Sunday, February 04, 2007

Staring into the crystal ball

And it is still foggy.

We very nearly have had a house land in our laps. It is driving AB nearly insane. It is on our same street, just down the end of the far end of our loop. The house sits perpindicular to ours. When it was just the lot there, AB coveted it. It is a huge lot on two levels, 1.2 acres overlooking a stream. One day someone bought the lot and AB mourned a little, I was somewhat relieved to not have to hear about what a perfect lot it was anymore. When they started building the house we became intruigued and used to go walk through it and imagine where things were going.

The house was finished about two years ago and now sits occupied and for sale. This is killing AB (not that I am claiming immunity). It is about 700 square feet larger than our house, most of that is probably the large bonus room. Exactly the space I have been coveting for a playroom, a place I could have a corner for sewing... It has a three car garage with an RV/boat pad and a shed in the back "upper" yard. It overlooks a creek and we would never have to worry about someone building behind us.

The "lower" back yard has been fenced in with a chain link fence and covered in rock to minimize weeds. AB talks about what a perfect place to build a shop to build his boat. (Yes, the income tax Gods have smiled on us this year, AB will be getting a boat kit a little later this spring.) We really like our neighborhood with its immediate proximity to everything, a grocery store a block away, urgent care a stone's throw, Costco less than a mile, the mall as well. And lately our area is really booming with small businesses. The proximity of our neighborhood to everything we want is something we will have a hard time surrendering when we move from this house.

We could swing the house, it isn't outside our price range like so many of the view lots and houses we have looked at over the last 1.5 years or so. Our problem is the uncertainty in our future. Will AB find a job here after graduating? Or will we kick this place in the category of "we lived there once" and head out for the great unknown?

If it were just 3 - 6 months later in the year, where we hope to have our lives figured out a little bit more. After talking about it most of the day yesterday, AB picked up the phone this morning and called the agent to see when we can see the inside. My reasoning is this... I don't want to keep saying "what if". I want to see the inside of the house, finished, and decide now that it isn't a house I want. Then we can move on and get it out of our heads. Or we can fall in love and start forcing some decisions.

Houses aren't moving quickly in our area right now. Not like they were 5 years ago when we moved here. We can hope that the house sits unsold for a few months and maybe they will entertain of a "low-ball" offer. Ideal.

Dreams... part of me hopes when we go see the house next Saturday that we will walk in and not like the layout or that our other "necessities" (large kitchen, walk in pantry) will not be met. Because then we won't have a very tough decision to make.

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