Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - Have We Made the Right Decision?

October is traditionally Nashville’s driest month of the year. On average the Music City receives about 48 inches of rain annually, with a paltry 2.6 inches of rain falling to the ground during this, the month of October. Through the first 12 days of October, we are already halfway to that average mark, collecting 1.3 inches of rain in the bucket this month. Why is it then that we are expecting three inches of rain, which has already begun,through mid-day Wednesday? It is expected to be one of the top three wettest days of the year to ensure my backyard continues to be a giant half-acre mud pile. On the other hand, it doesn’t really matter all that much since we still don’t have a set of revised plans finalized. With great frustration yesterday, Cara peered into the backyard and stated simply that we should have found and purchased another house. And we had seriously contemplated this last spring when we were weighing all of our options and when the real estate market was ripe for the taking. However, we had several search criteria we had to keep in mind that weren’t too flexible: for magnet school reasons, we had to stay in Davidson County; we love our neighborhood and being within a 10-minute drive to Cool Springs, Green Hills, downtown, the airport, etc., so we wanted to stay in the Crieve Hall/Oak Hill/Forest Hills area; Minnie loves to run, so we needed something more than a postage-stamp-sized lot for her to stretch her legs and chase squirrels. Brand new construction in this area is very limited and, where available, quite pricey. The next newest level of construction is about 8-10 years old and usually crammed into Desperate Housewives-type subdivisions with small lots and costly home owners association fees. This works for some people, but it’s just not quite our style. Plus, these houses are just old enough to be slightly out of date…right at the point where fixtures need to be swapped out and kitchens need to be updated. So that left us looking at older ranch-style houses throughout this area, which is what we already have and is certainly what we like. This area is full of them, several hundred of them, but we kept running into the same problem – if a house had been updated to the point of our liking, it was too expensive; if the house had not been updated, it was right in our price range…but we were not in the mood to move just to remodel a different house. If we wanted to go that route, why wouldn’t we just do it with the one we have and save the burden of moving? Cara’s thought about buying something else is certainly nothing different than what has crossed my mind a hundred times since we decided against that option back in May. But as I stare into the back yard, I have to remind myself often that we made the right decision and the mud pit will someday be a much-needed part of our home.Until then, maybe the next time the Motocross circuit comes through town they can stop by for warm-ups in our backyard and we can charge sneak-peek admissions…