The question of the year for us is: Where do we want to live? And beyond that, what kind of home do we want to have?
We both sort of don’t mind where we live now, but it’s definitely not our ideal utopia. Of course, we don’t know where that would be either.
I know I want to live somewhere with seasons. I need them all. This sort of puts the nail in the coffin of ever living near any of my immediate family ever again, but I guess I knew that already, even without the seasons.
I don’t want to be anywhere flat, like southern Illinois. I would like to be within driving distance of snowboarding mountains. Aaron likes water, as in lakes. I like the ocean, but I don’t know that I need to live near the ocean. But I know Aaron would love to live on a lake. Or at least have a vacation home on one.
So lakes, mountains, and seasons.
Beyond the geographic, there’s the usual: have jobs in our field, improved commute time from what it is now, lower cost of living, good school systems, safe…
And it seems like there’s really nothing in this country that fits that bill.
It’s those damn seasons that get you.
We’ve also been talking and decided we would prefer a lot of land, a good sized garage Aaron can work in, and not a huge house. McMansions look so impressive and sound so nice, but I really prefer a cozier home, and one that’s easier to clean. I don’t like to rattle around in places with bad acoustics, and buy furniture just to fill up a room. I grew up in a one floor, 3 (small) bed, one (small) bath house for 5 of us. It was warm, it was messy, it was crowded, but it was cozy and it was home. I like that feeling. I would rather have a few acres and a smaller house than a huge house with inches between us and the neighbors.
Yeah, so….I don’t know.
