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Sunday 15 August 2010

simple and cheap

several weeks ago i blogged about how i came home from wherever i had been to find a for sale sign in my front yard. at that time, i was all about putting off moving until there was a firm offer on the house. i am over waiting until the offer comes. i am in no way interested in having to vacate up to 7 people everytime the realtor wants to show the house. besides, my mom has "her shows" in the evenings and doesn't like us intruding on them (her home was our refuge during the showings).

the house we have been in for the past year is rather on the large side. it is an much older home, but very spacious. not to sound ungrateful, but i hate it. it's too big. there is too much to clean. it's too much to cool and in winter you can't get it warm. this summer (which has been ridiculous hot) the second floor where my big kids rooms are have been almost unusable due to the heat. we have lots of unused space in the living and dining areas, so it doesn't have a homey feel. plus, it is a huge chunk of our monthly income.

i was ready to try out rv living, something tim wasn't quite ready for. keeping simplicity and sustainability in mind (both very important to tim and i), we decided on a 2 bedroom/2 bath older home. actually, it was all that was available in the neighborhood where we currently live and wanted to stay. it is two blocks from our current location, so again we don't have far to move (our last move wasn't even off the block, we just moved from one end to the other).

i know you are gasping at putting 7 people into a two bedroom. people, it is possible. luckily, our kids value simplicity. they understand the give and take. the home has a roomy dining area that once enclosed, will bring the bedroom total to three. i'm just thankful for the two bathrooms. we have lived small in the past, but never with two bathrooms!

so, here we go again. i have every hope that we will be here for at least three years. long enough for me to finish the degree that i have been working on since 1992 and to further establish my place in the donut world.