The house

Tom came home for another weekend. He is as frustrated as I am with the lack of progress on the house. I dropped the boys off at the theater for the new Transformers movie just to give Tom room to vent and settle down. He needed a little space to unwind. It is hard to be gone then reappear every week.

I buy my groceries just before the weekend now so I have fresh food in the house for Tom's visits. We are working our way through the pantry, trying to eat it so it doesn't have to be packed. Tom likes what he likes so I have to make sure we are stocked on the weekends, just not over stocked.

We had better hear something this week as I told Tom last night that the owners of the little house had come back to us with an acceptance on our original offer, after the contract expired. It was a low price and a good deal all around. Tom is considering it as we are beginning to believe we may never close on the big house. We would both prefer the big house but the wait is excruciating.

Half packed in boxes for two months now, the house is a mess. Tom moved the head high stack of boxes in the living room out to the garage. There are still boxes both empty and full scattered around the house. It does encourage me to divest myself of things. As usual the garbage is full for this week. I have been pretty pleased with my tossing each week to the maximum capacity of our over sized garbage can. Progress has stalled though with the lack of news from the Realtors.

April 13 was our original contract. We are now in mid July. Should we leap off the train and grab the other smaller house or patiently wait? We need to be out of here. I have to take Trevor back up to the new school this week for training camp. He was accepted on the bus to the football camp. Freshmen don't normally go, but the coach called and said there was room if Trevor still wanted to go. I wonder if that was because they got a look at his size that one week of conditioning. He may not be fast, but he is built like a line man.

The small house is intriguing under 2300 square feet, vintage 1955. we would need to convert the garage to living space to accommodate. One of the bedrooms is more the size of an office, 8x10. The Master is big and beautiful with a sun porch, a modernized bathroom with soaking tub, laundry facilities in one of the closets, and lots of wall closets. The kitchen is dated and has no gas. There is room to expand, half an acre, to do a detached garage. We know we can close in two weeks.

The big house is 3600 square feet of finished living space. I want to tweak it a little, bring in gas and adjust the kitchen. I don't want to redesign the kitchen but to put in gas and add wall ovens and a pantry may be a little intense to consider it not a redesign. Luckily the basement ceilings are exposed so the remodel can be achieved without a whole lot of demolition. The big beautiful cedar beams are also in the basement. The basement is unfinished usable space. I am working on the boys to consider the basement as their space. Luckily they loved that 70's show, with the basement hangout, so they are not apposed to the idea. They are even a little thrilled. It will be their own club house.

The plumbing and wiring are visible and unattractive, but I could easily hang ceiling boards and finish the area. The garage area in the basement is finished, which is where Trevor wants to put his exercise equipment. I want to take out the garage door and put in real doors, bring some sunshine into the space. Put a patio or loggia outside that door to create a welcoming area to hang out. It is under a corner of the main deck area. I could make it roofed so water wouldn't get in. Eventually that downstairs will make for a great apartment.

The difference in the two houses is that in the big house we can live with it as it is. Move right in and everything has a place to go, finished spaces or not, tweaks or not. The boys are loving the thought of their own cave. Tom is loving the thought of his own space. I am loving the thought of not having a TV in my living room. The cars even have a place to go in the three car garage. There is room for all and no compromises.

In the smaller house something has to give. The pool table or the resistance trainer or both if I don't want a TV in my living room. We wouldn't be parking our cars in the garage because it would be full of boxes.

Tom and I are potentially 5 years from being child free. It does seem silly to be buying such a big house. But five years with teenage boys is both a long time and a very short time. My thought is in five years the economy will have picked up and so will the markets. We wont lose on this investment. Like so many of our friends, we envision everyone home for the holidays at least through the college years. I have always liked having a guest room for company.

So I sit hear and nail bite and stress over whether we are doing the right thing. My mom thinks the big house is a giant money pit, but so is the little house. I sent an e-mail to our realtor. This week we have to have a written acceptance. We have to have a contract to close, or we may have to move on to the little house. I don't want to move on. I have spent two months doodling on my graph paper where furniture is to be placed and what tweaks I want to make happen. I have been dreaming of my big modern home on the hill. Just get it done people.