The forever home

We bought this house with the intention of fixing it up and moving on. The plan has been extended because life had a couple other plans for us... namely these two

But the plan is still to someday give them wide open spaces, room to run and play and be boys. We have settled on the where we would like to build our forever home. We are blessed with family land that will allow them the space they need. 

Our intention is that because this is family land that it will be the forever home. We have poured over designs and house plans and keep coming back to the same one. 

 

 

 

 

It will probably be a couple more years before we can make this our reality, but in order to do that some of the projects I have planned for this house might have to be scrapped. There's not really any sense in over renovating. There is only so much we can do before we're throwing good money after bad, before we cannot recoup the money we have invested. Sure, I'd love to put board and batten in the dining room, and open up the kitchen to said dining room. I'd like to have built ins and a fireplace built here. But will any of those things pay off? Will they help sell the house later? Will they bring us more money? 

There isn't a room in this house that hasn't been touched, but there really is only so much we should do if we're planning on selling in the not too distant future.  I struggle with the here and now vs the future plans. I have trouble with the idea that my house just doesn't really work for the way we live. That opening up the kitchen would not just increase the visual space but would allow me to add a peninsula which would mean a place for the boys to eat breakfast, and do homework (next year is Kindergarten) and help me bake and cook. It would be better for us, but for the amount that it would cost to undertake such a renovation would the payoff be there a couple years down the road?

Every time I think of yet another renovation, I stop and look and look at these pictures of the forever home. I stop myself and remember that we want the forever home to become a reality sooner rather than later. We have to be smarter with our money, get the lipstick and mascara things done around here and leave the major renos to someone else. We have done a lot of work, but it has to stop somewhere. If this was the forever house a complete reno of the kitchen would be in order because it's small and has oak cabinets. Enough said right? But I can put up with it for another couple years because someday I will get the big open kitchen with my choice of cabinetry. 

Patience is something that I have never been very good at, something that I have trouble with. I have trouble with not making the space I reside in RIGHT NOW exactly what I want, but the truth is this house is not ever going to be exactly what we want. So I have to wait.