Moving

Remember I said we had a lot going on... like a series of posts worth? Well, here's the next installment:

We're moving.

I am so excited about this move for so many reasons:

1) We'll be able to save so we can build a house. We can't save much while we're under our current mortgage payment of this house. Last year when taxes were reassessed, our monthly payment went up by $125 a month!!! OUCH.

2) We want to build out in the country near family. Jeff's parents have a rental house just a few miles from their house and the "country". The rental house has recently been updated and they've offered to let us live there for little rent so we can save.

3) We're tired of all the stuff in our house. We'll be downsizing a good bit and I'm excited about that! No more sunroom for all the toys. We're going to have to figure something out. (ie. chunk some toys and the clutter that isn't important to us!!! woo hoo!) One part about the downsizing I'm not excited about is that we'll all be sharing one bathroom.

But the kitchen is LARGER!!! (Kitchen pictured is prior to renovations)

4) Renting a house will give us the opportunity to see what it will be like living near family without the obligation of staying near family if it doesn't work out. (Just being realistic here...)

5) With Jeff traveling so much, I think it will be nice to have family around to help.

6) We'll have our own storm shelter. In case you didn't know, north Alabama is tornado country. We've been known to wake the boys in the middle of the night to climb in the bathroom closet.

That door is over 100 pounds... it was all I could do to open & close it! Whew...

7) This one really has nothing to do with our move, but when I walked up into the storage shed attic, I was met by the past. I would LOVE to go through the stuff that is up there... just to look. I've always wanted to find treasures from the past in the attic! :)

8) The yard is bigger! However, there is a hault on putting a fence up around the rental house. It sits in the "Y" of a road. There is a street on all sides but one. We wanted to enclosed the house with a fence, but the ordinance says the fence has to be 15' (yes, feet!) from the road. My inlaws are preparing a plan to bring before the city coucil to ask for a variance since the house is in a less than normal location.

Here are the sides of the house:

And the "front" yard:

And the "back" - the fenced in property behind Nathan belongs to Jeff's uncle and he said we could use that property as long as we keep it mowed. Can you say "ball field" or "family garden"?! *grin*

It sure would be nice to enclose the whole property! (fingers crossed!)

With all the pros to moving, there are some cons.

1) The biggest one is leaving our church family. We love our congregation. Our plans are to travel the 30 minutes to worship without current congregation on Sunday mornings while attending a more local congregation on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Being split between two congregations is going to be rough, but we really want to continue to work with our current congregation.

2) The other con is that Jeff will be further from work. His office is about 10 minutes from our house and he comes home for lunch a lot. That won't be happening after the move and I'm sad about that.

3) And living closer to the country means further from a city which means further from our doctors. There will be less access to large grocery stores (which I need in order to find our dairy free supplies) and the like, as well. I think I can work around that, though. :)

So... on top of all the all-outta-wackness going on with me, we're preparing for a move. With Jeff traveling, I am just slowly packing up the garage and taking one load at a time in the Tahoe to the rental house. I don't know when the move will be official, when we're putting our house on the market, or anything else regarding the move for that matter...

... except that we are moving and I'm happy about it, even though it is stressful. :)