A New Place to Live

We found a new place to live today. We looked at three places, and while that may not seem like a lot, based on what we've seen and what we know is out there, it wasn't hard to make this decision. There are some definite trade-offs. It's a townhouse with a brick patio and no "yard" to speak of. The patio isn't even fenced in. There's no garage--just two parking spaces in front. (At least there are two in front, though!) And while it's closer to the city than where we live now, it's still farther away than I had hoped to be.

On the positive side though, it's pretty big and has a nice layout. The kitchen, while not modern with granite and stainless steel, has lots of counter, cabinet, and drawer space, and a pantry! (Woo-hoo!) It also has a gas stove, which I'm very excited about. There's a family room off the kitchen with a gas fireplace. The master bedroom has two walk-in closets and a soaking tub in the bathroom. The other two bedrooms are decent-sized. And the laundry room is upstairs! (Can I hear a "hallelujah!") The basement rec room is huge and has a bump out area for an office. It also has a nice-sized room for storage, or whatever, a full bath, and even a little room/closet set up as a workshop. All of our basement furniture, including William's playhouse, will fit there with no problem. In fact, all of our furniture should fit fine, including our piano. It's the lawn/garden stuff that we may have a problem with.

The community has a pool and tennis courts. There are tons of walking trails, and there's a lake close by. There were all kinds of kids and families out and about, so that was nice to see. There's a very small tot lot at the end of our block of townhouses, and an elementary school with a nice playground within walking distance. And the clincher is the rent. We'll be paying $200 less a month than we pay now for our mortgage. Also, the couple who own the house seem very nice and cool and easy to work with. They're local and bought the townhouse as an investment two years ago. So that's a nice plus. Ultimately, it was a decision of paying more for a smaller place with fewer/no amenities but closer in, versus paying less for bigger, with amenities, but further out. The fact that it's not as far out as we live now, though, helps. It will probably take about 15 minutes less to get home.

I wish I could say I'm jumping-for-joy excited. But I'm still feeling very ambivalent about the whole thing. I'm disappointed that we couldn't find something with a better "yard," or at least a fenced-in patio where I could turn William loose and not have to worry about being outside constantly. We have patio furniture that I'm pretty sure won't fit on either the patio or the deck that's off the family room/kitchen. I'm not even sure we could use William's sand box on the patio. We can probably figure something out. Just beyond the patio is a grassy common area, and beyond that is a big resevoir-like basin, but it's totally dry. I think it's an overflow, catch-all, in case of heavy rains or something. It's like a big, empty pond--but grassy. Hard to explain, but with the snow we had last week, it had clearly served as a great sledding hill. There were a couple of abandoned sleds at the bottom. So that's actually a positive, I guess.

It's a nice community and I bet we'll meet a lot of nice people there. I liked the socializing that occurred among neighbors when we lived in our condo community, and I get the feeling it's the same way at this place. I'm sure once we're there, I will be happy that we moved. It will be fun to have the pool this summer, and to have a new area to explore, and to make new friends. And it's not like this is forever. So let the packing begin! Aghhhhhh!