L has been having a small influx of Ukrainians to her gymnastics team – a new girl her own age, and a new coach.  I can’t help but wonder what path they took here.  At least there is a small community they can be part of here.  When we joined gymnastics, the coach said L should come two or three times a week for a couple hours.  Great!  Well, recently she sent a text suggesting 16 hours a week.  I honestly can only laugh.  Needless to say, summer or not, L is not attending that frequently, but she is there a lot.  However, we will be gone for all of August.  The summer has been crazy busy so far, compressing everything into 1.5 months instead of 2.5, and also trying to facilitate as much time for L with her best friend as possible (since she is leaving for France shortly.)  In Virginia, however, we have nothing planned except to sit around in our rental and try not to get too hot.  Well, we did buy a 3 person inflatable kayak.  I have this dream / vision of H and I kayaking together every evening, leaving the kids with the grandparents.

We have been looking at houses in earnest.  We will not buy now, not for several months, no matter what we see.  But we are trying to figure out what we want and where.  It’s such a huge decision, deciding where to live.  (And yes, leaving WA entirely is still on the table, but that’s another can of worms.)  I feel good having made the decision to move.  It’s been a long time thinking about private school versus public and the not-great schools where we currently are, and I love the idea of just living in a place with good schools and letting the kids go to the local school and having neighbors at the same school.  I had a great experience in public school, and I hope for the same for my kids.  With that being said, we have three very different kids, and it wouldn’t shock me if one of them has trouble at a given school.

We’ve been looking at places with larger lots.  I love the idea of a larger lot, but obviously, if you want a large lot, you end up farther out.   And when I calculate the distance from these houses to the places we go now – swimming and gymnastics – it’s a long drive.  It is wonderful not having to commute, and I’ve more or less decided I will never commute again if I can help it.  But driving L to and from gymnastics every day is like a commute.  And we love our swim club.   Obviously, we could switch, but when you get into the sticks, there aren’t that many options for kids’ activities, and preschool for S.  We’d probably end up driving 20+ minutes to every activity.  With three kids, that adds up.  Having a nanny helps, but we can’t afford to continue this indefinitely.  (We’re thinking another year.)  So will we be happier in a beautiful house on a giant lot or in a smaller house on a small lot (same price) nearer to everything?  Honestly, I think the latter.  However, I love our house so much, it’s hard for me to accept leaving it for a house I don’t like as much.  The problem is that our house’s value is depressed due to the fact that the schools aren’t so great.  To get the same house in a better school district is going to cost us.  It’s been 8 years since we bought this house, so we can afford more now than we could then.  But H is 47, so we won’t consider a mortgage longer than 15 years.

Anyway.

The other problem is that I’ve realized we want a lot of space.  H and I *could* share an office, but we are spoiled but not having to do so.  He spends a LOT of time talking, talking, talking all day long in various meetings.  I have far fewer meetings but still probably two hours a day on average.  I need very little space, but having a door that closes is very helpful with three kids banging around the house.  Of course, S is getting older and probably quieter, so in some ways, it’s really a short-term problem until she’s in school.  In three years, I could use the dining room or something with a lot less bother.  B and S share a room, and I think it’s good for them to share a room, but I also want B to have her own room by the time she’s 13 or so – but L won’t move out until B is turning 16.  Ideally, therefore, we’d like a place with 6 rooms.  Lots of giant houses don’t actually have 6 rooms with doors, even if they have tons of space.  We will “make do” with five, but a lot of houses don’t even have five rooms with doors.  Yes, first world problems.

In case you want to browse some of what I’m looking at . . . Many of these are obviously out of our price range, but everybody likes to browse, right?.  Our budget will hopefully be a house that costs 2 million today but loses value.

• https://www.redfin.com/WA/Redmond/6206-214th-Ave-NE-98053/home/444648
• https://www.redfin.com/WA/Bellevue/17122-SE-60th-St-98006/home/419231
• https://www.redfin.com/WA/Mercer-Island/9100-SE-50th-St-98040/home/255752
• https://www.redfin.com/WA/Redmond/25059-NE-42nd-Pl-98053/home/446356
• https://www.redfin.com/WA/Redmond/6110-208th-Ave-NE-98053/home/446306
• https://www.redfin.com/WA/Issaquah/26410-SE-33rd-St-98075/home/438674