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Kathryn
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| Posted: June 05 2012 at 2:23pm | IP Logged
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Well, maybe not quite that extreme but we're *considering* moving to a slightly bigger house but a waay bigger yard (well, 1 acre around here is really big). However, we'd be leaving our very comfortable suburban lot with close neighbors and friends and honestly the house we're in now is really much nicer than this other place. We're so torn. We both desire the idea of the larger yard and getting chickens and may be even a goat for the kids (our children, I mean  ) but there wouldn't be a lot of neighbor kids to play with.
There's very limited houses with land/larger lots so we would be settling on the house but when we moved here 11 yrs ago we got a house we loved but sacrificed the land so we're kind of flip-flopping and I guess I'm here looking for others thoughts and opinions. Ohh...and it's not like we'd be out in the boonies...it's still in town and close to everything but not a "suburban" neighborhood. But, we are looking for a change... I've always dreamed about a little bit of rural life, but how will that work in reality? Can you tell I'm so on the fence?!  DD 13 even had us all vote and we all voted "maybe".
For all those that would give this a huge thumbs up...we could actually walk to church (although we're still only a 10 min drive right now).
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Kathryn in TX
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: June 05 2012 at 3:46pm | IP Logged
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Kathryn wrote:
| DD 13 even had us all vote and we all voted "maybe". |
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I had to laugh at this because it sounds just like decisions would happen at my house.
Praying for you!
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Celeste
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ctrivette
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| Posted: June 06 2012 at 1:03am | IP Logged
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Praying for your decision.
I completely get the situation...we are trying to get this big, nice, new, small lot house ready for a (pray for us) fast sale so we can move to a bigger lot, smaller house walking distance to the Catholic high school. And those houses are much older and need more work. But the draw of a big, open yard for chicken, a garden, and a firepit for the big kids on a fall Friday night.....
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Pilgrim
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| Posted: June 06 2012 at 7:18am | IP Logged
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Each move to more yard/land was LOVED by the kids of our family. Having the big yard to play, roam, have animals is a great plus to kids. The not having so many kids to play with is really not the worst thing, as it brings less of a constant influence from society that the neighborhood kids hold out. When I was seventeen and my brothers were all 7,4, and 1 we moved out to the country on 5 acres to get away from a lot of that, and we LOVED it. We would go out galavanting together into the nearby marsh, and fields, and through the back fields over to the river, even just over the land.
As for the animals, our kids have loved having the animals we've acquired in the last couple of years, one of the family favorites has been the goats. They are very fun, friendly, and curious. Having the animals gives the kids responsibilities for other creatures, something under them that needs them, and not just a sibling who they can resent and it turns to sibling rivalry/negativity.
From 7 to 17 years old, we had almost an acre, and it was a very nice sized yard, we appreciated the extra room compared to our smaller yard when I was littler. Oh, and we used to go to daily Mass, sometimes riding our bikes across town, and those are some of the best memories of my childhood. Being closer to church would, AND having a bigger yard be a plus in my mind.
I can understand the hesitation on the more of a fixer-upper house, as we had that when we moved out to the country, but my Mom and I actually used to have fun picking out paints, wallpapers, etc. and putting our mark on our home. It gives everyone in he family a chance to help put your family's mark on a new place.
HTH. Praying for both of you ladies and your families for wisdom in the decision for what is best for you.
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 06 2012 at 8:58am | IP Logged
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We moved from the city (small house, though) to an area like you describe. We LOVE it, in spite of having to replace all of the appliances in our house in the past year
It can be stressful to live in a fixer-upper, but as Pilgrim describes, it can also be fun.
We like our house, but we sacrificed a lot of things on our wishlist (larger kitchen, workshop space for dh, basement, fireplace, etc...) for the lot. It is almost 2 acres and backs up to a creek and nature preserve. It is PERFECT for our 4 boys, truly. There are no other children in our little neighborhood, but we didn't have that before, either.
