Why a House Right Now

     I don't have a lot of pictures of our house yet because there was work that needed to be done on it and I was still trying to decide on decorating ideas for various rooms.  This week I'm finishing unpacking-- we only have a few more boxes laying around-- and putting decorations up on the walls, so I'll take pictures near the end of this week and post them next time.

     Regarding the title of this post: a month or so ago my sister and I were talking and she was surprised that we were looking for a house, because the last she heard I was happy with our apartment and with apartment-living in general.  So I thought I'd explain what changed.

     A few months ago Mc interviewed for a job in San Francisco.  The job didn't work out, and I had recently discovered a few reasons why I didn't want to move to Texas.  Mc and I like this area, and so when the SF job didn't work out I asked him if he wanted to stay at Amazon, and he told me that his job had gotten much better recently and he wants to be there for a while.  So then I said, "Okay, we're going to be here for a long time.  What do we want to do?"

     The problem that we had been dealing with for quite some time was that Mc's commute was an hour-and-a-half each way.  He barely had time to see the kids before it was time for them to go to bed.  He didn't want to do that anymore, and so the only option was to move closer to work.

     The Seattle area is in the same situation as the SF Bay Area: it's cheaper to buy a house and pay a monthly mortgage than it is to rent a 3-bedroom apartment, and renting a 3-bedroom apartment any closer to Seattle was not an option-- it's too much money for too little apartment.  I still do like the sense of community that an apartment complex can have, and ours was very good.  But I realized that living in an apartment feels too temporary for me, like we're still not settled and we're still mobile.  One of our friends jokingly called us nomads, and that's really what it feels like.  The kids are school-age now and so I want to settle down and to feel like we're settled down, and an apartment will never offer me that feeling.  Right now the housing market is still somewhat affordable on a single salary, and at least for a few more years the value of the houses will continue to increase; so if we were going to buy a house then now was the time to do it.

     I began the house hunting process right away.  First I looked at houses on Bainbridge Island across the water from Seattle and then quickly realized they are way too expensive.  So then we looked into buying a plot of land on BBI and building our own house, but the lenders require a lot more money down because that's a riskier investment for them, and so that's not an option for us right now (but maybe someday).  So the other option was to look on the mainland closer to Seattle.

     On my first day of looking at houses in this area I found a house I wanted.  Except for a small hiccup at the very end of the process, it went very quickly and very smoothly, and within a month after first contacting our realtor we had our house!

     I am very happy with the house.  We've come across a few issues that needed to be addressed, and I'll share those pictures next time as well.  But overall I'm happy, and I think the kids will like it, too.  They're coming back in about a week and it'll be great to see them and for them to see our new home.  Mc and I both miss them a lot, and in Skyping with them we can tell that they miss us, too.  I'm looking forward to being together as a family again and to having a "settled" outlook on life.  And in reality I know we'll probably move again at least one more time in our lifetime, but for now I can start planting some roots and making this area my home.  :)