Greener pastures

Inspired by my friend, Andrea, I will try to provide a Fair and Balanced report of what has been going on over the past few months in terms of our housing in our fair city. I've been completely quiet on this topic despite the fact that it has been taking up an inordinate amount of our mental and emotional energy.

Good: We've had the chance to check out new areas of Madison, while looking for suitable homes since finding out that we're going to be moving. We've explored many neighborhoods, styles of houses, rentals and houses for sale all over town. This has allowed me to get to know Madison better.

Not-so-good: We learned on July 1 that we would have to move out of our house on September 1 because it is going to be sold. We requested that we have until October 1, and that request was granted, so we had 3 months to find a place and move. Our current house had been a perfect house for us, aside from the obvious two months we spent living in other peoples' houses last summer when it wasn't ready for habitation yet. The prospect of moving again was daunting and unappealing, and spending our summer prepping for the move was a big buzzkill.

Good: We got to consider whether we wanted to buy or rent a house here.

Not-so-good: The question of buying versus renting runs into the large, looming questions in our lives about jobs, other cities we love and what kind of a life we ultimately want. These are high-stakes conversations, not suited for a time-limited decision-making period.

Good: We ended up finding a good rental house in a pretty great neighborhood. It's across the street from a park that is used for games, movie watching (in the summers), ice skating (in the winters) and all-the-time play. It's right on the bike path, which is awesome for commuting to work/daycare and for getting out of town on bike or rollerskis. It's also right near a good little commercial strip and a grocery store that we like.

Good: We have lots of family providing help with packing and moving, which means so much and makes the whole process so much easier.

Good: We chose to rent, which puts off our Big Decisions for a little while.

After all the hullabaloo around finding a new place to live and accepting the fact that we have to move, I'm looking forward to our new house and new neighborhood. If I had written all this a month ago, my tone would have been decidedly different, but now I believe it's all for the best, which is why I finished the analysis above with all the good, and none of the not-so-good.

We'll still have room for guests and we'll be walking distance from Camp Randall in our new abode. That means we'd still love to have all of you come visit us whenever you find yourselves in the area!