Decisions Decisions

Have you ever thought at one point in time, "I have all the time in the world to prepare for this" and it turned out that time flew a bit faster than you were ready for? Thus leaving you at a fork in the road? We all face these moments in life and how we handle them is one of the most difficult times, for me at least. See, I'm a classic over-thinker. I have faith that God will provide me with what I need at the right time, however, my faith is not nearly as strong as it should be. I have a difficult time looking at the fork and saying "ok...show me the right way".

This Christmas season, Noah and I came to the hard realization that we are quickly outgrowing our townhome. This is part of the reason for all the purging and organizing I've been doing for my resolution. When we bought this house in November 2007, we did not expect to be here for more than 5 years. Oh, our innocence of that time is almost endearing. However, 5 years later, we are in no place to move...especially with no idea what congress will do with taxes. (That was a fun pay check change, wasn't it?)

That being said, we are starting to look at homes, to get a feel for the market and the reality of our situation. Needless to say, the process hasn't gotten easier or clearer in the past 5 years. So let me give you our fork in the road.

Noah and I would LOVE to find a lot around an acre and build our dream house. Having moved into a home, in which the previous owners did NOTHING to better the home, we realize that we have very specific wants for our next home. I need to have a kitchen island, laundry room (not closet), 4 bedrooms, a room on the first floor that has a bathroom, and a layout that doesn't have the stairs at the very front door. (I've always hated that look. You walk in and immediately have stairs in your face.) What better way to get those taken care of than to build what you want. However, the other side of this, is that we have always wanted Ayden to go to Pequea Valley. This isn't the major issue but finding affordable land in Pequea is very difficult- especially when you want to use your own house plans. AND, we have to find something in Pequea that fits Noah's commute to TE. Not nearly as easy as one would think. We may have to drop the standard of Pequea to get the dream home.

All that being said, Noah and I have started looking at plans and have differing ideas of our "dream" home. So I have two pictures below. One is Noah's preference and one is mine. We obviously like both plans, or rather parts of each plan, but we have different preferences. So this is where you, as readers, come in. I want to know what you think of each plan. Maybe you've lived in a home with the "open to below" feature and have strong feelings about it. Or maybe you have a second floor laundry and love/hate it. Either way, I want to know what you like and dislike about each plan. Please give me your opinions on the following plans. (Both plans are "changeable" but within limits. We can add windows, islands, and modify within reason but completely changing major structural items is not possible unless we change the plans and go with a different builder.)

The "Ethan" plan- available changes: add fireplace to family room, change half bath to full bath, add second sink in upstairs "kids" bathroom

The "Lincoln" Plan- available changes: add a kitchen island, change half bath to full bath, add fireplace between great room windows.

Now this is the hard realization we may need to make. These house plans are anywhere between 2700 and 3000 square feet. That is a big house for our current family. Not to mention, the price of these plans are a bit more than I currently feel comfortable taking on- especially if we add any features as many builders offer. So, this leads me to the other prongs in our forked road.

Maybe we realize that we can't afford to build on a private lot and have to buy a current home and "fix" it to be exactly what we want. That, at this moment, makes me feel a little more comfortable, financially speaking. There are a few options but nothing that stands out as "the best option" at this time. We have a better chance of finding something in Pequea Valley School District if we do this but it means that we may have to budge on those items that we really want in our "dream home".

Now, this is where things get really complicated. My father-in-law brought up a very good point yesterday. That we may not be able to do everything at once. See, Noah and I have discussed expanding our family within the next year and a half. We have the interesting dilemma of do we expand or do the house. We may not be able to do both at the same time. And who would want to? I'm not sure I want to build/buy a home AND worry about providing for another child all at the same exact moment. Sounds stressful. Possible but nothing something I would necessarily do to myself willingly.

So aside from comments about the house plans, please feel free to provide me with words of wisdom about our situation. By no means, are we in a rush for anything but it is a lingering thought in the back of our minds. We know that at some point we will need to make the decision. Not knowing when that time will be, we are leaving it to God to let us know. I just always feel the need to know the possibilities.