and the journey continues...

wow! i know, i start a lot of blogs with either the word 'wow' or 'whew', but i never cease to be amazed by how things work out & how my mindset changes day by day...
as you know, mike and i took jobs in memphis and have been looking for a house in lancaster. yes, lancaster, even though we're working in memphis--our families are there, are lives are there, it is HOME & no, you won't talk us out of it. anyways, we've spent many an afternoon driving around looking at houses--it seemed like at one time everything was for sale in lancaster & now? not so much...
anyways--i was talking to a co-worker the other day & she mentioned a house to me that i hadn't thought about yet. it's a little smaller than we were looking for & to be honest i initially rejected it, but it kept coming back to my mind so after a week i asked mike to go look at it (i've been in it before). yes, it's smaller than planned, but after a lot of thought and reflection and talking we think we're going to go for it. we've decided that we'd rather live below our means for a few years than toe the line of our budget & not feel like we are living comfortably. are we making a mistake? who knows...maybe so, but it's ours to make. we're both feeling very excited about the possibility of owning our own home & the house is actually very cute. it has a 2 year old roof, brand new furnace, hard wood floors....those are positive things for 1st time homeowners!
will we grow out of it? sure we will--it's our starter house--one that we intend on living in for 5 or 10 years, not forever. is it perfect? nope, sure not...the laundry is still in the basement (a battle i've been fighting and hating for the last 3 years), the garage isn't perfect, the basement is damp, the yard is small, the kitchen's a little funky, and it is not a mansion. however, in the long run, when we think about the debt we would have purchasing this house & the debt we would acquire purchasing other homes in lancaster, we still feel like we're making the right decision for us. when we take that leap and spend 'real' money on a house (way more than we're spending now) we want it to be our dream house--not a house that we spent too much on in the first place and are then stuck with.
this house gives us the opportunity to try out being homeowners--make small repairs and improvements (and mistakes), while at the same time squirrling away money into savings so that when we're ready we can buy or build our desired home. this is a move that makes us feel safe, because quite frankly we're not ready to be extreme risktakers and buy a house that's going to press our budget month in and month out. we have to also consider other factors--like we're bringing a baby into this world & we want to make sure that we can comfortably provide for that child (and future children) no matter what. if that means a small house, than so be it...this house can pretty comfortably shelter 2-3 kiddos, and by that time we'll be ready to make a bigger leap in life...

why'd i share all of this on a public blog?...partly so i could sort it all out in my own head, but also partly because i know you'll all have questions and opinions. not that you certainly can't ask, but some questions are hard to ask like, 'why on earth would they buy that small house?'...and now you know! we are certain that many of you that love us will have opinions & suggestions about what we should do and how we should do it...we welcome them all because maybe you'll have thought of something that we haven't...however, as in your own lives sometimes we'll listen & sometimes we won't. we'll make mistakes--we know that. we'll also grow together and be better people and a better couple (soon to be family) for it. love to you all for your prayers and encouragement as we embark on this journey...we invite you over to our new home soon (that is, after the loan goes through, we repaint & recarpet a couple rooms, we pack up this rental house & unpack at the new house....)
yuck...i just remembered...i hate moving! oh, well...we invite you all on painting, cleaning & moving days then!

love and hugs, jenn