Life in Texas: 4th of July, Trip to Austin, House Update

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

4th of July, Trip to Austin, House Update

Happy 4th of July!!

This past week we made an offer on a house and almost put our house up for sale. Then after the counter offers took place and we all agreed on a sale price, we decided to back out and not sign the papers. We have been looking for a home with more land and this house was nice, on one acre, and pretty. However, I REALLY LOVE our current house. I love the layout, I like our neighbors, and I like the price. After realizing the taxes were going to be over 10K a year, we thought they'd be a little over 7K, we decided it wasn't worth moving at this time. We'd rather travel with our kids and have more money to give, save, and help our kids with college later. We would have had to finance with a 30 year note, rather than 15 or 20 year. We still would have put 20% down but our monthly expenses would have been $700-$900 more a month. To us, that wasn't worth the expense and pain to move. Not to mention, our current house fits us great and I love my kitchen and gas stove. This other house did not have a gas stove, it had a double oven, but not as gas stove top, which Collin and I both like. Basically, we'd be spending a lot of money for a house that was a compromise of what we both really want.

We have been looking at houses for the past year off and on. We'd love to live closer to church and have more land. However, we have worked too hard to put ourselves in a financial bind. Also, as our kids continue to get a little older, it will be easier to take them on vacations and we both LOVE to travel. One huge benefit we had when we lived in Germany was being able to travel to lots of places. Since moving back to the States, dealing with pregnancy issues, losses, and adding two more kids to our family, we haven't been able to do as much traveling.

With all of that being said, when we thought we were going to put our house on the market, we decided we'd head to Austin to get out of town. Collin and had also taken a few days off last week. Our realtor was pretty certain we would get at least one offer this past weekend. The kids were disappointed that we decided not to buy the country house and so we decided to go ahead and go to Austin and see our friends there. This was Jackson's first vacation, or time to get away from home that was not visiting family. Although it was kind of like visiting family, except we stayed in a hotel. We spent most of the weekend with our friends, the Lillards. Caden even had his first sleepover and had a great time. He didn't sleep much but enjoyed getting to spend the night with his friends. We went to church with them Sunday, ate lunch, then headed home. Saturday we took the kids to a big indoor playscape. There was also a little area for kids 3 and under that Grace and Jackson loved playing in. Overall we had a great time seeing them and look forward to getting together again. In fact, just getting out of town for a weekend trip, reminded us how much we enjoy doing things like that.

On the way down we stopped in Waco at the Magnolia Market at the Silos. It was a neat little place but too hot to be outside and the kids didn't really enjoy it. I think it's a place to go for adults more than taking kids.

For the 4th of July we went to my brother's and sister-in-law's house. They cooked out and the kids swam and played. We didn't go see any fireworks since it's so late and our kids were tired from the long weekend.

Last week on one of Collin's days off we drove to Lake Granbury and took the kids to a delicious German restaurant for lunch and then to the sandy beach area to swim in the lake. Yesterday, Caden started 2nd grade. We've been very busy but having a wonderful summer! I'm so excited about school starting again and being able to school year-round, so we can take different breaks during the year.