I like to think of myself as a goal oriented person, as many people do, but I think I'm actually more of a planner. And I think of goals and plans as somewhat different things, though they are clearly related. I guess I think of goals as more tangible (things to be achieved/crossed off a list) and plans are experiential (how you want to live). I have a very clear picture of the latter, as that is more important, and build the former from that, which is what makes the plans come to life. Anywho...
We bought our current home six and a half years ago with the plan of moving on within seven, which of course seemed like an eternity back then. But then after the first year when we got engaged and married, our planned one year wait to TTC turned to two (those ducks we wanted to get in a row turned out to be ferrets :/ ), and then it took over three more until we brought live babies home, which I've chronicled ad nauseum here. I also left my job in the meantime, something I never thought I would do, which worked out for us given our situation.
Fortunately, we did plan for this to be our first family home. The location is great, close to everything and super safe, if rather suburban boring. There is enough room for everyone (us, guests, kids), we are three doors down from a good elementary school, there are several nice playgrounds and a pool in our subdivision, etc., etc. I am so thankful now that we weren't among the seeming majority who only after they get pregnant, suddenly realize they quickly need a bigger place to put the baby/ies, as it obviously would have been even more complicated and stressful given our last pregnancy. And likely it would have just added to the nightmare or just wouldn't have happened at all.
But I can't help but feel the itch now as this time comes and goes given our plans, even though obviously the original timing of our family didn't pan out and we now have two infants rather than a pre-schooler and a toddler (not that I'm complaining about that). We've met our initial goal of paying enough extra over time to have six figures down on the principle on our current home in order to have enough for the downpayment on the next one when we do sell (yay us). And it is definitely still a buyer's market, interest rates are insanely low and supposedly headed down even more, and home builders are about as hungry as ever.
But if we sit tight, we can continue to live comfortably on one salary and decide what to do next and where. We could pay off the house in ten years, though I know we'll be long gone by then. I've grown to hate moving (I've done more than my share in 17 yrs.) and I certainly don't feel like I want to right now. The real estate market for sellers is still not great, and we've put in a lot of significant improvements. I'd love to blow out the back of our house enlarging our kitchen and family room, but while there are dozens of McMansions in the newer developments behind our school, in our subdivision our model is the largest, so this doesn't really make sense unless this was our forever house. We hope to finish our remaining planned renovations in enough time to actually enjoy them for awhile before moving on.
So, long story short, our conclusion, for now anyway, is to watch this plan fade with our original family timing that went out the window and stay where we are for now. I will likely go back to work (because I think I want to), giving us more flexibility and direction on where we will end up. And let's be honest, I'm pretty sure I'll actually have more time to deal with this while working than while at home with the kids.
We also need to decide where we want the kids to go to school when the time comes, this will also be a big driver. We've talked about moving back to the city (which DH thinks he wants, since he grew up in a big city), but the cost of private school almost gave him a heart attack (hello $24K kindergarten for each kid- he attended less expensive Catholic schools, I went public) and the city magnet schools admission is by test and lottery (so no guarantee). Or we could join other friends who've made the North Shore home, where we could send the kids to public school.
It should be interesting to see what happens, stay tuned... :)
We bought our current home six and a half years ago with the plan of moving on within seven, which of course seemed like an eternity back then. But then after the first year when we got engaged and married, our planned one year wait to TTC turned to two (those ducks we wanted to get in a row turned out to be ferrets :/ ), and then it took over three more until we brought live babies home, which I've chronicled ad nauseum here. I also left my job in the meantime, something I never thought I would do, which worked out for us given our situation.
Fortunately, we did plan for this to be our first family home. The location is great, close to everything and super safe, if rather suburban boring. There is enough room for everyone (us, guests, kids), we are three doors down from a good elementary school, there are several nice playgrounds and a pool in our subdivision, etc., etc. I am so thankful now that we weren't among the seeming majority who only after they get pregnant, suddenly realize they quickly need a bigger place to put the baby/ies, as it obviously would have been even more complicated and stressful given our last pregnancy. And likely it would have just added to the nightmare or just wouldn't have happened at all.
But I can't help but feel the itch now as this time comes and goes given our plans, even though obviously the original timing of our family didn't pan out and we now have two infants rather than a pre-schooler and a toddler (not that I'm complaining about that). We've met our initial goal of paying enough extra over time to have six figures down on the principle on our current home in order to have enough for the downpayment on the next one when we do sell (yay us). And it is definitely still a buyer's market, interest rates are insanely low and supposedly headed down even more, and home builders are about as hungry as ever.
But if we sit tight, we can continue to live comfortably on one salary and decide what to do next and where. We could pay off the house in ten years, though I know we'll be long gone by then. I've grown to hate moving (I've done more than my share in 17 yrs.) and I certainly don't feel like I want to right now. The real estate market for sellers is still not great, and we've put in a lot of significant improvements. I'd love to blow out the back of our house enlarging our kitchen and family room, but while there are dozens of McMansions in the newer developments behind our school, in our subdivision our model is the largest, so this doesn't really make sense unless this was our forever house. We hope to finish our remaining planned renovations in enough time to actually enjoy them for awhile before moving on.
So, long story short, our conclusion, for now anyway, is to watch this plan fade with our original family timing that went out the window and stay where we are for now. I will likely go back to work (because I think I want to), giving us more flexibility and direction on where we will end up. And let's be honest, I'm pretty sure I'll actually have more time to deal with this while working than while at home with the kids.
We also need to decide where we want the kids to go to school when the time comes, this will also be a big driver. We've talked about moving back to the city (which DH thinks he wants, since he grew up in a big city), but the cost of private school almost gave him a heart attack (hello $24K kindergarten for each kid- he attended less expensive Catholic schools, I went public) and the city magnet schools admission is by test and lottery (so no guarantee). Or we could join other friends who've made the North Shore home, where we could send the kids to public school.
It should be interesting to see what happens, stay tuned... :)
Its funny how life forces us to change our plans, huh? It'd be nice if we could just control it all!
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