Monday, January 04, 2010

Moving?

I've posted before about our desire to move to a more urban location. It's something I've wanted for years. We lived downtown when Davan was born and I really loved it. I want to be close to Do Jump and Anthony's work and OMSI and everything, really. I want to be able to ride easily to our most frequented locations. I'd hoped to put the house on the market after the holidays.

Why did we end up in the suburbs if I'm an urban type girl and Anthony works downtown? Well, it's money, baby. Here in Portland, it's really expensive to live in close. Even the suburbs are very inflated from other areas, but it's much worse in close. Anthony really wanted a garage for his project car. We both wanted more space. Anthony's family lives in Gresham. Lots of reasons, really.

Now, though, a few things have changed. Anthony no longer has a project car. His focus is more on bikes. We don't use our whole house. Really. We've got a spare room, which is nice for company, but we don't get company all that much, really. We've got a sitting room that is mostly wasted space. We can definitely go smaller. The years of living in a house have proven to Anthony that we are not yard people. We're happy to go outside and enjoy parks and wild spaces. No one in our family likes maintaining the yard. And it shows.

Because of all this, it makes sense for us to get a small two bedroom condo in Portland, closer to downtown. We've been thinking that we can sell our three bedroom, two bath house in a nice suburban location and get a small, two bedroom, one bath condo in a range with a radius of about five miles in inner Portland as a fairly even trade.

We'll, I've had to face some hard facts. It's just not true. Our house is worth less than we thought and, yes, I'd accounted for the fact that the boom is over. Condos are more than we were hoping. Let's just say we had a dollar amount in mind. We'll call it $X. Well, take $X-1/4X and you have the value of our house. Then take $X+1/4X and you have a place that we might be able to make work (although, even then, space for the bikes might be an issue) in our target location.

We've even talked about renting instead of buying. If the rent was enough less, we could save and invest the difference and still be okay for retirement. However, even rentals appear to be more than we can afford. Sad, don't you think?

Plus, moving puts us behind in getting our house paid off (if we opt for buying again), even if we do an across the board trade, really, just due to expense and financing and that's a big goal of Anthony's.

So, it comes down to this. We're probably stuck here. It's not that I don't like our house. I do. I even like having the yard, if someone else were to take care of it, please. Our neighborhood isn't bad. But the sad fact is that we have to do a lot of driving from here. Our latest budget in regards to gas is kind of tight. In order to feel comfortable with all the driving we have to do, I think we have to up that amount. And I have to face facts with yard work. And face that we're a car dependent family when I don't want to be.

Somehow, I need to get to the point that I'm okay with it. And I'm not devastated. But I am disappointed. Sigh.

One more thing, while I'm being brutally honest with myself. I'd hoped that a move would mean new friendship opportunities for both Davan and I. Yeah.

7 comments:

  1. Moving sucks anyway.
    Seriously.

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  2. Hey you! I just came across your blog this morning and I'd love to follow, hope that's cool! My husband and I are planning a move to Portland in the next few months. We're leaving California in hopes of finding a more eclectic city and more of a community based environment to raise our four boys in. Anyway, I found your post to be quite interesting. Hope we can connect sometime.
    Blessings. archnasharma.blogspot.com

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  3. Of course it's okay to follow. I love having readers and comments. :) Good luck with your move up to the area. Are you homeschoolers?

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  4. Cool! Indeed, we are home-schooling. And your little one? In school? At home? What inspired you to blog?

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  5. Yes, we're homeschoolers. Davan is 11 and has always homeschooled.

    I started blogging mostly just because I like to write. At first, the blog was about homeschooling and food and such. Then we went through a journey trying to adopt and it was mostly about that. I've taken breaks here and there and come back to it when I've felt motivated about something. The most recent thing that brought me back was blogging about a 3 week bike trip we did this summer.

    I see from your blog that you're new to blogging. What motivated you to start?

    I'm sure you know this, but you'll find a huge homeschool community here in the Portland area. If you have any questions about email groups to join to learn about what's going on around here homeschool-wise, just let me know.

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  6. Is Davan a little girl? Sorry I've never heard the name.

    I started blogging in order to continue writing, as well. I was in a writers' group until our fourth was born and I can't seem to make time to join the group again so, I'm blogging. Yes, this is brand new to me and I'm glad that I came across your words. A writing, a home-schooling, and a hand-made creative lifestyle connection is what I was hoping to gain.

    We're hoping to make it out to Portland by spring and I would love to start connecting with groups. Do pass along the info. that you know. That would be great! Thanks for your support!

    Hope to read and connect with you soon. Hey, maybe you already know of her, but Hip Mountain Mama presented a inspiring idea recently. I blogged about it this morning, do check it out!

    Blessings.

    our email address is aarongrace14@yahoo.com
    and archnasharma.blogspot.com
    keep in touch!

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  7. loved your recent blogs. love you.
    love Davan. love Anthony.

    You mom got vertigo again. resting well now.

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