The Decision

Well, we have a counter offer that we are going to accept, but it's not on the first house we offered on. On that one, we really couldn't come to an agreement on price, and our second choice had some very strong things in its favor, so we went with that. The house we are getting is older than the first, it's the same age as me, 38! Newer house is 12. The roof and furnace in "old" house are newer than the ones on "new" house though. So if you're interested in why we made the choice we did, here's my breakdown:

1. New house would be a similar mortgage as we have now, once you add in taxes and all. With a raise, we could handle it...BUT old house is going to be about $700/mo LESS than what we are paying now. Added to the raise, my brain is thinking, "okay, there are all of the lessons we struggle to find money for. There are the trips to see our family that we have to scrape together. There is our anniversary trip to Europe, saving for college, etc." You get the idea. A smaller mortgage, even with the few improvements that need to be made to the home, will give us so much more breathing room and I won't feel like I have to stretch for every single thing we want to do. Plus, this gives me a lot more breathing room to go back to grad school, which is something I've really been wanting to do.
2. We didn't visit the schools for "new" house, but we did for "old" house, and we loved it. Both the elementary and middle schools are 5 star schools (vs. 4 at "new" house), high schools are 4 star in both areas. What really made the difference though is that when we visited, the school was clean, the staff was friendly, the kids were happy, there was learning going on. Besides, it's within walking distance, it has a very "neighborhood" feel to it...we just feel like it's going to be a great school fit for our family.
3. Commute distance is the same for both homes, but new home is on 2 lane roads most of the way, while old home is mostly interstate.
4. Church distance is also a big factor. New home is 33 miles to the church building it is assigned to (although there are other churches closer), old home is 4 miles. If you're just going on Sundays, that is one thing, but we are going to have kids in YW before too long, and seminary not long after that. A 4 mile drive in a Michigan winter sounds so much better than a 33 mile one!
5. The house itself. Both houses are big enough (twice the size of current house, nearly). It gives me the formal rooms I've been looking for, plus an extra bedroom and half bath. But "old" house also gives us a couple of extra rooms I'd like (a second master bedroom/bath), office, play room - whereas "new" house really doesn't have a space for a play room - we'd just have to lay down carpet remnants for now in the basement and call it good. "Old" house does need some updates - mostly cosmetic things. Paint, I am good at by now. Fixtures, do-able. A new front door because this one is ugly, also do-able. The big thing is a kitchen, it really needs some design help and updating. But a lot of the work we could do ourselves, and when we priced it out, we're still going to be paying less than we would for the other house. The flooring in "old" house is fine (brand new carpet and existing hardwood that just needs some buffing up). Both houses have nice big backyards with full grown trees and "woods" for the kids to play in. The neighborhood for "new" house is more prestigious I guess you'd say, but "old" house neighborhood is fine. No trashy yards, everyone mows and plants flowers and keeps things up. No broken down cars in driveways or anything like that. It's a nice neighborhood vs. a very nice neighborhood.

All in all, it's a good fit for us.

I took a bunch of pictures, but Doug has the camera with him in Pittsburgh. When he gets home today I'll post them. I'd rather do that than send the MLS link, because I really don't want the address published to my blog.