Housing Dilemna....

We've almost done it - our place is almost sold. We have an accepted offer on the place and the subjects are removed on Sunday -only three more days - whooowhoo! Of course we've been down this road once b/f and it didn't pan out but I think this time it will b/c there is NOTHING out there that we want to buy. On Monday I went out with our realtor and every house I really wanted to see had sold but not taken off the MLS yet...errrrr. There are NO houses in our area, in our price range. They are either under our price limit, which is a good thing, but not such a good thing b/c they are too small for our family of six. Or they are HUGE and we need to rent out a basement suit in order to pay for the mortgage. I don't want much, just a nice house maybe around 2000-2400sq. feet, nice yard, close to our school, close to the bus for Rich but there are NONE!
On the positive side to all of this, and what gives me hope, is that I talked to our mortgage dude and the interest rates have come down so much since even Feb. that having to buy the HUGE house (which is actually the normal size for today) isn't quite as daunting. I wonder if people out there buy houses with the suites as just "extra" income to buy the "extras" or if they actually need the suites to pay their mortgage? We would need the suite to pay the mortgage - is that wise? With the "helper" though we would be paying less of our mortgage than we do now in the townhouse. Anyways, unless what I REALLY want - nice size house and no need to rely on renters - comes on the market ASAP then we're going for the needed rental - which I think I've found the house I want in that market! If the deal on our house goes thru we have to be outta hear by June 28th - which is why we are in a bit of a hurry to find something, plus in our area houses are flying off the market.
Anyways, what do you think out there in blogger land - do you think most people "NEED" the rental income to afford their mortgage or do you think they use it for EXTRAS?

Cone wars

We went to a park on the May long weekend and Rich introduced the boys to Pine cone wars - something he did as a kid. They made up two teams and they had to get to each other's tree to score points. I'm not sure if they had to get there without getting hit or what. All I know is that the boys had so much fun throwing pine cones at each other. There were a few tears (pine cones can hurt) but not many. It's fun to be able to do things with the kids that you did as a child. What is something you did as a kid that you can't wait to do with you kidlets?

Scaredy Cat...

I had to help her on the way down but not on the way up.

Callia is a funny little thing - when she becomes scared or doesn't want to do something she cries and shakes. Well this one weekend we went to the park and we tried her on the slide - she cried and shook. We tried her on her own and with Ethan - didn't matter she hated it. A few weeks later we went to another park and I tried her on the slide - not quite as much crying or shaking so I kept sticking her on it and by the end of it she was okay with it. The next day Rich took her and she only cried when he tried to take her off the slide - funny girl. The next weekend we took her to a diff. park and she went on the slide -however, not only did she go down the slide she had decided that she should be able to climb up it and she did. Our little monkey, who can't walk yet, walked herself up the slide at least a dozen times by herself without my help!! She has had some other funny fears the boys never had - grass and pea gravel - she has gotten over both since we're outside so much and around it.