Thoughts on moving...
02.10.2007 ~~ 2:57 pm

So. Housing.
I'm just trying to sort of talk this through. I feel like there's no obviously "right" answer, and I hate that.
Current house:
+ Fantastic general location: 2 blocks to MIL, 1 mile to elementary school, 1 block to river, � block to playground/ball field
+ Few neighbors--there's a privacy fence between us and the people behind us, our house faces away from the people "next" to us, there's trees between us and the people across the street, and across the other street is an unused lot.
+ I love the elementary school.
+ We're close to the post office and a gas station.
+ We have a great bike/walking trail just past the park.
+ We have a lot of shopping options: we're just across the river from Hudson and minutes from both Stillwater and Woodbury.
+ Great driveway. We have room for at least four vehicles across.
- We're right along the route to the boat landing. We get loads of traffic and litter all summer long.
- Detached garage. Not really a problem until it's raining or freezing cold outside. Which is often.
- Too-small garage. We can park one car inside... but we own six.
- The layout sucks. This will probably be remedied when we dig the basement, but... I'm so tired of working on this house. We've been working on this house for almost 4 years now. I'm tired.

Our options are:
Jason's house:
+ Nearby. It's just a few blocks up the bike trail, putting us even closer to the elementary school, playground, and ice rinks.
+ Larger yard. Possibility of having our own ice.
+ Four bedrooms.
+ Three garage stalls, attached, plus a workroom area, with a wide driveway and room for parking the trailer.
- The bathrooms are small.
- The layout is functional... but still not great.
- Adjacent to a very busy road--noisy.

Development 1:
+ Within our area.
+ The development is new, and there's only like, three houses that are occupied.
+ We get our pick of the lots.
+ Close to Stillwater and Hudson.
+ I really like the floorplan of one of the houses in particular.
+ It's new!! I know that new doesn't always mean better/trouble-free, but I'm so tired of having to fix everything all the damn time, I'm ready for something new.
+ It's an "eco-friendly" development. Oxymoronic, I know, but they seem to have tried to be as "green" as possible.
+ There are going to be a lot of community spaces--parks and walking trails and such.
- The yards are the size of postage stamps.
- Eventually we will have neighbors. Their houses will be very close to ours.
- I think these houses might be a little more expensive than we'd like to go.

Development 2:
+ The houses are attractive. A lot of brick, albeit faces only.
+ There's a huge window over the front door. I'm a sucker for that.
+ Newish, and clean. This house has been well-kept.
+ I love the look of this house (I haven't been inside yet). It's two stories, brick on the front, big window, fireplace... it's huge. Over 3000 square feet.
- Still, it's in a development.
- The year is tiny, and there's like, one tiny tree.
- Two-car garage (the other two options both have three)
- It's in Woodbury. I generally dislike Woodbury.
- My children would have to switch schools, and I'd be sort of cut off from my current social scene.
- Since it's in Woodbury, it only makes sense to do our shopping in Woodbury, and I sort of resent that. I like having options.
- 3000 square feet sounds like heaven compared to our 900 square foot hovel, but... that's a lot to clean. And heat.
- The taxes are WAY higher, and the utilities are certainly higher as well.

Now that I'm looking at the pros and cons, I'm thinking more and more that the best choice is to stay here for a bit. Yes, this house drives me mad, but I'm not sure I'm willing to triple my taxes or pull my children out of their beloved school. If Jason's house is still for sale when we're done with the renovations here, I'll consider moving there, but for the meantime, I'll just focus my energy on making this place as bearable as possible.

What do you think? (0)

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