I'm one of those people who is always trying to find ways to make things better. I like to streamline processes, organize things, make lists, and improve on things. Some people see this way of being as my being unsatisfied with what I have, as if it wasn't good enough. And if I'm being totally honest, sometimes that is what it is.
Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the thinking that what you have ISN'T good enough and that you have to have more, bigger, better, newer. It happens to me every once in a while and it's exhausting and stressful and I hate it.
My husband and I live in a smaller 3 bedroom house, with my 12 year old son from my first marriage and our 2 1/2 year old boy. #3 is on it's way and we started thinking that we really were facing the time when we should sell and upgrade. Our house isn't laid our very well and it's quite cramped at times, but it has an amazingly big back yard and awesomely huge patio. It seems like we start to get major cabin fever every year as winter nears it's end and we can hardly stand the crampiness of our house. This year we made up our mind to do a few reno's and list.
I really want is a laundry room and a rumpus room for the kids. Not much to ask right? So we start painting, fixing, patching and rushing to get our house ready to put on the market before the big spring rush of listings.
Then it gets nice out. I started having second thoughts about leaving. My yard is so awesome and things are starting to grow! Then my husband speaks up and says he doesn't want to sell either. We start to really do the math and weigh it out.
We only pay about $1,100/m on our place, including property taxes and city services. We have a very nice manageable mortgage on the house, one that we could realistically pay off in 15 years. To buy, we'd be looking at spending a minimum of $150,000 more to get what we 'need'. That pretty much doubles our monthly housing costs, and the time until we're mortgage free. Ouch.
We both talked about how our families were raised in small houses, with kids sharing bedrooms, and how our parents turned out ok. We talk about how we have such a great yard and how we've managed with this place for almost 10 years.
We decided that what we have is enough and that we were grateful for that and how we can manage it fine and fix it up as we can afford in the years to come. We talk about how, if we REALLY wanted to, for less than $100,000 we could add a kitchen, 4th bedroom, rec room, AND laundry room. And keep our kick ass yard.
Feels good to feel grateful, and it feels even better to have that big weight lifted off our shoulders of how we were going to fit a huge mortgage payment into our budget and all the stress that goes along with selling & buying.
Sometimes smaller and simpler is better, even if you have to move over to let the other person pass in the hallway.
Have a great day,
Tara
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