ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

The Urban life has gotten a bit crazy and is about to get ever crazier.

We are moving into our first house in 34 days and getting our first puppy in 36 days. Ashley will be gone for 21 of those days at camp and on a mission trip.

We have begun packing (Holy smokes do we have a lot of stuff!) and are going to pick our puppy out this weekend. We are adopting a Pembroke Welsh Corgi pup, we have wanted a Corgi for many years and are excited that we will finally be able to add one to our family.

I feel a bit scattered in other parts of my life though. My mind is full of puppies, training techniques, packing boxes, moving trucks, lists of things we need to purchase and loan documents.

I will post pictures of the puppy next week and photos of the house once we are settled in (this may be a year from now!)

Mother of all things holy! How am I supposed to concentrate on work or school when I have visions of houses dancing through my head?! These houses are not gently dancing either. Nope, no smooth, slow ballet. These places are krumping!

House hunting?

I'm at that place again. You know, that place I go every few years. The place in the back of my mind that still believes in the "American Dream". The place that thinks every thing in the world would be better if we were homeowners.

Normally, I recognize that the "American Dream" is not what it used to be. That the new dream most American's have is to stay afloat from month to month, to have food on the table and to have a job and health insurance.

We have that now, and I am very grateful. Christopher has been at his job for over ten years and I have been at mine over five years. We have great health insurance, we always have plenty of food and our bills are paid. That has not always been the case for us. We went through a period of time when I couldn't keep a job. I was laid off twice in two years and our income was unstable. We didn't get our bills paid on time and we had to wait to get groceries until pay day. We know what it's like to struggle, to argue about money and to worry that the grocery check is going to bounce. We are all too aware that we could be back there in just a few months if either of us lost our jobs or got hurt.

What we don't have is a house. We have a wonderful home that we rent. It is a three story townhouse at the end of a cul-de-sac in an area of town that we like. We have a great landlord who takes care of any issues we may have right away. Our small back yard butts up to a wooded city park and we get lots of birds and forest animals. This small townhouse has been our home for just shy of 11 years.

House prices are at record lows right now. I feel like we should buy a house, but I really don't know if I want to be the one who has to fix things that go wrong and take care of the yard. I don't know if being tied down by home ownership will interfere with our plan to move to Alaska in the next decade, or if it would ultimately help us to reach that goal.

*sigh* I guess I need to do some serious thinking and talking with Christopher so we can figure out just what the "Urban Dream" is.

The Search is on

So we looked at three houses yesterday. The first one was a total dump. The carpets were stained, doors had holes in them, the garage windows were broken out and the yard was a disaster. The Basement ceiling was partially pulled down and the paint colors were horrific.The second house was better. It had a three season porch and a huge fenced in yard. The house would have needed some minor repairs, like new steps in the basement and the porch would need leveling. The down side was that the house was across the street from a bar and a little farther on the north side than is ideal for us.The third house was nice, well maintained yard, large rooms, decent yard. It would have needed a new roof and it is VERY close to the highway. I thought that maybe this was it, then we went to the basement and found a foul odor and about two inches of standing water.We came home frustrated but informed. In spite of myself, I am getting excited and looking forward to having a new place. I am so not looking forward to moving (the piano may kill us), but I think I am ready to be in a house.We have been spoiled being in this townhouse for 8 years. The location is ideal, the rooms are big and the price is right. I know that we will find a place that is larger, but all the houses I have looked at online have much smaller rooms. More rooms and more square footage, but small size rooms. We have to think about where the huge piano would go and we have three large cages for the pets that we need to consider as well.We don't have to be in hurry to move, we are content enough here that we could do another year or so here. I'm just nervous because this is such a huge decision and financial committment. I'm currently in college, and Christopher is hoping to get back in school too. We also have to think about Ashley's college costs, that is not that far off. We also want to be able to keep sending Ashley to summer camp and putting her in the UW summer courses, which costs quite a lot also.Being a grown up can really be stressful.