Little updates, little updates

We had a fun night a couple nights ago. Woke up at 3am to the sound of the house practically moving; looked outside and saw our deck table and umbrella lift up and nearly blow over the deck railing. Shed doors were flapping, toys flying around the yard. We hear the sirens. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I grew up with the understanding that when a siren goes off in Iowa, it means TORNADO. I freaked. We grabbed all 3 sleeping kids and flew down the stairs to the basement. Upon turning on the weather channel, we find that no, there are no tornadoes. Just a severe thunderstorm warning and straight line winds. Lovely. Now we had 3 awake children at 3am to put back to bed. Awesome. Misuse of sirens? I think so.

I tried Skype last night and talked to my dear friend Bridget for nearly 3 hours. Love, love, love Skype.

Bought plane tickets to PORTLAND for Mike and I to attend another pair of dear friends' wedding in October. As much as my parents are dragging their feet on commiting to taking care of our 2 toddlers while we are away, we thought this would be a nice, short trip as an entry into us traveling a bit and getting away from the kids occasionally. Hopefully Gav will be a good traveler, but even so, having 2 adults to 1 child will feel like Eden compared to some days with 3 :)

We've been getting busy thinking, working, preparing, and pondering our home situation. We got a realtor, cleaned out our basement, drew up a plan for getting a storage unit and arranging the house for whenever the time comes to "show" it, and have gone to 2 home showings. We also talked to our contractor again and realize that there are fewer things that need to be done to this house if we do decide to stay for several more years. But he planted a seed and the ball is rolling and we are thinking. Our original plan to move in 4-5 yrs would mean Jack & Benj would potentially have to switch elementary schools after having already started school and made friends; not something I loved doing when I was young and would prefer to avoid doing to them if possible. There's no gurantee we'd find a house we love in the same school district. So maybe a 1-2 yr moving time frame isn't so bad after all. We're keeping our options open and continue to get our current house "ready" in the event we find a house we love much sooner than later and decide to list this one at the drop of a hat. I've adjusted more to the idea now, but am still not ready to leave this incredible neighborhood.

While I can wrap my head around the idea of a different house, I'm having the biggest problem with the idea of a new neighborhood. Partly because I love our current hood so much, and partly because I have no idea how we'll find a new neighborhood that fits all of our "want" list. We want a house surrounded with trees and green space, with character. For example, here are some photos of the two houses we toured:

House#1:



Um, who could say no to this gorgeous brick in an old neighborhood FULL of the very definition of character? Sadly, we could. Looks great in these two photos, and it's relatively well kept-up considering it was built in 1927. But the kitchen was abysmal. Tiny. Not suited for a growing family of 5. The bedrooms had what I would consider 1/8 closets. Granted, we have boys-- they don't need walk-ins, but *some* space for clothes would be nice. No yard for young kids to play in. On a busy street--right off the interstate. Just not great for a family.

So, then we have...

House #2:





Uh, could this BE any more like the dream house in my imagination?? Windows, windows, windows. HUGE screened in porch with trek flooring, new RED (!!) vinyl siding (did I mention I want to paint our current house red?), backs up onto a PARK, big OPEN floor plan (exactly what I want), a newly tiled mud room and renovated kitchen. It was only slightly newer than the last house, built in 1931. I was pretty sure this might be the one. But alas, no. To start it's in a less-than favorable school district. The "2" car garage would not fit our minivan, and it's in a dingy, underground area with no inside stairway to the house (think carrying 3 kids and groceries in the winter). Basement is abysmal, gets water every time it rains. Not much bigger than our current house, and space is one thing we will need as the boys become teens. On the up side, in this particular neighborhood no one cares nearly as much about yard maintenance as they do in West Des Moines, which is great. I'm not into lawn chemicals and have no special touch with landscaping, so a little leniency in this area would be welcome. Still, all in all, not a great house for *young* kids. Which we have. Many of them. Tear. Tear, tear.

So, the more we see in our "dream" neighborhoods, the more we realize they aren't good fits for us. We don't have time to upkeep an old house. We really, really don't. We like the idea of these houses, but the reality for us right now is not congruent with living in one. So it's back to the suburbs. And in the suburbs, we still want trees, but all the rich people already have the trees. The woodsy neighborhoods are out of our price range, and the houses that are in it are the type where if you come home at night and blink, you might miss your own driveway. Still, newer homes mean fewer weekends spent doing home improvement and more time with the kids. They mean bigger, fenced in yards for kids to play, and bigger houses in our price range that give us much-needed space. And, I suppose, it means picking out our OWN trees to plant.

Still, now we're looking at houses like these:


or worse, these:



I'm starting to accept it. Still, I can't seem to get that Weeds song out of my head when we look at houses...

"Little boxes
on the hillside
little boxes made of ticky tacky...
and they're all made out of ticky tacky
and they all look
just the same."