The Periphery of the Mind

I've talked about moving pretty much since I moved to Rogers. Our house is nice, but it's small and the neighborhood is crowded. To be blunt, I'd rather we moved somewhere in Lowell or Fayetteville (I don't like Springdale, sorry Peltablo). So most of my talk has been just me talking. And I think I'd finally realized that the Professor wasn't wanting to move, and I began to make limited peace with the Rogers house. In January of this year I decided it was time to start aggressively saving money to move. Not this year, or next, but in January of 2011. By then we'd have almost no debt beyond our mortgage, and have a nice chunk of savings. And, even more importantly, she'd be ready to move too.

But then something kind of weird happened.

The Professor's mother, Elaine, has a nice big house on a nice big lot in a nice neighborhood in Bentonville. Elaine's mother, Velma, has a house adjacent to hers. And when Velma is done with the house (to put it tactfully), the Professor's sister and niece and nephew will likely inherit it. And Elaine has been having problems taking care of Velma while running her day care. So why is this relevant?

Directly across the street from Elaine's house is an older house from the 70's for sale. It needs a lot of cosmetic work, yard work, and so on. It's a repo house that the bank says they spent $41,000 fixing up; among the fixes were improperly installed carpet and mismatched bathroom fixtures. And then there's more substantial work, like fixing a collapsing privacy wall and replacing old inefficient windows. But it's across from the Professor's family, so that's why we want it....

Did I forget to mention that there's an inground pool?

Or a 150' outbuilding wired for electricity and cable?

Or that it has two fireplaces (one wood, one gas) and a wood burning stove?

Or that it has separate rooms already set up for an indoor greenhouse, an aviary, and a paint studio?

Or that it has a 600' basement that could serve as my gym/workshop?

Or that it's big enough to actually have "wings" and is wired with an in-house intercom system?

The place needs work, no doubt about it. But it's work we've done before and can do again. The place is expensive, and with increases in utility costs its almost frighteningly so. But we can afford it, not get behind with paying off our existing debts, and be even better off next year. It adds to our commute times, and I really hate the commute. But it only adds a few minutes, and the Professor could car pool with her sister and we'd be commuting less if we had kids and put them in Elaine's daycare. A couple of people have died in that house, and subsequent owners have had a string of bad luck. But we can get a young priest and an old priest!

Seriously though, we're fixing our current house (it needed it anyway) and hopefully listing in a couple of weeks. Once listed, we're making an offer.

This whole scenario feels different. Even if we don't get this house (and that's very possible), something's changed. I'm not ready to leave the Rogers house, we are.

Labels: moving