How I Met My House, sort of....

Several of the wonderful blogs that I follow are joining together and posting about how they “Met Their House” (read my friend Jessi’s story on her blog: Minnesota Housewife). The stories are really fun to read and being that I don’t myself have a house their stories are very educational as well. I decided to take this opportunity and hash out a conversation I’ve been having with myself a lot lately...to move or not to move.

Jason and I currently live in a townhouse in Bloomington. It’s a two level with 2 bedrooms and 1 ½ bathrooms. I love the location, we have plenty of space but I hate the kitchen. Plus, it’s older so a lot of things need repair and need to be updated. Our current place is about 15 minutes from Coffee Buzz which is not a bad commute. Plus we’re less than five minutes away from my dad and Jason’s dad. Originally, we rented this townhouse with the thought that we would live in it until we can afford a house. Then, in comes Hoigaard Village.

Coffee Buzz is located in a retail space on the first floor of a condo building. The leasing agents are regulars of the Buzz and are hounding Jason and I about moving in. It’s working. The condos are a little more expensive but they cover more utilities than our townhouse, so it ends up being pretty close to comparable. Plus, we’d be right upstairs from work so we would save a ton on gas and get an extra 15 minutes of sleep every night. BUT, we’d also be right upstairs from work, is this too close? Will it give us even less distinction between work life and LIFE life than we already have?

I keep changing my mind; luckily our lease isn’t up until November so I have all summer and the better half of the fall to make a decision. But, I’m realizing that it could be a while before Jason and I are able to buy a house so we’ll be in one of these places for at least a couple of years. If that’s the case, I really want to do more to make a place a home. I haven’t done a lot to the townhouse because I didn’t think we’d be there that long, so if we stay I’d put more effort into decorating. Same thing if we move to Hoigaard Village, I would actually spend the energy making it a home since I know now it will be home for a while. I’ve come up with a pro-con list, because my daily life revolves around lists so it makes sense that my decision making would too. So here are some PROs and CONs for both places:

Bristol Village:

PROS
*We don’t have to move (moving is not fun)
*Close to family
*Less expensive
*Private entrance (not an apartment building)
*Far enough from work for a separate life

CONS
*Needs a lot of repairs
*Super small kitchen

Hoigaard Village:

PROS
*Close to work
*Close to downtown/uptown (more fun/young area than townhouse)
*Brand new/MUCH nicer than townhouse
*Way better workout facility (I could cancel my gym membership) and a great party room!

CONS
*More expensive

Take a look at these picture from the Hoigaard Village for a better idea of the potential new pad:

http://www.hoigaardvillage.com/test_site/html/harmony/floorplans_landing.html

Ugh, I don’t know! What do you guys think???