Last night, Josh & I had a good talk. We dreamed together. We talked excitedly about where we want to be in six months, in a year and a half, in five years, ten years. We talked about possibilities and hopes and options and feasibilities. Sometimes, we feel we want to pick up everything, head to the West Coast, and start a California bed and breakfast (Yes, this actually went through our heads last week- but that's what brainstorming is all about, right? Crazy ideas?). Other times, we want to just settle down in a house we can stay in forever- big enough to hold our family as it grows (in the future, years from now... don't get your hopes up), enough outside space to contain our hobbies and dreams for our future life, and in a setting that we can be content with as long as we can imagine. One thing that prompted this fanciful discussion was the discovery that a house we really liked but was just a little out of our price range just dropped $10,000 to be a feasible choice. With a workshop for Josh to pursue hobbies like woodworking someday, a 3-acre lot with a chicken coop and "milk house" for me to fulfill my dream of living on a "farm", it's as if the house (at least from what we know about it) is there just for us. The 4-bedroom house with HUGE rooms would hold us for as long as we can imagine. The location is close to a small town, but has quick access to a major road I'd use to get to work. And it is in the country. My heart is being pulled more and more to the country. The pull started at the rural college the summer after sophomore year, and has increasingly gotten stronger, to where I cannot even picture being comfortable in a suburban neighborhood. I want the space and the greenery and the quiet and the beauty (yes! being surrounded by cornfields can be beautiful!) I want the slower pace of life the country offers. My heart leaps at the thought, and, here, I grow restless.
Perhaps this is all just dreaming, and my starry-eyed visions are impractical and impossible. Perhaps I should resign to the typical suburban life. But I can dream, can't I?
7 comments:
The thing I'd think hardest about with regard to buying a house at the upper end of your price range is the possibility that you might want to stay home for a while with any potential future children you might have. Even if I had loved my job dearly, there is no way I'd have been ready to go back after 12 weeks!
Ah I love to dream. :-) Paul and I are always talking about it. This weekend we tackled a really difficult subject: What do I want to do with my time right now? If not a stay-at-home wife (which I've decided is not what I want), then what? Dreaming about what I *can* do is exciting! Or should I just limit myself to my current job, where I'm less than happy? Ah...
I think the fun part of being where we are right now is that so much of our future is ahead of us! It's wide open, and it's our job to figure out where to go so we can head that way. And when you stop to think outside the box (like me, thinking of other things I could do with my time besides the standard 8-5 job), it gets very exciting!
That does sound perfect. I'm all about country living! :)
Don't let go of the dream, but Lisa does have some wise advice there. If you think you might want to stay home you want to be sure you don't put yourself in a financial position where you have to work.
The house looks and sounds awesome. I would love to live in the country. Both my parent grew up on farms and I enjoyed my visits to the Grandparents. Yes, wide open spaces can be beautiful. I certainly won't rule out a move to more remote country in the future but, for us, it's not going to happen right now.
It can hurt to see the place, can it? Just be sure to do so with an impartial, critical eye. Money is one thing but don't forget the time and effort commitment of owning a bigger, older home. Yes, it's probably better constructed than anything made in the last 50 years but there is likely to be more upkeep involved than you might have with a newer place. I love home improvement/repair but I don't want it to take up every weekend. Just be as thorough as possible.
Do you think the area will stay rural? We looked at an old farmhouse a few years ago and it looked great...until you saw the housing additions going up all around it.
In any case, I know I'd at least check it out.
Lisa & Stephanie - We're taking going-down-to-one-income into account when figuring out our 'price range'. Lisa, I have totally thought of what you're saying- maternity leave seems like it would be so short! I don't know what I'll do. I do want to leave our options open, however.
Ashley- Yes, it's so fun to dream. We really are at an exciting point in our lives, just starting out, on the verge of lots of possibilities.
Brett- Yes, we're looking at older houses. I'm lucky that Josh is handy and wants to learn even more about fixing & building stuff. A lot of our discussion Sunday night centered around the possibilities for this house or that, and the feasibility of getting any of that done. We're still talking. We're just at the beginning of this process- this adventure!
That house reminds me of my grandma's house out in the country! With the barn out back where the horses were kept... the old apple tree I used to climb with my cousins... the bean fields my mom used to work in when she was a girl... *Sigh*
I hope you end up getting something like that! Then I could come visit you and eat some chocolate chip cookies. Er... you would always have a jar of chocolate chip cookies on hand, wouldn't you?
If I knew you were coming, Beth, I'd have a big jar of chocolate chip cookies just for you. Promise.
And, yes, it's looking very likely we'll end up in "something like that". Perhaps not that, exactly- it's still at the high end of what we want to spend- but there are others we're looking at, smaller, that are farmhouses with apple trees :) I would LOVE it if you came to visit!
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