Did the math, and for what we pay for our basement suite, we could rent a 2 to 4-bedroom 2 to 4 bathroom home in a really nice neighborhood (at least one of which is a super cute Craftsman style home which is probably my favorite house style, and many others are very similar) where I'm from and have $20 left over each month. :laughing::laughing::crying::laughing: Not that I'd ever want to get used to that level of housing, but still.
Granted, utilities and wifi are included in our rent, and even though the space is smallish and awkward, there's lots of beautiful wood trim, wooden cabinet doors, fantastic lighting, cute little niches and nooks, etc., because a previous tenant was into sailing/ships and did a lot of woodwork on the place. (This will probably be the nicest home we'll ever have
by far.) Add to that the climate here, both weather and political, and it's worlds better than Kansas. Except that I miss the big city and, with few exceptions, everyone I care about lives in Kansas. :dry: One day I will learn how to make friends...but today is not that day. :frustrating: Oh, and we have...suitemates? They're not really roommates because we have a separate dwelling area and don't really see the others that often, so I'm not sure what to call them. But we have to be careful not to be too loud.
Not sure why I'm even looking at homes from where I'm from, except I've been super homesick lately. I think it's partly due to the move, but I've been thinking back and I think this time of year is particularly hard on me in terms of being homesick. My theory is that when things started to turn cool I'd start getting more active and doing more of the things that would become unpleasant once it got cold, so I think I have more fond memories associated with fall than the other seasons.
Also, we've allowed my father-in-law to adopt our remaining cat. The road here is much busier than at our old place, and we know there have been pet fatalities here recently. Throw in that our cat pretty much lived with him in the first place, he's buddies with my father-in-law's cat, is already happy where he's at, he might feel somewhat cooped up here, and we can still see him whenever we want, and it just seemed like the right thing to do for our cat.
But it just doesn't feel quite like home without a kitteh (and we miss OUR kitteh, even if he is better off somewhere else).
We'll be looking into fostering soon, with the assumption that we'll inevitably fall in love with one of our fosters and won't be able to let go. We'll just have to be careful and make sure when we do fall for one, it will be one that's road-averse (I truly prefer indoor cats because I'm a worrywart, but The Husbandit insists kitties are happier with outdoor access, and he usually wins that argument...mostly because it's true :tongue
. We've had two cats die in the last two years. Yes, both were old so it wasn't entirely unexpected, but I don't think we could take losing yet another again so soon, so street smarts is
definitely toward the top of our list of requirements.