The Grass is Always Greener and the Land/house that almost was...

When I was doing those long runs back in February we had a neighborhood we liked to run through on Harris with lots of pretty houses to look at...  My friend Sunny mentioned her friend was looking for a house to buy and my other friend Cassie, asked if she had seen the lots in that neighborhood.  So we ran by and took a picture and I casually mentioned it to Matt.  He immediately started researching and we drove over 2 times that weekend to look at it and call the realtor.

We haven't talked to a realtor or looked at ANY house or property since we bought our house in 2007.  I like to look at the neighborhoods where my friends move and on zillow but Matt never does.  We knew we couldn't make $ on our house after the market tanked in 2008 and everything I did look at I like way less than our current house.  We know moving would mean a big remodel of an older house in this area or we'd love to build one (but lots are hard to find).  So finding one in such a nice neighborhood, and our kids could even ride their bikes to the same school. We started to figure out finances and look at house plans.

We were looking at lot 6.  The front lots were a little cheaper.  We weren't ready to buy and build now so our plan was to buy now and build in about 5 years.  That would give us time to pay down the land loan and think of what we want for a house.  We thought we could plant fruit trees now (ala my dad) and take the kids over to weed and take care of the trees.  The neighborhood would be it's own HOA and had some hard rules like the house had to be at least 3,500 square feet- which is more house than I would like to take care of long term.  We were looking into a mother-in-law suite or a bonus room in a basement or above the garage to take up some of the square feet.

Since we haven't talked house dreams in 10 years it was interesting to see what things we were interested in.   Like I thought we never wanted a pool but Matt started talking about it down the road.

After a month of so of going back and forth with the owner we decided to not do it.  We've been mostly relieved but a little sad.

Things We liked About the Lot

Close to our current neighborhood/school

In the same high school boundaries as all the other kids at the elementary and jr high schools

Lots of possibilities for the land/ house- wouldn't have to remodel an old house with issues

More room for kids to live at home while they go to college, pool possibility, both cars park in garage, bigger dining room/great room for family dinners/parties (all things are current house is a little small for)

In my dream world I could get friends/family to buy the other lots and have an awesome cul-de-sac of friends 

Really nice neighborhood in the city 

Right across from church building

Reasons We Decided not to Buy it

HOA- Matt worried a lot about the fees/hassle of an HOA, especially dividing the cost up between only 6 houses

House requirements a little too big
No irrigation
Would have to build sooner than we were financially ready
Hard to get a land loan
Finances would be really tight (no new car for Matt or Peru trip probably, things we'd already been planning/saving for)
Leaving our current ward and neighborhood we love
Leaving our current house we've remodeled and love and can pay off much sooner

So we decided the grass in greener where we are.  And Matt bought his truck and we did our New England and Peru trips and Matt switched jobs so we were relieved to not be paying for a chunk of land.  One more lot has sold and the person on #5 has started to build.  Also funny my 2 friends I ran with, Cassie and Sunny both moved to bigger houses this year and weren't even considering it when we looked at this land.  We'll see if we revisit the land/house down the road or live here forever.  10 years feels like a long time in your first house, luckily we bought one we like and we've been able to update.

Our winter grass last year was awesome!  Matt did most of it this year

Fixing the sprinklers was one of the projects Matt tackled last year.

Here are some houses in the neighborhood I LOVE!  It's hard because I like nice neighborhoods but I worry my kids will be spoiled living in a neighborhood like that and we honestly have 6 families right on our street they play with.  Some of the styles/sizes are a bit over the top... and the prices all are!

I like the metal roof and Nan tucket feel of this one.

This one is super cute on the inside too!  Has a nice walk out basement