We’ve just spent 4 days wandering around Rochester trying to find a house. (We have an accepted offer but until we get through the initial stages, I don’t want to say anything that might jinx it!) In the process, of driving all over eastern Monroe county and traipsing through more than a dozen houses, we had lots of opportunity to reflect on what is important to us and what is not. None of the houses were perfect – we knew we wouldn’t find that – so we needed to figure out which kind of imperfect was best for us.

One of the lessons we learned from our soujourn in KC is that we are not “quaint little house” people. While we still love our quirky little Brookside bungalow, we had to let go of the notion that the charm of a 90 year old house outweighed the pain of the upkeep for us. It wasn’t that there was so much work to do really; it was more that everything that needed done was just that much harder. For example, it’s a plaster and lathe house so even fixing the ceiling in the foyer when the bathtub above leaked meant a lot more work than just some drywall and mud. So for this go round, we decided to look at newer houses. Although there was nothing wrong with the houses from the 20th century, they felt very dated and not what we had in mind.

The second thing we had to think carefully about was space. While we know that we have downsized just a *little* too much in our move to KC, we weren’t sure exactly how much space was the right amount. We saw several gorgeous houses that were upward of 3500 square feet – comparable to what we had in VA before we gave away all the furniture that you need for a house that size. We had to let go of the idea that more is always better and find a happy medium between our current cozy 1800 square feet and the cavernous homes that we could afford to buy but not furnish.

And lastly, we had to really focus on how the space was distributed. We are still of the “formal living room and dining room” generation. I like having a room with comfy seating and no TV and another room to have Christmas dinner. Apparently, that isn’t how youngsters roll these days so builders concentrate on “great rooms” off the kitchen and “morning rooms” where you do all your eating. We nearly needed to let go of our antiquated floor plan requirements but we were lucky enough to find a 5 year old house that was built for people like us. Instead, I needed to let go of the notion that I needed a separate study. I have one now where I do all my school work (lecture prep, grading, etc.) but since I have promised Frank that I will only have one job (at least for a while 🙂 ), I don’t really need a study. (Then again, we have an extra bedroom upstairs so maybe I just need to let go of the first floor qualifier….)

So stay tuned to see what we gained when we let go.