Waffeling

So the thing in my mind all day today has been "why not stay here instead of moving?"

When I think about where we would most likely be moving: to the city
When I think about how much I like my kitchen here: the kitchen in a "new" house will probably not be as big or user friendly
When I think about the 2.5 acres here: we probably wouldn't get much more than an acre, if that much
When I think about the garden space I have here: new place probably wouldn't have one
Hanging the laundry outside: possibly HOA rules that wouldn't allow it

.... and all those kind of things. While I really don't want to live the next 5 years with all my stuff packed away in boxes just so this house feels bigger, I'm tempted to ask Daniel if we can really and truly check into how much it would take to add on to this house and what our options are for adding on. Daniel knows he doesn't want to add on to the bedroom end because it would most likely end up killing "the mighty oak" that he likes so much. That leaves the living room/dining room end of the house, but we can't figure out a floor plan that would give us another bedroom without it being funky. Then we think about doing a 2 story addition, making bigger living/dining rooms downstairs and a master suite upstairs.... and that's where the money ends: on the first floor. We wouldn't have enough to finish both floors.

We have free trusses and sheathing from the garage that he took down a couple summers ago that would double the footprint of this house if we used them for an addition. I suggested that we could leave the 2nd floor unfinished and finish it as we'd have the money, but he said the county wouldn't like that.

Then I think about the whole debt free horse I've been riding the past several months and wonder if I should still be riding it and just close my eyes and deal with a possibly not-exactly-where/something-I-like house for a little while and have less debt, or should we refinance, add on here, have the same amount of debt and at least like the house and have 2.5 acres to run and "be free" on? If we would add on another bedroom at least, we could easily stay here for awhile, really whittle down the mortgage and hopefully the market would be booming business whenever we'd decide to sell.

*sigh* I was also really missing my garden today. It's the time of year when I should be able to go look at the garden and see how my seeds are popping out of the ground, planting new things, watering my tomato plants, putting the pea fences up... and instead I see a garden that nothing has been done to it yet this year.

If we would move, how many years would it be until I could look out my kitchen sink window and not be staring into the neighbors window again? Right now I look out over our back yard and see nothing but the yard, trees and the dog. No neighbors. Right now I would feel very comfortable letting our kids run loose in the yard by themselves (uh, whenever we have kids and they would be old enough to play by themselves of course)... I don't know if I would feel that way in a subdivision somewhere. At least the kind that our budget allows. I don't know. Maybe I just have a weird "neighbor-phobia" and that's why I don't like neighbors and would question any that lived any closer than what we have now.

So yeah, that's what I've been thinking about today. I haven't figured out if it's me thinking or God talking.

On another topic, I got everything done on my list today :) I even made 2 loaves of bread and washed the kitchen and back door windows! I didn't do the whole wipe out the cracks and crannies and space between the window and screen thing... those places are pretty dirty, but until the pollen stops raining, it would just be filthy again tomorrow. I'll get around to that part later. For now, I'm happy with my crystal clear windows :)