House Update

So it's been awhile since I have talked about this subject! A quick recap for those of you who aren't up to date with our housing and lot situation.

We have lived in our duplex for four years now, and while we haven't outgrown it, we have always wanted to build our 'dream' house. If one good thing came out of Michael's deployment to Iraq, it was the money. He made MUCH more then he does teaching! With this money, and with me saving every penny, we have enough (can you every really have enough?) to build. Last March we closed on a lot in a wonderful neighborhood. We absolutely love the area and my parents bought the lot next door. (Before you judge, my parents and my husband get along wonderfully. They are not over bearing and know how to give space and not be in our business. Not to mention my Dad loves to cut the grass and said he would cut ours since he is our neighbor! Who is going to argue with that?)

When we closed on the lot, we also put our house up for sale. With the market the way it is, we had about three people come through in about 5 months, and we decided to take it off. After much debate we have decided to refinance since the rate is unbelievably low, and with the new mortgage payment we can rent it out. Renting out our house is a much better option for us then taking a probable $30,000 loss if we actually sold it right now. We put in our paperwork for the refinance last month, and have been waiting to see what happens. We found out it is going to go through, the last thing we have to get through is the house appraisal which scares me. We bought the house right before the market crashed, so there is no way we could get what we paid for it four years ago. With that being said, if the house doesn't appraise for somewhere close to what we still out I'm not sure what we are going to do from there.

We can't start building our dream house until we move out of this house, so I am getting a little antsy especially with Patrick on the way. In a perfect world I would have liked all of this to be finished before he arrived, but we all know life isn't perfect. Now our next problem (besides the appraisal) is when to rent. Do we try to rent it in June so we can start building sooner, or do we wait a year since we have the baby? I know moving with a newborn could be a nightmare, but I really am excited to build our house. So many things up in the air!

4 years ago we didn't want to rent because we would be 'throwing our money away.' Now, looking back, renting wouldn't have been so bad!