So we've had a bit of a Snafu with getting where we want to go.
We had wanted to stay out in the country, but that didn't work out for the time being. I loved living in the country. Now the "country" here is more of a prairieland and very few places are wooded. You have to plant your own trees, or if you're lucky find a property where someone else has already planted trees. It's windy, with the occasional chance of a tornado, and it gets down right cold with bitter winds. But the peace and quiet, and the ability to do whatever you want with your home and property, within reason, is priceless.
Right now we're in the process of finding a home. Our credit is horrid, making this difficult, but I'm sick and tired of waiting around trying to fix all of it at once before we can buy a home. I'd like to own a home before I'm 30 thank you very much. I don't care what anyone says, renting is throwing away money! We could be paying a mortgage that is less than what we pay now and we'd actually own our home. No more rules regarding animal size, noise restrictions or the sort. If we lived in town we'd have to deal with strict HOAs here, but we're going to live in the country.
There are programs out there for people with bad credit to get homes and I'm going to take adavantage of it! Yea it takes longer to pay off a home and you may pay a little more with all their fandangled fees, but you know what, I consider that karma for getting bad credit in the first place. Kind of a penalty for having bad credit. Did you know that even if you pay off everything you owe you'll still have bad credit scores for years to come!? Yea. How about them apples?
So what would our ideal home be? Something 3+ bedrooms, 2 baths, with lots of space, like 2000 square feet and up. A basement would be awesome so we would have somewhere to have all our caged animals and rescues. I want some property, like acreage. I don't want cattle anymore so something under 10 acres is fine. But I do want a small pony or a miniature donkey so I need some space. *sneak peek* I'll be writing a blog on ponies and mini donkeys soon. We love BIG dogs, giant breeds, and I want to be able to foster dogs for rescues, so I want some acreage. I want to have a place to build my coop for our fowl, I want to have chickens, ducks, and a goose. I want somewhere in the country, but not in the boonies, so somewhere close to town.
When choosing a home, there is also a huge factor that most people don't think about...Schools! I also have two kids and I am looking forward to them going to school so I can finally work so good schools are important as well. Don't get me wrong, homeschooling is great for some people, especially people that live in the country, but my kids need to go to school. I need them to go to school, for my own sanity and theirs as well I'm sure. We have done our research and found homes located in areas with schools that we like. The homes we're looking at have not only a good public school with free transportation, there is also a great charter school nearby as well, in case we decide to go that route. I picked the area on purpose.
Do you have any idea how time consuming it is to find a house you like, then figure out which school district it's in, which bus route runs to it, etc..? Takes forever. But you know what?! If I had done that before moving to where we are now I wouldn't be so aggravated, because I was told we were in a different district than we actually are! And why am I pissed about this?! Because I didn't bother to check. That's why, my bad, I screwed up and my kid suffered because of it. No one needs to know how she suffered but she did, because it's a shitty school and it was all my fault. End of Story.
Do your research people, our kids are more important to us than anything. And picking a school for your child should involve as much research, time, and frustration as when shopping for a car or a new cell phone service. If you don't like your local school, then find a charter school! Charter schools are so amazing! Or choose a school you like and try open enrollment placement for your kids. Yea you have to bring them to school, but it's worth it for sure. We enrolled our daughter in a wonderful charter school that we loved and she thrived in. I had to bring her to school everyday, and yea that was slightly annoying, but completely worth it. I wish I could afford to enroll her in fulltime, but that's not an option. Next year she can. :)
Well that's all I can think of to vent about for now. But wanted to talk about how much closer we are to owning our own country home so that in time we'll be able to grow our own food, raise some of our own food, and live sustainably and organically!
