downsizing for a new reality

       If anyone reads this blog at all (*crickets*) they would know that in February of last year we rented our house out and went to stay with relatives due to my husband's job change.  We were able to move back into our house in November of last year, and while still struggling, we are getting by.  Thankfully he enjoys his new job, and they've sent him to training, and he is working his way up which also involves raising his pay to close to what he was making before the job change. This is all great news for us of course. After moving back into our house we have been left with making evaluations of what we have enjoyed and disliked about living here and living with relatives. We have come to the conclusion that while thankful, we didn't care for living in someone else's house. It was crowded, difficult for everyone, and we were all relieved to get out of that situation. However the relief was short lived after coming back to our house. We had to look at weather we actually love our house or love having our own place. As any family would tell you, your own home is an important part of life, but does it make that much of a difference where that home is? If it's owning your own house or renting an apartment, does the details of the home make a difference? 

       I've been reading a lot about people who have given up owning their home and all the costs and labor that comes along with it, for renting. There is a guy who write a blog about his family's journey after giving up their house for apartment living (http://www.rethinkingthedream.com, great blog, well written, not like this crazy un-organized ranting.) We really see this as something we would be happy per suing. By this point you may be thinking that we are crazy. Almost everyone in our lives thinks this is crazy, (they pretty much think we are crazy anyway, but that could be an entire blog entry on it's own.) What do you do when you don't like your neighborhood (not my neighbors, I love a couple of my neighbors...), you don't like making home repairs, you don't have extra money to repair anything anyway, your husband hates yard work, you hate the outdoors*, etc. It seems awfully logical to us. We could be closer to his job and save on gas, we could be in an area where I'm not afraid to take my daughter on walks down the street (I'm not so much afraid of the people, mostly the neighborhood dogs). It has come to the point where home ownership has caused far more stress than joy in our lives, and that should be the sign of it being time to move on. 

        Of course this whole issue comes with a much larger LARGER problem that is effecting a lot of people right now... we have the wonderful job of selling a house we no longer like to someone in a very down housing market. I'm far too honest of a person and will be the first to tell anyone why buying a house is a foolish thing to do, so that leaves me as the sales person out. We have hired a real estate agent, our poor agent... I really like her personality, she's friendly, I just feel terrible because this is her job. From what I've heard she's good at her job, but it has to be rough right now. I pretty much feel bad for most people who sell things for a living, some people are good at it and do well, I'm just so bad at it that they get sympathy from me. 

       For now I will document our selling, searching, moving, and living journey here. I pray that it doesn't take years. I have a sinking feeling that it will not be at all easy. Hopefully it will be worth it. Maybe one day if anyone ever reads this blog, they can tell me why they think we are crazy also. 

     * We don't hate the outdoors completely, I am terribly afraid of most bugs, dirt, tetanus, snakes, things that fly, things that buzz, the sun, skin cancer, sex offenders, all of our neighbors have large scary dogs that they don't treat very well and attack other neighbors, we don't have a fenced in yard... See why I'm not a good sales person?

Ack!!!

     We have lived in our current house for almost 4 years. It is an old house, built in 1947. Three nice sized bedrooms that range from large to office sized, and one tiny bathroom. This living room is considerably smaller than the one I had in our previous apartment. The kitchen is old, but functional... in reality, who couldn't use more counter and storage space? If you've never had to seriously ponder the amount of stuff one family collects in the time span of four years, you are pretty lucky.
     My husband wants to take a new career path, a completely different, starting with no experience, much lower paying career change. Okay so, he's wanted to do it for a long time but is now sort of being thrown into it considering that his current place of employment is closing. Sucky economy. However, looking at it from a positive point of view, he will probably be extremely happy finding something much less stressful.
   Both of these ideas come together in the fact that less money = less money to pay things, like mortgages, rising electricity bills, paper towels, and all those things we enjoy having around here.  We should look at this situation as being extremely lucky people. When we were first married, we turned a large enclosure added on to his parents house into a studio apartment of sorts. It worked out pretty well for us then.  Now considering going back there with 5 years of possessions and an 18 month old seems completely insane right?  It is, it really is. His parents are sweet people who are looking forward to having their granddaughter around. I keep telling myself that it's temporary, and it won't be absolutely terrible. We will have the "studio" area for a living/dining area, and a bedroom. The worst part will be getting rid of 85% of everything we own. Mostly because I'm not even sure what to do with any of it. I'm thinking about donating it to our Relay for Life Rummage sale at the end of February. I should turn my misfortune into something that could really help others shouldn't I? I have great friends who I am hoping to have renting my house for at least the next year, unless we decide instead to sell.  After reading articles and blogs online it really isn't an uncommon subject in this day and age. The economy really has been that bad. There are a lot of people way more worse off than us. We should consider ourselves lucky lucky lucky to have this opportunity to regroup and save and start again in the future. So after allowing myself one whole day to cry and be totally silly about the whole thing, I'm only going to look at this as us being completely lucky from now on. My Sweet Pea will have a fenced in backyard to play in and a roof over her head with several people who love her. I would give anything to live with my grandma that's for sure. Sometimes when it seems like life is being crappy, it really is showing you that life is good, just in a different way than you thought.
    Now to decorate and design my "pied-à-terre" if you will. I need some serious space saving design ideas.