Tomorrow we fly. I wonder what we'll find. I've been in touch with several real est@te agents this week. Can't be certain we'll find what we're looking for, where we're looking, in the price range we can afford. Much is still up in the air. But we've got some time. We could move in March. We could move in June.
Where would you live? What constitutes a good neighborhood or a bad one? What makes a good school or an excellent one? Everything is subjective.
So, we'll go, and we'll look, and we'll see. This week should give us a sense of many things. What'll work? One conclusion we have come to is that size of a house matters a great deal when you expect to spend most of your waking hours there. People who don't work inside the home have no idea how cramped it can feel.
We're not talking mansion here (though there is one property we're interested in seeing, a repo, that's about 2800 sqft!). I measured up our current house. It comes to about 1400 sqft (+ a two car garage, no basement). That's about as small as we can make do. I tell agents 1500-1600 sqft minimum. They send me listings 1100 sqft. You wonder... I know a basement is space... but it's a basement. We'll fill it with storage, trust me. Or a play area, and toys, a work area for projects. But unless it's finished with heat and lighting, I'm not likely to make it my office.
4 bedrooms/2 baths. They send me 3 bedrooms/1 bath. Um...
We've got a piano, and three 4' x 7' bookcases. They've got to go somewhere! Why do we need 4 bedrooms? One for us; One (largish one) for the boys; a guest room/play room... and a home office. That's four. So... we'll see.
Wish us well.
3 comments:
I actually wonder if you'll make it here at all tomorrow. We're supposed to be in the grips of "Winter Storm Hunter" by tomorrow morning, and it could cause quite a mess at the airport. Be sure to call ahead!
Good luck with your search, and fill us all in on what you find.
Thanks, Tracy... will do.
You know, EVERYBODY asks... are you sure you want to leave the sunshine in California for four feet of snow? I mean, why would you want to move here? ... and I patiently reply... that I like to breathe, which I can't do around here (bestplaces.net ranks the air quality here as a 1, on a 0-100 scale!), and I'd rather not spend 40 minutes in traffic driving five miles (they think I'm kidding!) ... and I'd like to be able to afford a place to live (near family) while I spend two or three years building my research firm into something viable.
I'll miss juice squeezed fresh from my own oranges in February, I admit... but then, we've all got our priorities.
Oh yes, I'm wishing you well, thinking and thinking about you. We've done something similar when Linton was two weeks old. My parents were with us to help with Kelvin. Is your MIL going with you? Good luck with everything. I hope from the bottom of my heart that you find something that fits your specifications. I think you'd LOVE our house!! but it'd be probably way out of your price range :(
And, are you going to be close to Tracy! That'd be something nice!
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