Learning Contentment

Jay and I (you may know) have been “window shopping” for a bigger house. Specifically, one that is a little out of town with some land. And now we’ve officially stopped.

Between Jay’s latest step-increase and the (temporarily?) reduced cost of health insurance we have “loose” money for the first time since I can’t remember when, and Jay pointed out that getting a different (bigger/more expensive) house would eliminate that pretty quick. And we both enjoy the idea of a little cushion, so we decided we can decide to be settled here.

It is an interesting mindset (one we have rotated through periodically) of making this house the focus of our planning/future. Expecting to be here long-term. Long-term being defined as, “until the house is paid off.” (Boy, that makes me think of A Series of Unfortunate Events and all their specialized definitions.)

Anyway, we’re back to our initial plans of reflooring the front room and building an entryway on the front of the house. Jay would also like to build a shed for storing stuff currently in the garage (so he’d actually have “workshop” room), and I would like to add a gate and stretch of fence to our back-strip (being too small to be a backyard) to have a dog yard.

I told this to Jay and he said, “Why would you need a dog yard? You don’t have a dog.”

“I’d like one,” was my natural response.

That’s still under negotiation.

The dog-yard would be a must. The front yard (that we put in last summer) is looking gorgeous. Jay and Grandma were comparing notes all summer, and ours is really starting to look as good as hers. We are enjoying it.