Huge Mistake. HUGE!

Curious about a new development in the town of Lathrop (12 miles north of Tracy), J. and I ventured out this afternoon and did one of our favorite things:  looked at model homes.  Motivated by considering a smaller home with fewer stairs and curious about this master planned community, we visited River Islands.

And fell in love with one of the home plans.  They won't accept contingency so we'd have to sell this place first, then live somewhere else while our home is built.  I have no doubt this home will sell - though it needs some serious culling out and the carpets need to be cleaned.  My friend sold her house in one week for more than they ever dreamed they'd get - the market is heating up and our house is a pretty sought after model. I'm sure we can sell it - it's just the mystery of timing.  The new home builder doesn't have a lot of 'time frames' on when they're building out the first phase.  We'd be basically rolling the dice and hoping it works out - and where we'd live in between is a huge question.

The neat thing about looking is I can totally picture us in the new house - and it's super easy to identify pieces of furniture we wouldn't want to/need to take with us.  I told J. 'let's just start pulling things out to the driveway on Saturdays and see what we can get rid of'.

We are going to head out to the development again tomorrow with H. in tow.  The house has most of the bedrooms downstairs but a loft and bedroom/bathroom are also on the upper floor - perfect for an adult 'child' still living with his parents.  We actually didn't want the upper rooms but they aren't optional - so when H. moves out someday, the loft and bedroom will be guest territory, pretty much.

The development is a beautiful community that is close to a river and has a large man-made lake in the middle.  When fully built, it will cover 4900 acres with 11,000 homes.  Tons of walking paths.  The builder we like doesn't have water front lots (which I am disappointed about).  The builder who has lake front lots (including boat docks) has homes that don't interest us - all two story and we just didn't care for the homes. They felt very small to us (thought the square footage wasn't really that much less) - just the way they laid things out feels 'compressed' vs. spacious.

Of course, there's a lot to consider but we may call a Realtor to get an idea of what our home would be listed for.  That's probably the best place to start 'cuz if we can't get what we need to make it happen, then there's no point in fretting about it anymore.

It was a huge mistake to look 'cuz now, I can picture us in that house - just like I could when we looked at this house 14 years ago.  I can totally see us living there - and doing another backyard (totally differently than this one). Never putting in a pool (expensive and we don't use it all that much); less high-maintenance plants and more space for seating.  Some of the homes in the development have a really neat 'California Room' - an outdoor area with a built in fireplace - but the model we like the best doesn't have that.  We can create our own outdoor kitchen area, fire pit with seating.  Keep the terraced backyard full of pretty, flowering shrubs and enjoy less maintenance.  It's so fun to think of another new house to make our own.

I do love our house - truly, I do.  I'm not in any real hurry to leave our neighborhood - and I wouldn't live in the district I work in.  That has a lot of pluses (it's not always easy to live in the neighborhood and town where you work) and minuses (I wouldn't ever be able to run for the school board if I move our of our district).  Oh well.

Still much to consider and after a day that has me incredibly tired, I look around and think 'no way are we ever going to be able to do this'.  But we could.

Let's see what H. thinks - and then take some pics to send to B. and we'll go from there.