What Started It All

What really lit a fire under us about this whole "move" thing was really a few things in all honestly, but one that really made us sit back, reflect about it, and consider what was best for our family. 

I found a house for sale on the MLS.  Why on earth was I even looking?  Well, I'll be honest.  As much as I love the school that Noah goes to, I can't stand the drive up there every day!  It takes up an hour and 45 minutes of my day, every day, it's smack in the middle of the day which breaks it up in a weird way, if Lilah has napped a little before the drive then she screams in the car, if not then she sleeps, which is great, but then it always seems to affect her later in the day, etc.  There just doesn't seem to be a happy medium to it all, and I also can't help but think about how much time I'm spending in the car when I could be doing so many other things I'd rather do or need to do.

So, the house.  Yes.  I found a 3000+ sq ft house on 8.5+ acres with woods and a pond!  The pictures of the house didn't seem great, but cosmetics are easily fixed.  But oh!  The woods!  The pond!  The land!  The PRICE!!!  Seriously - all of this for quite a bit less than we paid for this house. 

Just like as old adage goes, "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is", this was the same way.  I drove up to it and checked it out with the kids and was excited and disappointed all in one.  I loved the land.  Loved the woods.  Absolutey loved the privacy and how peaceful it was (until we heard the neighbor's donkey bray....that was, um, interesting....and loud....and annoying!).  I even really liked the pond (but also knew Derrick would be disappointed at the size). 

But wow.  There were sooooo many things wrong with the house.  And it was in really poor condition.  But let's start with the obvious....windows. 

Right off the bat you can see some of my concern....why on earth is half of the house buried in soil? 

And I'm not sure you can even tell from this picture, but it wraps around the house that way, all the way over to the front door! 

Um, what?????!!!!!!

Okay, now I realize that whoever built this house must have had a perfectly good reason for doing this, and I see that the house foundation is concrete, but I can't wrap my head around that much house with zero windows.  I don't do well without sunlight. 

The view towards the woods (and the long windy driveway through them) was great!

Another shot of the driveway and then behind the pine tree on the right was some open clearing.

A shot of the pond and thanks to Noah, an idea of scale. 

All in all, while it could be a cool house to fix up and make our own and the land/lot is exactly what we're looking for, the fact that so much of the house was buried in soil and lacked windows was a huge concern for me.  As was the amount of work the house needed (and this was just from seeing the exterior). 

But, it was really a blessing in disguise.  Finding this and reaizing that we really do want to move (even though we really don't want to move, if you know what I mean!) was a good thing.  The idea of being closer to Noah's school and having more of our day back, possibly finding some land that has even a little of what we'd all like, and maybe even getting a house that could be a fixer upper and we could make our own would all be good things.  After all, we like those house projects, right sweetie?  Sweetie?