Inside Our Home

Husband and I have been going back and forth with the decision on whether or not we should move in January to be closer to school. Just thinking about it stressed me out, and I finally found my inner Rory Gilmore and made a pro/con list inside my head. We made the decision to… stay where we are. It just made sense to stay.

• We don’t pay rent. Husband’s grandparents own our house, and they are willing it to us one day, so they have told us to treat it like it’s our house. I love the fact that we have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a family room, a nice deck and front porch, AND a large yard. If we moved, we’d have to downsize (to a one bedroom, most likely, for what we’re willing to pay) and probably pay at least $800+/month in rent. Plus, we would probably be in an apartment, so there wouldn’t be a yard.
• We’re close to family. Husband’s family lives on the same street as us, and my family is just a 15-minute drive away.  On the other hand, if we moved, we’d be about an hour away from our families. Not ideal.
• I’d like to keep my job. If we moved to Chattanooga, I’d have to commute to work five days a week (VERY early in the morning), and it’s about an hour drive. OR I’d have to find a new job, which is not something I want to deal with.
• Staying does mean we will have to make the hour drive to Chattanooga for school, but it will be in the evenings for me, and most likely not every day. I have very good diesel mileage (I drive a Volkswagen Jetta TDI, and it gets at least 40 mpg), so the cost of fuel will be much less than what it would cost for us to rent an apartment. Shortening our commute to school just didn’t seem like a good enough reason to move.

I have to admit, I thought I’d be more upset about our decision to stay. I adore Chattanooga, and I would love to live in the city (as we live in the middle of nowhere right now). When we made the final decision, though, I just felt relieved. I was more stressed with the idea of moving to Chattanooga than I was with staying. (I wasn’t looking forward to finding an apartment, paying rent, being away from my family, and commuting to work or finding a new job.) I’m not saying we’ll never move to Chattanooga, but it’s not in the cards for us any time soon.

We’ve lived in our house for a little over two years now, and we still haven’t settled because we always had the idea that we’d be moving for school. Now that we’ve decided to stay, we’re really looking forward to settling and making the house our own. We already have some projects in mind (some will happen soon, but we’ll be saving up for some as well).

• Painting. Our walls are a sort-of beige color. Very boring. We’re hoping to paint our bedroom a seafoam green color. I’d like to paint our main bathroom sage or a cream color. I’m still trying to decide on a color for our office/guest room. I was going to go with grey with yellow accents, but I think I want to stay away from grey since my cubicle walls at work are grey!
• Unpacking our “storage” room. One of our rooms is our designated storage room since we don’t need it now for a bedroom. I’d like to finally unpack it and clean it up a bit. I may even turn this room into an office and just keep our second bedroom for guest purposes.
• Building a storage building outside. Husband has been wanting to do this, so he’ll finally be able to!
• Landscaping. I can’t wait to plant flowers and shrubs! I’m also planning a small herb garden for next year.
• Staining our deck and adding a patio. This is something I am so excited to finally do!
• New furniture. This will be done a little at a time, but I’d really love a new sofa and dining room table.

Of course, all of this will probably be completed over the course of several years, but it’s nice to be able to look ahead that far into the future. I’m very excited to take you along on our journey!

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