House Poor

Isn't that what they call it when you sink so much cash into your home that you can't buy food, pay for tuition, or go on vacation? Yeah...we could be that, and easily. Wanna' know what you can buy for under a million in St. Louis? Not much, if you're hoping to have 3,000 sq. ft., and be under 30 minutes from work. Here are some of our favorites from this week's hunting....

The first picture is #3 Daniel Road. We love it. It's under contract, but if it weren't, and if it were next spring, it might be worth being house poor if we could find a way to make it happen. Wondering what that would set us back? Well, it's listed at $849K. Yep.

I love the one below...it's a French country/Norman looking one that feels for all the world like you're out in the country, when really you're minutes from the Galleria, school, and a straight shot to the hospital for Michael. It has sunporches upstairs and down, lots of attractive features. Except the price...it could be yours for $949K. Sad.

As long as we're dreaming, I have always loved English manor looking kind of homes...they seem very St. Louis to me. I love the stone exterior and slate roof...I would just be thrilled if we could find something with a slate roof! This one isn't huge, but is also totally out of budget at $1.75M.

Ok, on to reality...one of our favorite homes that we have (literally) been looking at for about a year (it's been on the market more than once) is below. It is a precious little farmhouse, has the desired stone exterior and slate roof, is on a really large lot, has a pool in the back, and is just right for us to live in now (3BR/3BA), and could be added on to later. Love love love it. Still a little over our budget, but Suzy the realtor thinks it's about $100K overpriced...good for us! So we'll see what's happened by next spring....isn't it cute?

Above is the front, from the street...the driveway goes between a little stone wall with a wrought iron arch above....

...and the back.

So, we saw lots that we liked! I guess the good news is that we didn't find something that we couldn't live without that was on the market right now at a price we could do. We'll give it a few months and see what the real estate world looks like here next spring. I so want to find something that we can be excited about...it feels really important. We love our home in Jackson now, and it will be so hard to leave...it would be nice if we could really look forward to moving into a great house. Maybe not a castle, maybe without a slate roof, but something that felt like us, and that someday might feel like our home.