Poor Timing....Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

"The road to Hell may be paved with good intentions, however, the road to Heaven is paved with lost opportunities."

 

- Gerrard

Just when you think life has settled into a nice, boring routine it kicks back up in full swing making your head spin. Or maybe it is just my life that does that. I can honestly say that things are very rarely ever dull. Or if they are, they won't be that way for long.

The hubs and I are fairly rash decision makers. We are not known for our researching and prolonged thinking which is why we ended up with a convertible in October in Ohio. We don't fear change or waste time wondering what if. I would rather try and fail than never try at all. It does make for some unnerving times and in the end we have wasted more money than I care to admit. When we moved down here we vowed to keep our long term goals in mind and quit with the short term gratification (or at least a lot of it, you still have to live you know). What does this have to do with anything? Well, a lot. We are passing up a chance that any other time in our lives together we never would have even thought twice about. Progress? Maybe.

My new friend down here has two properties - one is the house she currently lives in and the other is an 8 acre property pretty close to where we live now and is a rental. The backyard was offered to us as a potential place to keep the Dynamic Duo (aka: Gem and Pete) when we wanted to leave Crabby Acres and didn't know where to go. We decided to not take her up on the generous offer for several reasons, but the main one being that it lacked any horse amenities beyond a fenced area, so riding would be difficult and if we are boarding we might as well get some real benefits out of it. We then found FS Farms where they are currently residing (for the time being anyway). That was last weekend and things seemed to settle back down from that stress.

Until Monday (a whole 2 days of stress free living!! Wahoo!) when she contacted me saying that the current renters put in a 60 day notice. Would we be interested in moving into the house and bringing the Dynamic Duo along with us? Ummmm......yes! Oh wait...that was awfully rash of me without knowing any details about the house, property, price etc....Let me talk to the hubs. Oh and where exactly is this place?

I drove by that same evening and was a little deflated when I saw a huge mansion of a brick house and a lot of trees. It even had a brick gate to get into the driveway. I highly doubted that it was in our price range, so I texted her and asked. Lo and behold the stars were aligning and it was only a little higher than our current rent. For a 5 bed, 4.5 bath, 4000 sq ft home with a swimming pool and a screened in porch. Are you kidding me? Yes!!!! Oh...wait...I'm supposed to be thinking about things more. Darn.

We met her yesterday to walk around and see what all was what. There is a small arena out front that is serviceable. There is also a 100 acre property across the street that we might be able to ride on. The disappointing part was the yard. The back probably 1 -2 acres is fenced for horses, but is 85% dense trees and only 15% grass. Overall the area is large, but with all the trees there wouldn't be room for them to run around. But still....having them out back would be great. The main concern became the price. If we brought them with us the rent would go up $200 a month (not sure exactly why) and we would be responsible for our own hay (with no grass would need it year round) and grain. We bought our own grain in WI the first year and it was roughly $100/month and I figure hay to be the same so we would be adding $400 a month onto the rent for the horses. Which is the same we are paying for board currently, but with the increase in rent from our current small house we would be getting up there in monthly expenses. For a rental. That isn't an option to buy ever because it just isn't truly a horse property and we can find 10 acres that are better suited with a more reasonable house for less down the road. Sigh.

After much....hmmmm...argument is so harsh a word....lets call it debate that ate away our 9th anniversary yesterday, we have come to the conclusion that the short term gratification of the nice house with a pool and the horses out back would significantly extend the time until our primary goal in life for our own farm and that while where we are living and boarding now isn't perfect it is pretty darn cheap. Sigh. I liked being rash and immature soooo much better. This being responsible and adult like is no where near as fun.