For so long, I have wanted to move. While I love my neighbors, I don't really like our neighborhood. The streets are too busy and there are too many kids who wander around misbehaving. Our house, while a little small now, would be way too small for high school age boys!
One day a few weeks ago, Jay finally started talking about moving. We looked around our area and didn't see a whole lot. Jay also looked in other areas where he could get a job. Most places have a higher cost of living than Maryland so it wouldn't help us to move. Jay found some jobs in Syracuse NY, but once we looked into it, we couldn't afford the taxes. $10,000 + a year for a $400,000 house???!!! Are you kidding?
That's okay, because I didn't really feel comfortable making Jay change jobs. Jay likes and enjoys his job and does really well at it.
Jay seems to have a lack of motivation on finishing up the projects on our house in order to move. He says he needs a goal...a place to work towards...not just the goal of putting the house on the market and trying to sell.
We searched and searched online for a house with outdoor space and a lack of busy roads in our price range. We also didn't want a much smaller house unless it was easy to add onto. Our current house would be difficult to add onto, but could be done. (though nothing seems to be able to be done about the traffic!)
On Saturday, Jay wanted to drive around and look at a few things for sell. He didn't plan anything beyond two building lots. Neither lot was any good. One was completely in the flood plain of the Patasco River and the other just didn't look great. We did see something that was for sale that we thought looked great. (We later looked it up online only to find it was about $200,000 more than we could afford)
So, we went back home and made a list of the all the places that fit our price range, were over 5 acres, and were within 45 minutes of Jay's work. There were about a half dozen.
I mapped them out and they were all fairly close to each other. I planned a route and we set out again on Sunday morning.
The first house was a little tiny 4 bedroom rancher on a 10 acre lot. The house needs a lot of cosmetic work and updating. The yard and land were really nice (though neglected.) We left with a pretty good feeling and our hopes were high for the day.
The second house was sorta a nightmare. It was an 18 bedroom (I think 8, but with a typo) and 7 bathroom house and 19 acres. It needs work and when we arrived we noticed that it must have been some sort of insitution at one time. Perhaps it does have 18 bedrooms... It had an inground pool, an overgrown basketball court, tennis court, and baseball diamond. It also had massive power lines running right next to the house!!! I didn't think that they could be built that close to a house! It was a dump and of no interest to us.
The third house was a three bedroom house on 6 acres. It was a newer house than the first two, but was located in the middle of nowhere and the only way to get to it was on narrow twisting 1 lane roads. While it looked 45 minutes by map, the reality was it was just too far away from a main road. It would have taken Jay 20 minutes just to get back to a main road and then 40 minutes from there.
The fourth house was a no go because it's 7 acres lined up against a major highway.
The fifth house was bust because it was next door to liquor store and across the road from a sewage treatment plant.
The sixth house was built in 2000 and had 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. I had the highest hopes for this one, though it was at the very top end of our price range. I had looked a several pictures online and thought the inside was beautiful and the house looked nice. It was located in a subdivision, but it had 14 acres. I was so excited to see it, until I actually did. The house looked perfect and it's driveway was tucked out of the way and with the trees and everything, you couldn't even see the other houses. But, the MASSIVE power lines running right next to the house was a huge turn off. They were even closer than the other house had them. Probably less than 100 yards away. And, that house was built after the power lines were put in. We had to drive under the lines to get to the house. What the hell is up with that?
So to finish our day, we drove back to the first house and got out and walked around it. We peaked in the windows (the house is empty, btw) and nosed around. While the house was small, it could be added onto easily. It is affordable (relatively, for this area) and has space. It is private and has a full basement. The basement is not finished and doesn't have much natural light, but could still be a game room or something. It has a big outdated kitchen and 4 small bedrooms. The kids like the paved driveway (better to ride bikes) and the massive playset in the backyard (though Jay would need to work on it a bit).
I'm not saying we are going to buy it, but it at least gave Jay the needed motivation. I'll keep you all posted.
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