Well…….
At this point, the move is OFF!!! And some people might ridicule us and tell us what a deal we’re letting sift through our fingers, but we have both come to understand that this move is all about the kids, and not us. Financially, it would be a risky move. Who’s buying houses right now? Who’s spending any money period?? Not many. Soooooo, considering all the many factors and weighing all the pros and cons of our existing home here and the potential home there, the list of pros here outweighs the pros over there. Granted, it’s an awesome piece of property, but both of us are not very “wowed” by the house itself. Needs too much work to make it work. And the work wouldn’t get done until our home here actually sold. UGH… it’s bittersweet. I guess if the kids were a tad older, it would be a no brainer. If they were a little more independent and a little more responsible, it would be easier to send them outside w/ no boundaries. But while they are this young, and so heavily involved in the many things you are involved in when you’re a wee lad, it just makes sense to stay put, or stay close(r) to town. Calculating the driving we’d have to do, just for the day to day necessities, is really really scary. Do I drive into town to drop Maggers off at school, and then drive all the way home to work? Only to turn right around in like 45 mins to drive another 20 to pick her up, then head back home which would be another 20 mins….?? I dunno… I know there are people out there that driving is one of the things that that they just have to do in order function in their lifestyle. The poor people that commute from suburbs of cities an hour to get into work, and an hour back home. That’s how I grew up, but since I’ve become a “city mouse” (some people ehem would argue that I’m totally NOT a city mouse) well…. I’ve grown accustomed to just running up the hill, a mere 4 minutes in the car, to the grocery store, or the pet store, or the bank, or Fourbucks (starbucks). I mean, I can visualize living out of town on property when the kids are older, but it took getting into flippen contracts and home/pool/septic inspections, and potentially losing our earnest money, to realize that we might not be cut out for country living quite yet in our lives.
It’s all good, because it’s made us realize that the kids are what’s most important in all of this. Our kids, (4 and 7) would be totally secluded from other kids. And trust me,, we’ve driven out there and around the community out there scouting out play structures and swing sets and bikes in the driveway enough to know that there aren’t that many. It would definitely give my two kids room to grow closer to each other, as that is all that they would have, and that’s all that I really had as a kid, were my sisters, but, well, but,, well,, we’re just not going to do that to them quite yet. Geesh I sound so wishy-washy…and that I don’t totally appreciate the way I was raised….. I do.. I totally wouldn’t be who I am today had I not been raised in the mountains and just with my sisters……. Times are different…. point blank..
Enough of this….. it’s been such a consuming thought in our lives lately…..
On a festive note…. put on the old Clark Griswold hat yesterday and busted out all the Christmas lights. House, from the street, is looking more dapper than ever. When we got married in the Sierra Nevada’s of California, we opted to give out sequoia seedlings to our guests as our ‘favors’ … i.e. plant the tree of love sort of mentality…. yadda yadda cheesy yadda…. But the tree pictured here all lit up is in our front yard, and it is one of our seedlings from that day. Has travelled from central California, all the way down to San Diego, back up to Seattle, to our rental in Lake Oswego, OR, and now here to our house in West Linn, and I’ve transplanted it into the ground each and everytime we’ve moved. We’ve been here 6 years, and in those six years, it’s grown 12 feet. 3 and 1/2 feet in the last year. Thriving….. and so I look at that tree, and take comfort, as if that tree is thriving here, then maybe we can just rest easy here and thrive right along with it…….. for now……. and when we do move,,, I’ll pay whatever fee it takes to uproot it and move it along with us!!!
December 6th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Well, you won’t get any ridicule from me – I thought you were nuts in the first place so I think this is a very, very smart decision. Yeah, I suppose I could have said so but I always thought I would be saying so for the wrong reasons so I kept my mouth shut. I totally and completely understand putting the kids first and on that topic I would have supported the move to a point just as a means of getting them away from some of the more “interesting” people in your neighborhood. That would have been the one and only advantage in my mind. Having said that, I grew up around a lot of odd folk here and there too and I turned out just fine – my dad was nice enough to explain about peoples different beliefs and I guess once I heard it from him – well, I trust dear old dad more than the neighbors… Anders will do the same.
The economy sucks. Period. The economy is going to get worse throughout 2009 regardless of who’s in office, regardless of wall street, and regardless of how much we all wish otherwise. The USA and the rest of the world simply can’t spend eight solid years speeding toward financial disaster and expect to turn it around as fast as we’d like. The housing market will continue to be a pile of dung for the time being until people like me (non homeowners) trust the financial institutions enough to bother with getting loans. I’m not an economist but some simple math would suggest that anyone that bought a house six years ago has likely lost money on it today if they’re paying 100% to 135% of their mortgage payment every month – the equity is simply gone because the values have gone in the toilet.
Now is not the time to be doing anything fancy that involves a bank or a lender of any kind. It’s not the time to be carrying credit card balances either. However, it IS the time to be support one another’s businesses whenever possible so that as many of us can get through this thing without losing everything that we’ve built. Go out and eat at restaurants, buy the kids a movie or take them to see one, hell, do some halfway frivolous shopping for yourself. As long as it DOESN’T involve a loan from a bank or a credit card balance then you’re helping the problem.
It’s a great decision Erika, make no mistake about it. Keep the kids exposed to the whole enchilada of life – that’s what it’s there for. They’ll make good choices anyway but allowing them to have choices is a must. You don’t get choices when you live in the sticks – you end up talking to squirrels and wearing hair shirts and growing beards. I can’t see Anders with a beard. Sorry.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:52 am
SEE…. this is why I think your sh#t doesn’t stink Richard…!!! You are a wise wise creature….. so matter of fact… You rock!! Can’t wait for tomorrow!!! GO PATRIOTS!!!
December 6th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Richard’s right…you don’t get choices when you live in the sticks. And 9 times out of 10 you make the WRONG choice as you and I are so very well aware. =) Living in the forest would make you, as Fil would say, nuttier than squirel shit. We can’t have that, cuz I think you’re already pretty nuts.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Watch Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and get to the part with the little kids (and if you’ve never seen it, ask Eric, he’ll have seen it) – kids living outside of society get really really strange.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
WOO HOO!!! I can stillg et to you on the bus in an hour! and good thinking, letting yourself have a christmas break! YOU ROCK KAKA