a change of heart?

the more jas and i discuss our house situation, the more we are leaning towards taking it off the market. we know what price we want out of the house and we agree that it's a reasonable price. the problem is that there are so many other houses in our area that are foreclosed, so buyers are attracted to those houses for obvious reasons. why pay a "normal" price for a home when you can pay well below the reasonable price for a similar house down the street? it's frustrating, but i don't blame potential buyers. heck, that's how we ended up in the house where we currently live.

we looked at a house this past weekend that we absolutely LOVED from the outside. it's tucked back in the woods by a creek in a gorgeous, wooded neighborhood. we walked all around it and took in the view (it overlooked a lake) and fell in love with the outside. unfortunately, we were let down when we walked through the front door. it's a beautiful house, don't get me wrong, but it's not functional for us. the bedrooms were small, the kitchen was literally located in a hallway (very bizarre), and it had 3 living rooms. the layout was awkward and just didn't work for us. i was so disappointed.

our realtor keeps pressuring us to lower the price, but i'm not sure we're ready to do that. we're not in any hurry to move out and we don't *have* to if we don't want to. and besides, i'm not finding another house that we're in love with, so why sell ours just to move into an apartment or something? it just doesn't make sense to us.

our contract runs out in august and, if it hasn't sold by then, we'll probably take it off the market. all things considered, it's probably best for our finances if we waited a bit longer too. before and after school care for little mama is cheaper and baby angel is able to go to full-day preschool in our current school district. we could probably make a new house work, but it would be super, duper tight. right now, finances feel comfortable and i'm not sure we're ready to really take the leap right now.

besides, it will allow us more time to build the equity in our home. when we decided we wanted to look for a new home, we began increasing the amount we pay each month on our mortgage. we figured that would allow us the opportunity to get used to paying a larger mortgage each month as well as build up a little more equity. i'm happy to say that we've been able to swing it all each month with no real adjustments to our spending. continuing this for another year or two will definitely put us in a good position.

so while i'm a bit bummed that we most likely won't be moving, i'm happy knowing that our finances will be more secure. we love our home (we just wish it were on a bit more land), we love our neighbors, we love the fact that we have a swimming pool and parks to frequent, we love that our kids go outside and romp around with their friends in the neighborhood. but...but...we just need to breathe. to spread out. to stretch and have a bit of elbow room.

i know it'll be worth the wait. and i know that even if we transfer leah and alana into a different school system when they are in 3rd and 1st grades respectively, they'll adjust just fine. i know that it'll be even better a year or two down the road and the reward will be that much sweeter.