Home Again, Home Again

I'm going to talk in very general terms about our recent house hunting expeditions. I will not mention specific properties, MLS numbers or addresses, but I wanted to post something on the topic that has been taking much of our time and energy of late.

We've narrowed the search to two homes. They would each be a quality investment and a good geographical move (within West Seattle, but north and west of our current location). We'll be taking the kids to see both properties tomorrow. And then we'll decide which way we want to proceed.

It's a pretty crazy feeling. Raechelle's never bought a home before. The last (and only) time I did was almost 15 years ago, and the amount of money being batted around was less than one fourth of the current amount. It's a crazy time to look at buying a home (what with the wedding and all of the work we're doing with Tyler, and the film projects in the hopper), and an even crazier time to consider selling (with home values in the toilet). When I refinanced in late '07, this home appraised in the mid 400s. We're now looking at a market value about 60-100k less than that. So, while it's an awesome time marketwise to buy, we know we'll take a hit on the return from this place.

The upside to all of this (and the reason we're even looking right now) is because getting into a new home in a slightly better section of the neighborhood will signify a new start. A new start that the kids and I could not have had if we remained here. Although the house was completely rebuilt from the studs up, there is still a lot of memory here, a lot of "heavy" energy. The kids have both mentioned it, and I've noticed it too. It's a gorgeous home, and I love everything we've done to it. It's just time for a change of scenery and location (if I may be permitted a director-ism).

So that's what's going on currently. House hunting, wedding prep, trying to get work done, family counseling, preparing the house for sale.

I wish I could find something to do with all this spare time.