I will say, it has been HARD downgrading my kitchen. I spend a TON of time there, yk? When we first decided to buy the house, we thought we'd be able to address the kitchen right away, but the appraisal process left us about $8000 worse of than we'd thought, which is about what we thought we'd spend on a kitchen. The trade off was totally worth it, and the house is in all other respects larger, but it probably will be a challenge to downgrade your entire home, though the tradeoff might be completely worthwhile.
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pumpkinmom
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| Posted: June 06 2012 at 9:50am | IP Logged
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 We had decided to do this, but there just isn't anything in our area in our price range. Either everything is too high or the house is just gross and not worth fixing up or we didn't like the land it was on. Not much for sale around us. We did go ahead and got chickens anyway. They usually stay in our yard.
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Aagot
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| Posted: June 06 2012 at 9:52am | IP Logged
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I would go for land over house and neighbors any day. However, one acre may seem gigantic to you right now but it isn't so if you can get bigger, I'd go for that even faster. Preached like the truly land greedy person I am 
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Chris V
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| Posted: June 06 2012 at 9:57am | IP Logged
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We did it! ... But we don't have any grazing animals yet.
We moved from our home of 13 years (pretty much in suburbia) in exchange for a more rural lifestyle. We have a bit over 5 acres and though we do have neighbors, they are on their own plots of land and not near. We talked a lot about what we'd be giving up for our children, but what we would be gaining was so much more!
For us, it came down to how we wanted to live, and the environment we wanted to raise our children in. I don't worry too much about our social life, my children are happy, they are thriving, relationships are being nurtured. We still see friends, I still get together with others, but it's not our focus (but really, it never has been)... And honestly, I am relieved of the outside influences of the neighborhood/suburban life.
We were blessed to even *have* the choice!
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Kathryn
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| Posted: June 06 2012 at 2:03pm | IP Logged
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Thank you all for the replies and prayers and wisdom. You are speaking to where my heart is in so many areas related to the life we really want and the influences I would like to avoid but yet my comfort zone keeps tugging at me. And we are fortunate to live in an area where houses like mine are selling pretty quick although I have been working like a dog for the past 10 days to get it "show" ready. Even if we didn't sell, after 11 years a lot of this stuff needed to be done.
Aagot wrote:
| However, one acre may seem gigantic to you right now but it isn't so if you can get bigger, I'd go for that even faster. Preached like the truly land greedy person I am |
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Funny because I DO ALREADY think it's not big enough!!! However, it's just soo hard to find anything with land around here without going tooo far from DH's job, ballet, scouts and church. I don't want to move so far out I'm then spending more time in the car which is why this place seems like a good compromise.
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: July 02 2012 at 3:43pm | IP Logged
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Chris V wrote:
For us, it came down to how we wanted to live, and the environment we wanted to raise our children in. I don't worry too much about our social life, my children are happy, they are thriving, relationships are being nurtured. We still see friends, I still get together with others, but it's not our focus (but really, it never has been)... And honestly, I am relieved of the outside influences of the neighborhood/suburban life.
We were blessed to even *have* the choice! |
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We are planning a move and can't decide on land or neighborhood either. Chris, your thoughts really spoke to me about leaving the outside influences of suburban life. I know a move to more rural will mean a huge lifestyle change (even if I don't work the land or raise animals), but that might be a good thing. My fears are keeping me from making the plunge ---- what if I need help and there is nobody around (I panic very easily and can't stand blood), what happens when they start driving and working and we live 40-50 minutes from town?, will anybody ever come visit us?, what about friends for the kids?
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Kathryn
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| Posted: July 02 2012 at 5:22pm | IP Logged
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mamaslearning wrote:
We are planning a move and can't decide on land or neighborhood either.
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The place we are moving is still a "neighborhood" but it's acre lots and not a typical suburban neighborhood and a little older so not a lot of kids around. Not sure of the ages of your children but since my 2 big kids are so active in Scouts and ballet already we just couldn't justify moving too far away from these activities that are such a positive influence in their life right now. May be there's a similar compromise that you don't have to be soooo far out to not have any neighbors but not in a typical suburban neighborhood where the neighbors are right on top of each other. Just food for thought. Sounds like we are in such a similar situation and how ironic that both hubby's were in car wreck next day after house going for sale!! WEIRD, huh?
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Kathryn in TX
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