Odd and Ends

It has become glaringly obvious that we cannot move. Well, we can, but where we could afford to move to is not desirable by any stretch of the imagination. It's disgusting the way home prices have soared in just the past few months.

My best friend's little sister signed a contract on a new home back in February. Wil and I visited the same builder over the weekend, and the exact same house now goes for seventy thousand more. Seventy thousand! What the hell is that all about?!

So, we can stay right here and enjoy our affordable mortgage and our way too small house, or we can move into something that's falling apart and a little bit bigger and pay nearly three times as much. Forget new construction, that's reserved for the yuppies driving the convertible BMW's.

We've done some thinking about this though, and we've realize that there's a lot to this house that we actually like. It's on a great piece of property in a great area that's only going to continue to get bigger as town makes it's way towards us. We don't flood, not even after two hurricanes, and there are a lot of memories in this house. This is the place my nephew came home to after his birth and where he took his first steps. The tile floor was laid by my own hands. It's not perfect, but every little defect in the workmanship tells a story about friendship. How many friends will come over on their day off and help you lay a floor? This is where Jonas has always called home, and where his father and I have spent our entire relationship.

The yard out there is where Wil and I have sat on so many nights, star-gazing, playing drums, and just, well, being. I can't imagine just handing all of this over to some stranger who will have no idea of the significance the little things hold.

So we're going to re-finance, take out some of the equity we've built up, and use it to create an addition. Once we're done, we'll have the third bedroom that we so desperately need, and we'll have a new living room. We might even have a new bathroom, or at least an upgraded one, and a laundry room. And even after doing all of this, our loan will only be about half of what we'd finance in order to move into something else, and did I mention that we get to keep our memories?

Wil's car is broken this week. It seems like just as soon as we get one thing accomplished, something else goes awry. Hopefully we'll be able to get it fixed this week while he's on-call and has the work van. I don't think it's anything major. Probably just a hose. At worst, it's the radiator. But I'm no mechanic. I'll leave the figuring out to the pros. So far, it's been a really good car to us, considering that it's got an obscene number of miles on it.

We did get shingles delivered. As soon as Brian and Wendy have the time, we'll have a new roof. I sort of feel bad putting a new roof on the house when I know that in the next year or so, when we begin our addition, half of it will most likely be ripped right back off. But at the same time, I can't see leaving it tarped through another hurricane season. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I haven't lost any more weight this week. I'm still hovering right around 166, but that's ok with me. I've been a little more slack on my diet, enjoying a few things I normally wouldn't indulge in. It was mother's day, I had an excuse, right? I'll get back on it this week though.

Tonight's dinner will be shish-kebobs with lots of veggies, over a bed of wild rice. Yum.

Anyway, little man is awake and ready to roll.