I've been totally MIA, but for a reason. A few weeks ago we started talking about refinancing. We've been considering it for awhile but were always hesitant because "we might move" in the next couple of years.
Well, we actually might.
We love so many things about our place. The character from an old building. High ceilings. Large rooms (I've taken these for granted, by the way). Our neighborhood. The treetops that surround so many windows. As my mom says when she's in the living room "I feel like we're in a tree house!".
But there are a few things that we've longed for, for several years. A yard to enjoy the weather when it's nice, or
cook-outs (we currently have a camping-size grill that sits about twelve inches off the ground for cooking out... and you can imagine how annoying 3+ flights of stairs are when you forget salt or a paper towel!).
Speaking of yards,
we dream of a place for the dogs to exercise themselves every now and then (between the two dogs, we're talking about 6 - 10 walks/day... even after that George can still ready to drive you crazy with energy). While we're on the subject,
I would love a place to tackle some DIY projects like painting and whatnot. It's so much more complicated in our tiny place! And how about
entertaining? There's no over-flow area here.
Also, we host way more out of town guests than the average couple. With our 2BR/1Bath scenario I sometimes feel like our guests are a little uncomfortable because we're sharing a bathroom. This wouldn't be much of an issue for the average couple, but hubbie's friends frequently (sometimes two weekends/month0
We're also in need of some storage space. We have a wonderful shared basement, but it isn't climate-controlled. A few treasured pieces were even ruined when it flooded a few years ago. So we pay for a storage unit every month. And with Seth's job, we get a
looottttt of material each week that needs to find a place until it's sold. In the meantime, we're receiving several more boxes. It can't stay in the car because of the temperature, so it sits in our living room, dining room, wherever. Let it this way: we have a 5x5 climate controlled facility and even if every piece that's currently in our place were in our unit, we would be pressing maximum capacity.
Basically, we need could use more storage for the hubbie's sales equipment. And our everyday "odds and ends", winter clothes, etcetera.
And in just a week, it turned from "we're crazy if we don't take advantage of these interest rates and
refinance" to "we're crazy if we don't take advantage of these interest rates and
go ahead and get a bigger house."
So here we are.
We decided to list our place, right when it was starting to feel like home.
But that's life. And I'm honestly excited about the prospect of moving. More space! More storage! A yard! But we have to find it, in our budge (that's not a typo, by the way - budge = budget according to the Erin vocab), in a neighborhood we like.
And that's not been an easy thing to find.
We love our neighborhood. It's kind of artsy. Somewhat diverse. Urban. But residential. Lots of "things going on" and close to the downtown area of Birmingham. But never a woman running around in a tennis skirt, $500 sneakers carrying a Louis Vuitton bag and chihuahua... Know what I mean?
Barf.
But we may end up elsewhere. When we have kids, they would need private school if we stay in our current neighborhood (unless we move again previous to that schooling, which is an option). BUT property taxes are much lower here, which outweigh a LOT of cost. Oh....
*confusion, confusion, confusion*.
I do love my neighborhood.
What are your thoughts?
