We need more space.

http://www.hernandoluxuryhomes.com/ HernandoLuxuryHomes = Spring Hill Real Estate

Three years into our new life in Spring Hill, Fl, and we're still having the same debate. I don't want to get into it all, as I don't think you've got the rest of the day to read this post, lol, but to give you a quick synopsis: When I came down to visit Mom & Dad's new place in this far off land called Spring Hill I fell in love. I had their real estate agent take me around and show me what was available. My plan was to find something we could spend a year in - max - which would give us time to figure out what neighborhood we wanted to live in, find a builder, and build a custom home that met our needs.

I was then returning back north to prepare my previous home for putting it on the market. It is a custom build that I miss bunches, but can't say I'd pick it up and bring it with me because the layout just doesn't work for our lifestyle down here. While if I ever play the lottery, and win, I will definitely be knocking on their door and asking how much to buy it back, lol. As far as living in Florida, and the right home for us down here, I still like how our new home wraps around the pool. The star of the show is always our lanai, pool & landscaping. It's what I love most about living down here and having it as part of every day, and every moment is fantastic. I saw soooo many homes back when I was looking, and this one was my favorite head & shoulders above all. With all the homes we've seen here, being in the Real Estate industry, we've yet to see one we like as much. One came close but at DOUBLE the price range of our current, how could we justify spending that much and it still not being perfect.

Well, we bought here, sold there, and moved in. We got to work renovating and updating. In the mean time we've really fallen head over heels with this place. The market has absolutely nose dived since those times, and right now I think we could get what we paid for, plus or minus a few thousand. Sounds good? Nope. We would not recoup the 40k we've put into it. That doesn't make it a clear cut "so we stay" situation either. We know that right now we could more than make up for that loss by purchasing the right home at the right price. And on and on goes the debate. We take turns sitting on either side of the fence. Heck, we switch off in the midst of one conversation, lol. We need more space. But...what is the additional space needed for? So we don't let go of stuff we don't use anyway? Doesn't seem like a wise investment. Paying $ more per month, higher taxes, utilities, etc. for my unused treadmill, dining room hutch, and Josh's bass amps, etc., just isn't working for me.

Our Place

We never used our dining room and needed a larger office. Old office became my daughter's room, daughter's old room became niece's, dining room became new office. We never used our formal living room. Formal living room is now the happy home of Josh's baby: the pool table. Problem solved? Nope. There is no storage. Our formal areas are part of a larger great room, so our office & pool table rooms are what you walk into from the front door. We have no storage for all our office "stuff". There are no basements here. There's no where to tuck away holiday decorations, landscaping equipment, staging supplies, and all the other misc. things you need to tuck away and bring out periodically.

There's a local company called Create More Space, and we keep wanting to stop in and see what they could do for us. We're thinking built-ins, built-ins, built-ins! But that is no small investment in a home with a definative ceiling to it's value because of it's size. Do we want to invest any more $ into a home that we know we probably won't recoup because we're not actually adding sq. ft.? My niece's room has a window seat, and I'd love to do something like Brown Design (see by blog list for a link to this awesome resource) did here:

Window Seat Inspiration