People are moving out of this neighborhood in droves. It's a great area, so a surprising number of folks are moving a whopping few blocks away... well, building and THEN moving a few blocks away. This little neighborhood is kinda what you might call "starter homes" mostly built by one particular builder within the past five years...and our house was actually one of the cheapest of the selection that they offered. The homes that are going in a few blocks away are nicer and larger.
I have a few big gripes about the house... like the kitchen is at the front of the house with no window to watch kids play in the backyard. The kitchen has the tiniest skrids for counter tops and minimal storage (drawers and cabinetry). The only way to get to the backyard from inside the house is via the garage, so I have a visual of kids walking or running past the van parked inside on their way to the backyard and in their hands they have, well, it's the Chaos Girls it could be anything, and the anything is gouging a long scratchy crevasse in the paint job... the end. And the laundry is downstairs I don't care for that.
Dadguy and I have talked about doing what everyone else is doing, and upgrading to larger and nicer. But the time just isn't right, and my main dissatisfaction's with the house are outweighed by the way that I love the vaulted ceilings in the front room, the large bedrooms and the fact that we have only lived here for four and a half years. Sheesh... we have yet to even paint!
I don't really have a beef with the size of the house overall... there is a little less than 1200 finished upstairs and almost the same amount unfinished in the basement. The plan is to finish at least a family room, stairwell and a hallway with doors so we can shut the doors to the unfinished bits down there... and we have the dough socked away for it if we are careful and do most of it ourselves... ooops!
Yesterday I remembered another thing about the house that I love... the way that it feels when you step into it from playing or working outside. The way that it smells. It's kind of similar to the sensation of coming home from a long trip, similar only stronger. I don't know how or why, but I love the way it feels and I love the yard that Dadguy and I agonised over. I love the flowers and shrubs most of which are freebies from the yards of various family and friends. The few precious plants that came from my Granny's yard. I love the trees that came to live with us last year.
The Iris are sending up stong looking green blades, the periwinkle has popped in a couple of protected nooks and the flox had two wee blooms before surrendering to the Chaos. It is finally starting to resemble something close to springtime around here... and I feel like I have room to breathe again. Move? Not on yer life!
6 comments:
I've been having strange thoughts about wanting to move also. I love our street and would want to live somewhere in the neighboring two blocks. But really, I don't want to move. I just wish we could do a few renovations really.
Moving is such a huge pain. We had no choice a couple years ago, we had a nice little 2 bedroom house about 900 sqaure feet. Perfect for two people and a dog. Not so perfect once we had two kids.
I loved that little house, if only it had been a three bedroom. There are so few neighborhoods with nice yards in our town for some reason. Our "new" yard is about double the size of the old one. And has great trees. I like homes that are 30-40 years old, just because they have nice mature trees.
I've been waiting to hear the story about that basement project, I thought dadguy was going to post about it.
mmmmm... yeah. That basement project! It's coming very slowly, along with the realization that we are gonna hafta do it OURSELVES!
My sis says that basement finishing is like house cleaning... you could pay someone to do it... but it costs so stinkin' MUCH that you end up doing it yerself because, well it cost so stinkin' MUCH!
and MamaD? I count basement finishing in with renovations... it'll be good to have done, but it sucks that it costs so much to make alot of work for yourselves. meh.
Your sis is right. When we did our basement in the old house hiring it out was totally out of the question. I didn't do as good of a job as I could have, but money was tight and I got the minimum amount of stuff done to make it useable. The plus side was that since it wasn't completely finished (I didn't put in a ceiling) the assesor didn't tax us on it. I'd never done any sort of construction before so it was a learning experience.
I miss our old house too! good luck finishing the basement - it's a lot of work - but worth it... You'll get your house just the way you want it and then you'll move..that's how it works!
Just checked out your site, adorable children. Your youngest reminds me of my 8 mos. old, he was born in August. He is chubby just like she is. I love chubby babies. So cute!
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