a home for us

I feel like I have lots of homes.  There is the home that we live in - our apartment.  There is Arkansas, as a state.  There are our respective parents houses (because, where your parents live is always home in a way)  There's Boston, as a whole.  They are all homes to me.  And they each bring their own pros and cons, histories and futures.  

Kyle and I have decided to look into buying a home.  Here is Boston.  

Here are some of our reasons.  We love where we live right now.  But, the rent is so expensive and we understand that we're really just throwing the money away in a sense.  The whole building is being bought by Boston College so everybody has to move by May 2010.  Kyle and I figure that if we have to move anyway - we might as well look into homes.  If we're going to look into homes, it would make sense to buy this year while we can still get the $8,000 first time homebuyers incentive.

Also, Kyle is committed to being in school for, probably, another 2 years - unless he continues towards a doctorate degree, and then it will be a few years after that.  If we buy a house, we are committing ourselves to stay in Boston for at least 3 more years...as part of the deal for that 8,000 dollar incentive.

I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing.  Here are the pros. I love the idea of us owning a property.  I have lived my whole life in parsonages, dorm rooms, or rented spaces and have never had the freedom to paint, or design, or change a space to make it truly my own.  I'm not complaining about where I've lived - they've all been great - but the idea of really owning a place appeals to me on that level.  Not to mention our money would be going towards something and building equity and all of that jazz.  Another positive is that if we find a place that we eventually do sell again so that we can move back to AR - then chances are we will be able to afford a slightly nicer place once we get back down south.  Also, we love Boston.  Kyle has the freedom of the public transit, there is so much to do, so many good schools, museums, parks, and culture.  Part of me would love for Abby to experience all of those things. 

Here are the cons.  I miss being closer to my family and my friends.  That's the main one.  I know that, on one hand, 3 years isn't *that* long - but on the other hand, it's a lot longer than 1 year.  When I think that Abby might be 4 or 5 years old before we move back to AR - it's just crazy.  Then again, maybe we'll be in Boston forever - I don't know.  I don't *think* we will - but I'm no prophet either.  Another con is the cost.  I made the mistake of looking at what kind of house we could afford in Conway vs. Boston.  Depressing.  Let's just say that we could basically have our pick of the litter in Arkansas.  A big house, with a big yard, in a nice place.  For the same price in Boston, we might be able to afford a 110 year old condo.  Maybe.  In all likelihood,  we will not be buying a house at all, but a condo or a townhouse.  It's just the way the city life goes. 

So, here we are.  We have our pre-approval, we have our agent and a broker.  We went to 8 open houses today and went to a few last week and will go to a few more this week I believe.  We're trying not to be picky - but, who am I kidding, Kyle and I have similar tastes and lets just say that our budget doesn't always match up.  We want to live somewhere nice, safe, with a yard or a park nearby - but of course it also has to be on the public transit lines with a reasonable commute for Kyle.  There is also the part of me that walks through the houses thinking "can I imagine Abby's first birthday party here?" or "where will she learn to ride her bike?" and those kinds of thoughts that completely revolve around our little one. 

Wish us luck while we search through the city for a place to call our own.  It's an exciting thing - but there are still too many steps between now and closing for me to feel the excitement part as much.  I'm just in search mode at the moment.  I can tell you one thing though - there is a lot to work through and I am so thankful that I have Kyle by my side - he's great.  

So, we'll keep ya posted on our housing adventure.  If all goes according to plan, we'll be in a place of our own sometime this fall.