Reality (9/13/17)

Don't get me wrong, I love my house!!  But the reality of it is, we need more space.  The first time it really hit me that we didn't have enough space was a year ago when we hosted the kids birthday party.  There's not enough room at the table for everyone to sit, there's not enough space for furniture in the living room for everyone to gather and not be on top of each other.  The dining and living room are too spaced out to congregate together.  I was pretty bummed out after that party.  

On paper when we originally started the renovation everything looked great....until its done and things don't fit as you thought.  Most rooms are 11 x whatever, it'd be great if they were 14 x whatever instead so there's a little more wiggle room and space to put things.  I do not like our living room.  In order to keep the "open concept" there is only space for one couch and one recliner.  We tucked the TV in the corner cabinet as I didn't want it above the fireplace.  The cabinet only fits a tiny TV that you can barely see where it sits.  The downstairs family room only fits one couch too -- so pretty much both spaces don't even fit our little family to sit down and watch anything together. Not the end of the world, but it's the little things that'd be nice.  We had thought we'd eventually attach the garage and make it bigger.  I had the idea of putting the dining room in the front where the living room is and then adding on the back AGAIN to make a bigger living room and attaching the garage at the same time.  This would not be a cheap project, we've already put a lot of money in this house and I don't think putting anymore would pay out in the end -- unless we stayed forever.  Then there's the...let's be honest here...rotten neighbors.  Truth is the neighbors on our driveway side do not like us.  Feelings are mutual and they are nasty to us.  The outside environment is very negative and it's to the point I avoid going outside when they are around so I don't get glared at or stared at.  I most definitely do not want to live next to that forever, it's pretty sad how much we poured into this house to have that as a big factor in not wanting to stay.  

When we renovated we had no intentions of ever moving.  We put in everything we wanted.  We thought of everything and made it our own. But the combination of everything and how good the housing market has been.....we've been looking for something new for a good year now.  We found one house a year ago we liked but by the time we could get a pre-approval letter from the bank it had another offer on it.  I have a lot of wants on my list for a new house, because I really do like my house and I'm not willing to give it up until we find something that really suits us.  So pretty much a year went by of us checking the MLS daily and I get this text....

I immediately went and drove by it.  I ruled it out right away because the driveway was not flat like I wanted but Mike pushed to go look at it and scheduled a 5 pm showing for that night.