The Discovery

So Jose and I have been searching high and low for a house. Just Friday and Saturday alone were hours of looking, making appointments, seeing what's available, seeing what we like. We have to come to a sunning realization. What we thought we wanted is not at all what we wanted at all.

Don't get me wrong, we want to live in a nice house in a beautiful community like we do now but with that comes a price. The price is the feeling that we don't belong....because we don't. We are not people who want to keep up with the Jone's. We don't try to have a house bigger and better than the next person. We don't try to be something we are not. Then how come we have been doing it for almost two years?

This move, as I have said before, has meant so much to me on so many levels. It is a chance for us to save some real money and do things that we have not been able to do. It is a chance for me to leave the horrible memories of my mother behind and only carry with me the ones that I cherish. It is a chance for Jose and I to find what we want...just the two of us with the kids.

So what do we want? We want to be around real people. People who have problems and don't pretend to be prefect, only making us feel more imperfect. We want to be around people that come home after a hard days work and sit outside with a beer without worrying what their neighbor will think, and maybe even ask their neighbor to join. We want neighbors that want to get to together on the weekends for BBQ's instead of hiding in their perfect houses cleaning and only come out to mow the lawn. Well we haven't found this in a subdivision so we are going way out on a limb and trying something new. We are thinking of moving to the downtown city part of Concord. This means real streets where there is traffic, people walking the streets to get to places not just walking their dogs, city buses dropping off people and so that I am being completely honest with you since you are our friends....this also means that it is more dirty and there is more crime. Now in the city there is always more litter and because it is not being carefully manicured by the HOA committee, obviously there will be far from perfect situations. It's ok though because we don't like perfection...we have discovered it is extremely boring. And about the crime...we are not moving to NYC so it is not that bad. It is real people with real problems. It reminds us a little of where we can from but not. A little piece of home in NC. This must sound like the strangest and stupidest thing for some of you. We are not saying that subdivisions are bad. We are simply realizing that they might just not be for us.

Today we are looking, for the second time, at a house that we very much like...might even say love. It is everything this house is not and vice versa. It is small and charming and engulfed by multi-cultural people. It has arched doorways. It only has one bathroom...omg the horror ! It is a craftsman brick house. Many of the original elements are still in the home. The kitchen is the original farmhouse kitchen. It is everything that I never knew that I liked until we saw it and fell in love. There are hurdles with this house. It has smaller rooms because it is an older home. The closets are much smaller than we have here but I think that we have decided to use this move as an excuse to get rid of all the things that we don't use and haven't used since we moved here. We need to step outside our box and our comfort home in search of what we are looking for.

I think that this might the house we pick. Did I mention that we will be saving $310 a month on the rent alone and that is not including what we would be saving on the water because of our issue here and the heat and the electric because it is a smaller place. The possiblities are endless. I feel like a little kid waiting for the first day of school at the thought of moving back to a REAL neighborhood. A little piece of the ghetto here in NC...lol...but so far from it in so many ways. This is where we feel we belong but we worry a bit the others won't understand our decision. Who am I kidding? Jose is worried, you all know that I don't really give a crap. If you don't like where I live then don't come visit me...lol! As a little birdie suggested to me...if we don't like it then we move when our lease is up. The perks of renting. We can try it all until we find what we like.

I will keep you all updated as we make a decision. Don't know if one will be made today or not but it will have to be soon. We did our application yesterday and have already been approved. This house is ours if we want it. Do we want it? Will we take it?