Since our house is sold, and we're set to close in less than a month (aaaggg!!!), and we have 15 days after close to clear out, we need to put the hustle on to find another place to live. Yikes!
We've been on a whirlwind of home tours since Friday afternoon - some interesting finds like a very cool retro 70s place with green shag carpeting and some of the most incredible vintage furniture I've ever seen. Straight out of the Godfather movies. And an at-the-end-of-the-trail place where we had to stop twice just to get to it - first to let the wild turkey pass, then to let the three deer pass. And a home in some pricey suburb that was so pristine I don't think I'd let my kids live there, not to mention the reek of Botox in the whole neighborhood.
Why did I think selling our house would be the hard part?
We have it down to two (with a strong third) options. One is Dr. D's front runner, the other is mine. They are about as different as you can get. One is south and east of town, large lot but in an older suburb. There's a shallow creek in the back and the yard is fenced (hooray! for neurotic moms such as myself). There's also play equipment, a nice deck, and plenty of space inside. All our "requirements" are met for bedrooms and living areas. But the house needs some TLC. Okay, the walkout basement needs a lot of it, but we like house projects, right? It's not like we don't know how to lay tile or paint a room or replace an oven or ... It's also in a neighborhood, which could be good, or not so good. Not a pretentious neighborhood, but there would be schooled kids and St. Nick is very peer-dependent when he's around other kids, plus I'm such a hovering mother (says my mother-in-law) that I'd never be comfortable with him playing at other kids' homes. And we'd be farther from my mother, but would probably have ample babysitters in the neighborhood. We'd have to change some shopping centers and such, and it would take Dr. D about 16 minutes to get to work (vs. about 10 from here).
This place has some perks, like the deck, a screened three season porch, play structure, fence, bathroom off the master bedroom, nice French doors to one room (that don't close quite right - TLC again), and a formal dining room. But it also has only three bedrooms on one level which means the boys would double up, or we'd be on a different floor (in the basement, but TLC needed yet again).
The other option is straight east of town. It's closer to our usual shopping center than where we live now, would be fairly easy for my mother to get to and is only 18 minutes from Dr. D's office. But this one is on five wooded acres, and it's across from a state game area, so we wouldn't be having a development popping up. We would have no neighbors to speak of (two houses are nearby, as in a hike through the woods on either side). It also satisfies our requirements for space. It's slightly smaller, the deck less showy, and could also use some TLC, but is more move-in ready (i.e. the oven closes all the way! Bonus!). It's also more expensive.
This one also has perks. The bedrooms are spaced pretty well (and there are more of them), the kitchen is in better shape, and there are the coolest built-in loft beds in one room - two of them with little desks built beneath and such. The boys would love it. But ... there's no fence. There are literally hundreds of acres of woodland right out the back door and very very few houses. I don't tend to talk to my neighbors unless I have to, but at least I know they're there, and I'm not sure I would trust the kids not to wander into the woods and get lost. But I love being out there - it's so truly private and serene. We could do so many amazing homeschool activities in those woods, and hiking and bike riding and so so much more (Dr. D could get some use out of his chainsaw! He loves his chainsaw). But it's a tri-level, so lots of stairs. And no dining room, so we'd have to store or sell our dining room furniture. Not something I'm necessarily bothered by, since it's odd to have a formal dining room full of furniture that's never used (though we use ours every day, which it was not built for) but I don't know if I want to sell it. Then I'd sell my formal dinnerware too, which I guess is fine since I haven't used it in at least five or six years. It pretty much just sits in the china cabinet looking pretty. Sigh.
Oh, bother. What to do?
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