put ANYTHING. The mail is on the kitchen table and the diaper bags and breast pumps and purses are just thrown all over the floor. In order to host a 2nd birthday party for my daughter, I’m renting a storage locker. I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP. We don’t have a room for our parents to stay in when they visit. The bathrooms are TOO SMALL. The main reason why we want to sell it, though, is that we have a shared driveway. I worry to no end about Renee being out there playing and having someone come barreling down the driveway and running her over. I worry obsessively about it. I also hate that her slides are about 10 feet way from the sump pump pipe that pumps ground water from under our house out in to the yard. GROSS.

Last Saturday Cameron was being a CRANKSTER and Renee was whining for One! More! Show! Please! We decided to go for a drive because getting out was the only way to retain an ounce of sanity. We ended up north of town, in the suburbs, checking out neighborhoods. Up until this point our search has been concentrated to the area around our house because we like our neighborhood. But, it has gotten to the point where we’ve accepted that we’d need to spend a half a million dollars to live where we want to live in the kind of house we want to buy. And people? We will never be able to afford a half a million dollar house. Like EVER. So it doesn’t matter how long I wait or if I win the lottery, what I want just isn’t within the realm of possibility.

OF COURSE, on our trip to the suburbs, we found a house that we really like. We REALLY like the floor plan and the size is perfect for us and it is tastefully decorated to the point where we could move in and literally do NOTHING to the inside of the house. The only real drawback to it, other than me finally accepting my suburb fate once and for all, is that the yard is wooded and would need to be thinned out and fenced in for the kids to play. It is on a busier street that I would like but it is set far enough back that I’m not sure that it would matter. Or would it? The guy that owns it is a contractor and insists that he will clear the yard for us but would I be stupid or naïve to really think he would? Would there be somewhere for the kids to ride bikes when they are big enough? Will they even like to ride bikes? What if we hate our neighbors? What if they are all old people? How much do fences cost? Would we regret moving further away from daycare? Will the location of daycare matter in three years? Will Renee get freaked out if we move? Will Cam suddenly start sleeping less than he already does? Will I grow horns and start blowing fireballs out of my nose?

I could honestly drive myself batty trying to figure out if we’d regret it or if we’d love it as much as we think we would love it.

Or would we?

To those of you that have done this, is it worth it? Does the neighborhood or the house matter more? Should I even consider school districts and the location of daycare? Would the longer commute be worth it for more space and a better floor plan? Will the kids be transformed in to enormouse, fire spewing monsters over the course of a move?

HELP ME. PLEASE HELP ME.

Comments

[Davina]

Just remember, you can always change the house, not the location. Weigh your options wisely:)

[Becky]

I peed a little, laughing so hard!
We have a fence and live on one of the busiest streets in town and you can't tell! Love the fence, worth the money tenfold (okay, may twofold). FYI The frickin' stain cost more than the lumber and my hubby is handy and built it himself.
If you keep her at the same daycare, which I assume you are-how much further we talkin'? I would not drive an hour, but that's just me. I would be crazy doing that.
Cam is already 6 months old...store the baby shit and you'll have tons more space. I say store, just in case you want a couple more kids, so don't sell it just yet...hee, hee.
If the dude says he is going to clear it, get it in writing.
The fact that the house is turn-key with no hassle is WAY worth it! Less stress than having to paint a hundred coats on your dining room again.
The fence has two sides, apart from the awesomeness of keeping the kids in, it keeps unwanted neighbors out :) Beware tho, they can hear you yelling at your kids even if they can't see you!
And our block 10 years ago was all old people who died and we all moved in...does that sound mean? whatever! Happy House Hunting...

[Nicole]

This is a tough one! As is the case with almost everything in life, if you wait for perfect, it will never come. When we bought our house in California we paid attention to nothing but the cost - we had to take what we could afford, regardless of anything else (and thankfully lucked out with a decent neighborhood and nice neighbors, but paid dearly in terms of space - as in, outgrew the house the second Cooper was born.) When we moved back to Colorado we took our time to try to find the best combination of things - and given that we wanted to get in on the boom in foreclosures, hubby and our realtor looked at nearly 300 houses - no joke. We ended-up in a slightly-small-than-we-wanted foreclosure in a great neighborhood with the school district we wanted. Most of our neighbors are super nice (though it really doesn't matter - we do our own thing.)

Fences are not that expensive, a little extra time on your daycare commute is not that big of a deal, turnkey is AWESOME (and will save you from spending time and money that is better spent with the kids), the kids will be FINE (and they will always have each other), and moving will most likely drive you to drink.

Good luck!

[The Mommy]

I don't have a lot of advice, since we built our house while I was pregnant with our first (BTW, I do NOT recommend doing THAT). I do know that our house is pretty big but 4 kids = a shitload of STUFF, which is why we're (OK, he's) finishing the basement. We have 1.25 acres - half "wooded" - and I wish we had a fence, so that would definitely be something I would factor in. Neighbors can change - and nowadays do - frequently. We moved in before the other homes were even built and for the most part we've been lucky (with the exception of the idiots who let their two and a half year old ride a dirt bike with their fifteen year old - WITHOUT A HELMET!!).

The kids will adjust, I'm sure. Some roll with it and some freak out. Depends on the kid. You may have one of each, I think ;) I'll just say good luck and keep us posted!

[Amanda]

Pictures! I want pictures! ( I love pictures of houses:)

Big decision. I have no advice. Helpful, aren't I?

I do have empathy about you maybe choosing to leave your older home. We left a 1930s four-square for a ranch-style, and while we love our new floor plan for convenience, there was a big big charm with the older home.

I guess I do feel that you shouldn't worry about how the kids will react to a move. I think they'll be fine once it's over. I think you should try to make your choice without thinking about the logistics of the move and how the kids will react. Easier said than done though:)

Good luck.

[anne]

Boo to the suburbs!! (Duluth has suburbs?? Like Hermantown?) Boo to leaving your 1930s home!

Okay though, I get it. Running out of space; shared driveway not ideal with little ones running around. BUT you live in a nice neighborhood. Near the schools that you like. This is a tough one. I have no answers.

We stalked our neighborhood before we agreed to buy our current house. I came one day and camped out in the car and took some walks to monitor the airplane noise and the neighbors' comings and goings and to try and get a general vibe of the 'hood. And I don't know if the stalking helped or if we just lucked out, but we love our house and our neighborhood.

Oh, and we live on a corner, with a toddler and a dog and a new fence we put in three years ago. And when I say "we" I mean we hired a fence company to put it in. Expensive, yes- but so worth it for child/animal containment and privacy from the street. And it makes our property look nice too.

Good luck with your decision!