Well. Huh. Here We Go Again.

I have been scarce.

Coop and I have been wrestling with big decisions lately, borne largely out of our dissatisfaction with the school district the kids are currently attending.  It's a good school district in many ways but it just doesn't compare with the school district we left behind in Texas.  We are concerned that our daughters have lost ground academically and that they are not being challenged anywhere near their potential.  It's a good district but it's just not meeting the needs of our family.  The girls are happy --not bored and dissatisfied --but we don't think this school district is the best preparation for the higher education they will need, since (I believe I have mentioned before) they do not come from family money.


Also, I am still gimpy and increasingly so.  We have what is called (in official Realtor-ese) a Long-ass  Steep Driveway.  This isn't serving our needs very well, especially because it's kind of a crap-shoot as to if the dogs will bring the paper back to the house or get distracted by something shiny. Also?  We miss having a pool.


So, after much deliberation and back and forth, we've decided to put our house on the market.  Given that we bought this house right before the worst economic/housing/lending crisis in our nation's history, it is going to take a while to sell without us losing our shirts.  But without selling it, we can't afford to move to a better school district and we can't afford to send our kids to private school.

For me, I'm not as invested in this house as I was in our house in Austin even though this is the fanciest house I've ever lived in.  I love the lot, though-- and y'all know how I feel about our garden.  I just never had that feeling that we would grow old in this house.

As to where we're going...well, we're refusing to think too much about it.  It's going to take a long time to sell this house given the current economic market and the lack of lenders, etc.  So, I'm not making any plans until we have a contract on the table.  Then we'll look for a better school district or  house with a pool and/or moving sidewalks.  We have a few ideas but we are keeping our options wide open at this point.

Meanwhile, may I just say that, although you would THINK that we would have a leg up on this whole "getting the house ready to go on the market" thing because we just did this two years ago, in fact, we do NOT have a leg up. We have maybe a TOE up. Maybe HALF of a toe.

More about that soon.  I promise.