Another trip to look for "the" place...

 Today is the day I spend getting ready to leave the two littles again to go look at another potential place to live. I'll be honest, I don't like leaving them behind. In the past I tackled anxiety by doing the things that seemed to cause the anxiety. Now I'd rather run from it. 

We will be going to look at a house on a lake. That brings its own anxiety! I know that the littles are not little, but they are not ready to be Bigs yet either. My daughter will come and stay with them, and we will only be gone two days. I expect to take nothing more than a backpack as it will be a whirlwind trip.

I read this morning where the Tee Cross ranches are up for sale. Once an investor snags that development will explode around here. This will be the place to live if you want to live like California. Not the ranch, although it will be more like LA than Colorado Springs in 10 years. Yep, time to get over that anxiety and find someplace quiet.

The trip is over, and the decisions begin. Apparently, the realtors do not like to share their workload. We looked at the "Lake house". Lots of pros and a few cons. We also looked at two other places and they also had lots of pros and cons. The fourth house had lots of potential. It also needed quite a bit of work. I really liked the ponds that it had, and it was a very open floor plan... so open that the old laundry room still had the hole in the wall and the ceiling.

Even though that one was only a mile and a half from my sister's home on buzzard creek, it was a bit too primitive for the group that I have. The "Lake house" was probably the actual place that we need. There was plenty of storage, if we downsize drastically. My biggest misgiving with the house was size. Two rooms on your left and the master bedroom on the right. Of course, there are two bathrooms and many garages. All are heated and cooled. Nice climate control. Nice lake, nice yard, nice side by side, and lawn mower. Nice, fenced yard area. Scary from town isolation for the kids. The house he promised to look at but didn't want to consider, turned out to be his favorite. 

On the other hand, I am torn between the lake house and the mansion house. Mansion house, that is DH's name for it. I myself am torn. Plus, there are more out there. So, if none of this works out, no worries. My sister sent an address for a little house right near her and I am tempted as it would be a nice vacation home and then not a permanent move. It would also give me time to decide if permanent would be what I would really want. The summer months there are quite hot, but the winter months are warmer than here.

I waver every day about what I really want to do. It took 30 years of living here just to get the chicken house fenced in the way I wanted, of course having the original house burn down did interfere a bit. The old chicken pen was fenced around, just not over the top fenced. We will never know if that would have happened eventually. My bet would be on not, but it would be a probably not. As stupid as that may sound, it does have an influence on whether I want to move. I guess the biggest influence is history. There is a lot of history on this property, in this state. There are grands that I am attached to in this state also.  The youngest one is almost five now. It doesn't hurt that I am familiar with where things are and that sort of thing. Our little town has a small grocery store where last time I checked a cake mix was around $4.00. The closest big town is Colorado Springs with a population closing in on 500,000 in population.

The ducks yesterday in their "chateau area"

the snow yesterday morning early

The last statement in the previous paragraph is a motivating factor in leaving. So is the snow in these pictures.

4 days ago it was warmer though

It is the day after Thanksgiving, and I am still wavering. Being able to have most of the family and some friends together make it harder to want to move.  Especially when they notice changes in family members and then they worry but still say move as that is the family members wishes. Move we will, to where, that is still to be determined.

It all depends on if our offer is accepted and if the previous purchasers back out or sign their loan without selling their place. Either way I am good with it. It is so cold here today I do not want to go outside.

That was all last week. We have since had the electrician out and a handyman that does drywall and drywall repair. Estimates have been received, and all work is on hold. DH wants to do what he can to reduce the cost and that is fine. Cleaning of windows of frost to go outside is not fun, never was, but it was tolerated. Not yesterday, I wanted to go to Wyoming to visit the granddaughter, but the girls did not want to go. I thought I may leave today and go, I do so want them to go with me. I am hoping they change their minds when they do wake up.

Yesterday we received notice that our offer was accepted, and we can begin the inspection and VA process. Today I will pick an inspector and send a check for the earnest money. I still plan to drive up to see the kid and take her birthday gift with me. I read a little this week. At one point in my life, I made sure to read every day. Cleaning and keeping up with the house and kids mostly helps me avoid reading. I am thinking I should just read and not cook or clean.

The chickens and ducks yesterday

The sunsets will be missed