Love the House You're In

I've lived in a lot of homes.  If you count college, I've lived in 14 different places in 34 years.  That's a lot of boxes.  But we've lived in our current house since October of 2007, which makes this my longest running continuous streak.  So naturally, I'm ready to move.  Well, sort of.  Let's say I like the idea of moving.  I know sibcy.com better than most people know their own Facebook page.  I know what houses are selling for and I know what we could get in different parts of the city.  It's become a hobby of mine to browse listings just to see what is out there.  

The spring after we moved in.  After we redid the landscaping, but before we replaced the roof...ourselves :).

This restless feeling, I know, comes from my history of moving and change and also from my bad habit of jumping into things, sometimes too quickly.  We were very lucky when we purchased our current home.  We knew nothing about the area and trusted our realtor that we were making a good decision.  Turns out we did and we made a great investment.  But that doesn't mean that this is our "forever home," if that is even really a thing.  SO many of my close friends have moved over the past few years and I think that fuels the fire too.  But I think I've finally come to the realization that I need to stop, slow down and learn to love this house, because it's pretty great.

Move in day

There are three major concerns I have with our current home.  We don't have the ever so HGTV popular "open floor plan."  It's not completely closed off, but being in the kitchen is tricky with the little ones.  We are also on a somewhat busy street, which makes me nervous as we walk to our car.  And while we have amazing neighbors, there are no little kids around for ours to play with.  These are not complete deal breakers, but if I'm being picky, there ya go.  As I pondered these concerns the other night, I realized that there are WAY more pros about our house than cons.  And to help convince myself that we are A-okay here for awhile....I've come up with a list.

1. This place has our hearts.  We got engaged in the living room.  We brought our babies home here.  We now have 8 plus years of memories within these walls, which is a pretty special thing.

2. It's not too big, AKA unmanageable.  We struggle to keep this house clean and organized, so why would a bigger one be any easier?  More places to hoard stuff is what I'm telling myself.  

3. We have a great setup in our back yard.  Our covered patio will be hard to replace (within budget) and the fenced in yard is great for Ollie and the kids.

4. We've spent the past two years finishing our basement and it's finally, almost, pretty much done.  Did I mention finally?  It's a great space and helps out with not having the upstairs open.

5. I love our kids' bedrooms.  I know we could paint walls and decorate the same way in a new house, but their rooms are my favorite in the house and I'm not ready to let go of them yet.

6. I love our location 75% of the time.  We are close to everything....except our family and most friends.  But they are mostly within 30 minutes, which is very doable (unless it's a Friday afternoon). We are completely undecided on where we would want to live next and it's partly because we really do love this area.  I'm finally feeling more connected through the gym and Aiden's school and that will only improve.  So we'll see if we decide to stay in the bluegrass for good.

Everyone seems to want bigger and better.  I wouldn't mind a little bigger, but I am going to commit  to spending these upcoming months just feeling settled.  One of my favorite blogs is House Tweaking.  Their family has a great story about downsizing and she really makes me think about what is best for our family.  I have a list of small projects I'd like to do around here to freshen things up, and I'm hoping that will cure my restlessness.  The truth is, Aiden won't start Kindergarten for two and a half more years, so we have time.  And we have more than we need and more than I ever thought I would have.  Quality over quantity is such a true statement.  And the quality we have in this home is about as good as it gets.