My life seems to be taking a turn

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
My life seems to be taking a turn
17
Thu, 03-18-2010 - 2:59pm

I've always found that new directions happen faster than I expect. I posted a few days ago about feeling down and depressed like my life had no direction and here I am 3 days later contemplating a big move. Here's the details:

My mom is going to be moving in with her boyfriend this summer and she wants to rent her house. She lives in a very nice town and it has a great school district. It's on a nice quiet street that surrounds a picturesque pond that you can canoe on. She is one of only 13 neighbors that have beach rites. The house has a yard but it's small. Her house is about 650 square feet (2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, car port, small living room with a wood stove and a screen porch. I currently live in 850 square feet. She also has 2 sheds and a small basement which would alleviate a lot of our storage issues because we currently have no storage. Her mortgage payment is a little less than $1000 a month.

We currently live in the biggest city in New Hampshire which isn't saying much, but still! We don't live in a great part of town. Our building was broken in to a couple months ago, the middle school my son is going to next year is known for it's violence and has police officers. You get the picture. We've 'made do' here for 6 years because we're stuck. We bought this condo for 167K. We owe 144.5K. There are many units in our building for sale and the ones comparable to ours are on the market for about what we owe, but the problem is that they aren't selling. They've been on the market for months and months. People have been taking them off. I guess one unit was just recently rented for $1300. My mortgage is $1240 with a $250 condo fee which is going up to $300 next year. If I could rent mine for $1300 I could make up the difference, but I'd worry about what I'd do if they left, or the heating unit died. Although I'm sure my mom could help me out if that ever happened as she'd have no house payment.

Here's my dilemma:

#1 - should I move? Pro's, yard and school. Con's, size and change
#2 - how would I fit 5 people into this house?
#3 - Should I rent or sell my current home?
#4 - If I sell for what I owe, how can I pay the real estate fee?

So many hard questions to answer. I've discovered some pretty cool stuff though for how we could live in this home comfortably. Here's the links. Basically, I'll be living very European. All of my furniture will be multi-purpose, but I'll be able to have a garden and my mom is going to fence in the yard. Also - I'll be selling most of my current furniture so I'll have a little bit of money to help transfer to my new style of 'space efficient' living.

The Lollipop bed for my 2 youngest kids who would be in the larger room which would probably double as a play room and a music room.
http://www.resourcefurniture.com/space-savers/bunk-beds/lollipop

The Euro computer bed for my oldest in the smaller room
http://www.flyingbeds.com/14.SmartBeds/Tale-ComputerBed.htm

The couch in the living room for Hubby and I:
http://www.lifestylesfurniture.com/catalog.php3?category=0000002267

I know that for a lot of people, this would be a no-brainer. How could we live in such a small space? But I think that sacrificing and getting rid of 'things' which aren't important anyway and giving our kids a yard to play in and a great school in a safe neighborhood that they can ride their bikes in is probably the better choice. I know that we could make this work, it's just such a scary decision to make!


ReallyRosieAaronPhotobucketSmileyJacob










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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-10-2003
Thu, 03-18-2010 - 11:40pm

Is there a possibility of adding on to your Mom's house?

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2007
Fri, 03-19-2010 - 3:06am

My advice would be to sell what furniture you would have to sell to move into your mom's house declutter the whole condo

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Fri, 03-19-2010 - 9:03am
I just want to add that my boys are still pretty young. I have an 11, 6 and 2 year old. So for a few years this should be fine for them. If the space just doesn't work out, then we can perhaps save up money and get something different.


ReallyRosieAaronPhotobucketSmileyJacob










iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Fri, 03-19-2010 - 9:05am
The property isn't on the pond, it's across the street from it and I'm not sure if I could build, but I could probably close off the carport and make it extra living space. I could also add glass to the screened in porch. So there would definitely be ways to add more space. I think we're just going to try it out for a few years and then if it really works for us, we'll think about the additions. If not, we'll have some money saved to buy something else.


ReallyRosieAaronPhotobucketSmileyJacob










iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Fri, 03-19-2010 - 9:13am

Abbie.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Fri, 03-19-2010 - 9:13am

I think the selling without a realtor is definitely something I want to look into. Craigslist sounds interesting. I've sold and bought plenty of things using craigslist and I'm good with technology so I could definitely make a website and take pictures.

Renting does make me nervous. I don't have any ability to get cash quickly and our heating unit is older and costs a lot to replace. That's definitely my absolute last option here.

My mom has been with this guy for 6 years and she works for his family and she's pretty close with all of them. If for some reason she needed to move back, we'd probably rent an apartment or something. Or go to the in-laws house or try to buy something again. We could deal with that as it came.

So for now, I am working on decluttering my home. We're going to have a huge yard-sale and I'm going to advertise the heck out of it. 'MOVING SALE!' Also I'll need to paint as my walls are pretty dark and covered in permanent marker thanks to my 2 year old!


ReallyRosieAaronPhotobucketSmileyJacob










iVillage Member
Registered: 06-02-2009
Fri, 03-19-2010 - 11:41am
JMO
Lila

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