Houses, Illness and Rainbows

"Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear."

We had planned to go to Memphis, TN, to ring in the new year but due to ongoing health issues we decided that the best thing to do was get some much needed rest and simply stay put for a while until we are all healthy again. I'm beginning to wonder when that will be.....

I am now battling another bronchial bug and Rachel is also sick. Our counter top resembles a pharmacy because at least two of us have been sick at any given time over the past few weeks. Actually, we've been battling illness in some form or fashion since Thanksgiving. I can't remember the last time that we had a solid night of rest without someone coughing and in need of water or medicine at various times throughout the night. I barely had a voice yesterday. I'm sure Jeff has hated that. :-)

At least we had a small reprieve over Christmas. Anna and I were on the recovery end of our illness; but, still not 100%. We had a wonderful Christmas in Huntsville. Although, I must admit, it has always been important that our children be home on Christmas morning. This is the first year that our children weren't at our home for Christmas. And, throughout the holiday time period, Jeff and I found ourselves missing having a stationary home to incorporate our usual holiday traditions. It wasn't that we missed a specific home or house per se...we just missed having that one place that was our home to do our traditional holiday things. We always decorate for Christmas and we couldn't do much of that in the RV. We couldn't put up our tree with our sentimental decorations nor all of our exterior illumination. Many of these things are also packed in a storage facility and not very easy to get to...even if we had the room to put them out. And, I always bake a lot around Christmas. However, due to limited kitchen space and battling the flu....no baking was done this year. I didn't even get Christmas cards out this year due to illness. I guess the phrase "there's no place like home for the holidays" really meant more to us this year more so than others. And, with all of the bronchial illnesses, I wanted to run a humidifier to provide some relief. But, we were concerned about how it might affect the electrical components inside of the RV if used routinely. I can take living in a small space. I can even tolerate living in a hotel periodically. But, when we are ill and can't use something like a humidifier without concerns then that is where I draw the line. It was these things plus a need to have a home base when the RV is being serviced that has prompted us to begin our search for another house. I also wanted to add that even with these recent frustrations, I do not regret the decision we made in 2006. If it was just Jeff and me, I could see living in an RV being completely manageable long term. But, with two little ones, it makes living in one a bit tougher to meet their needs. We knew we'd get another house again some day so we figured why not go ahead and start searching. It's a good thing we did as I'll explain in the remainder of this post.

Our requirements are much different than what we used to have when shopping for a home. Gone are the days where mega space is the desire---now, the smaller, the better. Our requirements though are not so easy to come by. We want a home between 1,500-1,700 square feet with enough driveway space/property where we can park our motorhome on our property. We'd like a home zoned for decent public schools. While our children currently attend a private school, we'd like to preserve the option of using a public school if we wanted to go that route. We want to keep the mortgage cost down as much as possible so that our disposable income is as free as much as possible for our first love...traveling. As it turns out, this is a tall order! Most smaller homes also have smaller lots with tiny driveways...not much room for a 40 foot motorhome. And, many subdivisions don't allow you to have an RV in your driveway or on your property at all or without a garage cover for it. In outlying areas where you can keep the RV on your own land, you run into the problem of less desireable public schools. We have found a couple of homes that had over an acre of property which isn't desireable either. That is just more lawn to mow! Storing our RV elsewhere is not an option for various reasons. We travel quite often and still intend to do so. If we stored the RV off-site, it would be more of a hassle to pack up when we leave and we'd have to charge up the batteries, etc. with each trip. Plus, we'd be adding an additional expense to store it off-site as well which is undesireable to us. Also, we plan to use our RV as extra living space when we have visitors. A smaller home more than adequately meets the needs of my family when it is just the four of us. But, it won't allow room for guests to stay overnight comfortably. Our RV is a perfect guest suite when extra space is needed as it can comfortably sleep up to six people. We were hoping to find something that would be the equivalent of what we spend for rental fees for RV campsites and storage fees for other belongings so that the cost would be equal. I'm just not feeling real positive about finding what we want very easily. I guess the silver lining in this is that we can shop until we find something that is right for us as we have a roof over our head and we are in no hurry.

The shopping we have done to date has been quite frustrating. The problem that we are finding is that the homes that meet our requirements regarding lot size, square footage, and school zone all were built around the same time period. Most of them are in the 10-15 year age range, are on a slab instead of a crawl space, and they all have polybutylene piping. What is polybutylene piping you ask? Well, take a look at this link for some information--it's nasty stuff. Most real estate agents locally will tell you that this type of piping is not a big deal. If that's the case, why is it state law for an inspector and seller's who are aware of it to disclose it? Plus, I have two coworkers that have had problems with it. Luckily, one of them was able to claim some of the repair work under the class action law suit against the manufacturers of polybutylene. The other employee was not so lucky. When the first employee had his house re-piped, the plumber stated that they get 3-4 calls per month for polybutylene problems from homeowners in this area. And, it has cost him around $7,000 for all of the work. All I could think was that this time bomb was the last thing we needed since we travel so much. It would be my luck, we'd come home from a trip and our entire home would be flooded. With polybutylene, it's not a matter of if you'll have a leak problem...it's a matter of when.

Homes in the 10-15 year age range are just about in the zone for big ticket maintenance items that need replacement...hot water heater, heat pump, appliances, roofing, etc. We've seen very few homes where people have either maintained them well or that would require little investment on our part after purchase. We found one home we liked but it had mauve carpet throughout the house. I don't own one thing that would match mauve carpet. A quick estimate revealed we'd have to shell out around $7K to replace that mauve carpet with something more neutral or with laminate wood flooring. That's not exactly what I had in mind. I'd rather spend that on traveling!

Newer homes cost significantly more per square foot and the lots are much smaller...so unless we get a 2,500 sq ft home (which we do not want), we're finding that lot sizes won't accomodate our needs with the RV.

Finding a new home will be quite the challenge for us. It's a good thing we started shopping already as I suspect it'll take a while before we find the one that will work best for our needs.

But, there is a rainbow after all of the sickness and the frustrating home viewing process. We had some rain here yesterday and right before sunset we had one of the most beautiful rainbows we have ever seen. The picture really doesn't do it justice.