I have to say, I’ve got a LOT going on right now. I mean it’s the typical 2 small kids and a 40 hour/week job… but then throw in a big life-impacting decision and I’m a bit overwhelmed. NO, the decision is not about Kid #3. That decision has been made. And I have a no-return policy on the stuff I’ve craigslisted… 🙂 The decision is whether or not to move in the next 2 years (or I need to find a new job), and I start to feel like I can’t keep up.

I think it would be one thing if we felt assured that we had enough equity in this house. But buying a house in July of 2005, was a really good deal for the people who sold us this house! Although at the time, we thought we’d stay. We didn’t know a lot about the community. In our excitement, neither of us realized we bought probably the nicest house in the neighborhood. We expected the neighborhood to turn over some more to a younger demographic. But the housing market changed and people weren’t able to move out.

And now that we’ve been in this house for 5 years, I have to admit that I’m kind of attached. We have some really great friends in the area and we’ve found a church we like. Our kids have good daycare and preschool experiences. So far we have been impressed with the school Maria will be attending next year. (zoinks! Kindergarten!)

BUT there are good reasons to move too. Like the fact that my job will be moving in 2014. My commute will change from a 25 minute busride to a 45+ minute CAR ride. That’s a lot! Especially since we have worked hard to keep the kids’ days around 9 hours in daycare for the last 5 years. And I actually like this job and company I work for. We could potentially get the kids in a better school district. One that has been near the top in the state since Chad was in high school. It would get us closer to many other friends and Chad’s parents (although further from mine)

It’s a lot to think about. I’m kind of a planner. I like to know what is going to happen. You can imagine the stress of that first week for me. It felt personal to me. But it isn’t. My initial reaction was “We have to move” But slowly it sunk in. I am not married to this company. It would be crazy to move for a job when I have never had a single job for more than 3.5 years! So then I started thinking about jobs what companies do I want to work for, what do I want to do, would I compromise on company or even responsibilities if I could work from home (!)… could I be an independent consultant (?)… But then last week our financial advisor told us, that really right now is not a bad time to move, and to consider that we could buy a home with a lower value and low interest rates right now, that we would make up some (if not all) of the loss we take on this house over the course of a mortgage on a house, so then … swing.. went right back to thinking about moving.

So now we meet with a realtor. We tighten up the purse-strings. And we start seriously evaluating our options. It’ll be interesting. We have to consider timing (don’t want to move mid-school year) and there is still wallpaper to be removed, a brick wall to be re-built, a house to be painted (exterior) and a lawn to get in shape. Plus potentially living in a “staged” home with 2 kids in a slow market. Evaluating our jobs, and where we want to be in our careers in 2 years (even if I do stay with the company). Lots of pros vs. cons…

No matter what we decide the next couple years we know we have decisions to make and changes to be made. I think either way, we will be OK, but this is one where you just wish you had some sort of guarantee…