settling some roots…

There comes a time in every married couples life comes the inevitable, we want to own a house!   However, now that we’ve decided we want to settle some roots, tackle the mortgage, try our hand at fixing up and decorating, we have one big question…

 

WHERE?

We’ve been browsing neighborhoods for the past year.  We have somewhat of an idea where we want to live, but we still have a lot of decisions to make like…

• What County?We are trying to find neighborhoods we want. The only way we can stay in our current community is if we buy a condo.  However, a condo has fees and isn’t really the space we are looking for.  We want three to four bedrooms.  So our next question is what county… Orange, Osceola, or Polk?  In all honesty, Polk is our last choice (sorry to everyone we know living in Polk).  We hope to someday move back into Celebration if all things go according to plan, so if we stay in Osceola, where we are looking our kids still are in Celebration Schools.  Also, Orange is the other side of town.  We are used to this side, so we have some reserves about going to the other side. We are creatures of habit and if we have to return to Celebration for visiting my parents, it just seems more intelligent to stay on this side of town.
• What about our Commute? This ties into where we want to live, but how far out do we REALLY want to go? There are some great shopping areas up by Winter Garden Village where we were looking, but that is about a 30 minute drive to work every day.  Do I really want that?  Also, if we move out in Davenport, that’s a tackle on I-4 everyday.  Do we want that? With the unknown gas prices of the future, it might make sense to stay as close as we possibly can to work.
• Buy or Build? Going into this process, we thought we would just find a previously built home, find one we like (preferably one we love) and off we go.  However, I found a community that we are going to check out today nearby that we could build in.  It all started when I found one yesterday out in Winter Garden Village. Great homes, however it was not a good neighborhood on the other side of the brick wall.  However, the idea of BUILDING a home makes me giddy.  Gosh, all the random little details, going to see the process of our home.  That makes me happy.  However, there aren’t a lot of options to build. We will have to check this area out.
• Pool or No Pool? We live in a very warm state. Hot.  A pool has always been a dream.  We think our main priority would be to have a community pool or one in our back yard.  One or the other.  However, going back to the build option… can we add a pool? How expensive would that be? Could we afford it? I mean, if it’s not right off the bat, I can understand waiting until we have some more money.  However, if there is a previously built home we like with a pool, do we go that route instead?

Bottom line is, I know that once we find the home that is right for us, we will feel it.  We will know that this is where we want to start settling some roots.  We just have to get there.