What I Want for My Birthday

No, not Yoda...LOL. Last year, I had this wonderful list of things I wanted for my birthday. I got my autism awareness bracelet from my MIL, I got my pumpkin pie for my birthday cake (of course, I ALWAYS do, my bday is always around Thanksgiving), and I had the love of my family which, above all, is the ONLY thing that I could ever ask for my birthday. This year, I want my pumpkin pie cake (birthday is ON Thanksgiving this year), I know I'll have the love of my family, but there's something more. Something SO much more. Something HUGE. Something that will involve MIRACLES - and big ones, at that!

I want THIS:



I can't begin to tell you how much I want this. My current house is warm and fuzzy and loving, but it has turned into a rehabber's wet dream and involves so much more than I can put into it. Not to mention that between interest rates and a couple of late payments, my monthly mortgage has DOUBLED. I live on a postage stamp and am paying property taxes almost equivalent to the ones on this house which, by the way, sits on between 1/4 - 1/2 acre. We have a wonderful home, but with the kids getting bigger, it is getting entirely too small.

I'd love to stay in the town where we live for another 15-30 years, but it's just too damn expensive. I want my kids to graduate from the high school in our town, but it's unrealistic. I don't want them to have to make new friends, I LOVE their friends, I've watched them grow up, I know their character, and I know their parents. The thought of learning a whole new set of kids and gaining 10-16yrs of knowledge about them and their families in an incredibly short time frightens me. Putting SmallBoy into a new environment that may or may not be willing to work with the Asperger's frightens me. These things are becoming necessary, though.

I suppose the best way to overcome the fears is to just jump in and do it, make it a point to meet the people and the kids and the families. I should make it a point to contact the schools, talk to them about SmallBoy before we even consider making the big move and feel them out, see how they'll work with him, how much they know about Asperger's and perhaps educate them if moving is the route we take.

Girl and LargeBoy will be resilient. They'll adapt and make new friends easily. I moved a LOT when I was a child, just never DURING high school. Of course, I'll see if I can arrange it so they can finish out the shool year where they are, especially so Girl can graduate 8th grade with the kids she has gone to school with since PK-4. LargeBoy will be fine. It's really SmallBoy that I'm worried about. Perhaps I can arrange it so he can stay in his current school for 4 more years...it's a private school, so it shouldn't matter, right? The family has a legacy at that school.

Anyway, financially, selling our home and buying a new one would be a very sound investment, AND the best thing for our family. This particular home, as well as others I've looked at on the internet, is in a town south of where I live now, much farther from the bright lights of Chicago, but not too far. My cousin and her husband and 2 sons also live there. I know that she wouldn't live somewhere "icky," nor would she send her children to schools that are less than wonderful. Oh decisions, decisions.

Here's another room:



I SO wish this was my furniture. The picture does it absolutely NO justice. The room is huge, the windows open to a wrap around porch....Come to think of it, NONE of these pictures do the house justice. PC and I looked at the virtual tour and just about passed out. It's out of our price range, in theory, or at least out of the realistic price range. Of course, right now, everything is out of our price range. However, out of the price range is better than living in a house that could potentially go boom (note: not KA-boom - as in explosion, just boom - as in fall down go boom).

Our house, from the moment I bought it, required work. The insurance company required that I get new siding installed - oh, that was fun - I think it was something with two digits, and three zeros ( I just can't remember the two digits), then, my dearest mother replaced the windows on the first floor, the basement, and had a security door installed on the side door. THEN, our water heater debaucle happened (sorry, can't find the post to link), and mom sprung for a new one of those. No, my mother is not a money tree, which is why all of these may have been my alotted miracles already.

It still requires work...it needs a MAJOR overhaul of the electricity. We don't even USE the electricity in the basement because it's SO messed up...We've been trying to get an electrician in there for a while, but the phone tag has gotten so insane. We'd call someone else, but this guy comes referred by my in-laws and has a great reputation. The house is still on fuses, the outlets are minimal...our bedrom has 4 plugs - on one outlet, all on one side of the room.

But look at THIS...



...can you imagine? This is an OLD house, but with all of the upgrades (wait til I show you the kitchen), there HAD to be an upgrade in the electric...ok, ok,



...here's the kitchen. And again, no justice done AT ALL...this kitchen is HUGE, new appliances, the stove top on that island-y part of the counter....I'm drooling (see, MAJOR miracles needed here, not just financially either). Want another room?

Ok, here you go...again, if only this was MY furniture! Double door closet! And this is merely the MASTER bedroom. This place has 4Bed and a finished basement. So far, the ONLY downfall that I see (aside from the price), is the fact that it only has 1 bathroom...for all of us, that creates a problem, but NOT an impossibility...it's been done before, we've just gotten used to 2 bathrooms now, and we're spoiled. Speaking of bathrooms



... check this beauty out! Sure, there may only be one bathroom, but DAMN...look at it!

This truly is a dream home. I would LOVE to have it. There are so many details to work out, though. If through a miracle (of epic proportions, mind you) provided by the Angels of Finance, we were able to purchase this home, we'd still have to tend to so many other issues....making ours saleable, although a rehabber would probably snarf it up in a heartbeat - it really is a rehabber's wet dream (too bad I couldn't list it as such), selling it, fenagling deals with the schools, dealing with Ex, who is certain to have a coniption - even though he's planning to move equally as far north when his step-daugther graduates from high school in 4yrs, and, well, that's it, I suppose. Doesn't sound like too much, but LORD it would be. No sense worrying about it though, until we know if it is even an option.

At least it will give me something to write about every day this month....