Am I Crazy?

Wondering if i am completely crazy not to be in *la-uuuuuhve* with that house? Not everyone gets to have a piece of eye candy like that to exist in everyday, eh? But i am neither empowered, nor impressed by that kind of stuff. I don't want a place that people drop their jaws everytime they see it. I want a home for my family--a place where my kids can feel like they had a storybook upbringing. A magical place filled with lots of love and gargantuan amounts of giggles. And, while it would qualify nicely, there are a few things i can't get over.

1. We'd never be able to have a cow (not that i really know what i am getting into raising a cow...but i would like to raise one if Ri was ever interested in it someday--we're joining 4-H next year.) Ever since i saw a gal in Sandpoint who had raised a meat cow, showed it at the fair, and auctioned him off for her first year of college tuition, i've always thought what a great way to teach your child the world of business. Her parents did her very well! I don't think Nona would be able to get to college on the sale of eggs alone. :o)

2. The lack of land--and maybe it's because it's blueberry season here and now you can see all the bushes bursting with their juicy blue gems--not having been irrigated once all season (unless it rained, they didn't get watered and we haven't much rain this summer!) When you drive down that driveway, you see some of the original 23 acres covered with blueberry bushes bigger than a rain barrel from the farm of yesteryear. All that is slated to become "gi-normous", cheaply built houses with postage stamp-sized yards. Is that really the place for a micro farm?

If we could negoiate successfully, we'd have useable land about the size of a football field (3/4's of an acre is what we would have.) Once planted with orchards and a veggie garden, i am not certain we'd have room for a cow. Goats, definitely (we'd need them for ivy control, as the whole hilly part of the backyard is covered in invasive English ivy), and chickens. Hubbie thinks we'd be able to rent some farmland near by if we ever wanted a cow that bad.

3. Room for my parents many years down the road. My parents are in great shape now and for the foreseeable future. But maybe because i was older when things happened to my grandparents, i remember the toll that they took on my parents. Not so much physically or financially as emotionally. They wanted to help take care of them, but there are only so many hours in a day. We, as a family, did what we could, visited and ran errands for them at least once a week, trying to take care of my two handicapped grandmothers at the same time. And after experiencing nursing homes and having worked in the medical field, there is no way i am putting my parents in a facility like that. So we need room for them eventually--and room for more kids too. Not that a 5 bedroom house wouldn't allow for that, but i had envisioned a separate residence on our property, in the name of comfort and respect of privacy, for my parent's visits now and for in the future, incase they needed it.

4. I've been hoping that we would find a level farm with many acres (at least 3) that could help us focus on living a little greener--installing solar for the home, having a managed mini forest to use wood for heat, having enough room to culivate our own food and storage to help save on plums, apples, pears, etc., area for raising meat animals (the county South of us--where the home we are looking at is located) is starting a moblie slaughter unit to help the plight of the local farmer to get his small scale meat business up and running and "legal" by USDA standard--to be able to sell the meats per pound in markets around our area--or even to your neighbour--at a more cost effective rate.

However, maybe i should focus on the good things too:

First and foremost: there aren't any "bikini baristas" near this home we're looking at. We had another one open in our area just a few weeks ago, on the stretch of road that has the worst rate of prostitution in our area and that happens to be located near our local library! The new shop reminds me of what you hear about in Amsterdam--signage reading "Sneek a peek"* (too bad they aren't as good at spelling as they are at making a corset and thong look appealing in public, eh?) and "Pasties and Pearls, Girls! Girls! Girls!" It's disgusting!

2. Also, if we lived in this Tudor house area, i highly doubt that on our way to Mass we'd have to call in to the local police to report a prostitute trying to pick up a John on the street corner just a 1/2 mile from our home. Like we had to do this past wkend.

The only thing "questionable" near the new house is a tatoo parlor, but hey, at least that is a legal form of business, regardless of your morals.

Alright, just these two would be enough to make anyone move, but....

3. Valley soil, Sir!! Valley soils here are the best in the area--one of the cashiers at one of our frequented grocers lives not too far from this home. She had a yard sale at the end of July and had tomatoes! and zucchini to sell at her sale. Tomatoes!! I can't even think about a fresh tomato until about Sept--end of August, if i'm lucky.

4. A historical house with lots of history. That's something i've always wished for.

5. It's still in a walkable area--we found a bridge with sidewalks over the hwy nearby, which means Riona and i could walk or bike a mile and 1/2 in to the library, parks, restaurants or stores. We could even walk to the fairs they have throught the year: Victorian Country Christmas, Spring and end of Summer fairs, sewing expos, homeschool expos, you name it. :o)
Especially convienent is the fact that it isn't too far away from either train station Hubbie might need to use to get to work--he could still bike to either train station from this house. Proximity to the commuter line is a big priority of ours, as otherwise commuter traffic in the area doubles any regular travel time on a good day--triples it on a cold, wet winter day (of which we have a lot of.)

6. Even though i don't like the way the house is sorta on display the way it sits on the hill above the Valley floor, it's a great home i could really see us enjoying...especially great because there aren't neighbours too close by (even the new houses would be built a few hundred feet away on the other side of the wetlands.) When we were there this weekend, enjoying the view from the deck, i kept hearing clunk, clang, clang; clunk, clang, clang. Finally figured it was a couple of neighbour cows in the woods next to the house. Amazing! I told Hubbie, "Look, those neighbours don't smoke, cuss, and fight. Those are the kind of neighbours we'd like!" :o)

7. Because the house sits up on the hill a bit, we wouldn't have to worry too much about flooding. There is a creek behind the house, and the house has a couple of sump pumps, but older homes around here are expected to flood a little bit. We're high on a ridge now, and even our carport walls leak when there are big rains.

See, today i find more things right than wrong; yesterday it was the other way around.

Oh, i waiver so....why can't i be the "make a decision, take a stand, forge ahead" kinda gal??

It doesn't help either that Hubbie keeps mentioning to me how the City's income has fallen off and the budget is kaput (we all know that every city in America is going through that now, eh? Hardly anyone is selling a house, not many people are shopping in malls or shops.) I can't help but think that layoffs might be coming eventually--he hasn't mentioned specifically, but it's happening everywhere--it almost seems that it is inevitable in every sector. Not that i think Hubbie's job is in immediate jeopardy--he is a excellent and hard working Environmental Engineer, however after all the parks and non-essential law enforcement and fire positions have been evicted, what goes next? Are the codes & standards the state's Dept. of Ecology has set essential enough for a city to have to keep a full staff in an environmental engineering dept.? There could be better times ahead to feel more confident in buying a new home--especially when you are talking about trading up a significant bit.

That's the $1,000,000 question, i suppose, literally.

BTW, please feel free to answer my original question, located in the title of this post. :o)