This is what Brian and I are calling "Walter." We must refer to this house as "Walter" because it's just that awesome. It'll make sense later if we go through with it and I post the real name of this plan. The house boasts 4,163 sqft, 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths and a 2 car garage. That's right... FOUR THOUSAND square feet. INSANE.
Supposedly, someone else in the neighborhood with a 4,600 sqft home has an electric bill of $178. Again, I'm going to make sure this is true because my inlaws have a big house and their electric bill is no where near $178. Their house was also built in 1989.
The neighborhood is located in Liberty Hill, which is about 30 minutes from where we live now.
It's right off 29 and 183, so we have quick, easy access to the highways. The tollroad will be completed within the next few years, so that will help Brian get to work a little faster. While that will cost us a bunch, it'll be worth it not to have to fight him to get him up and out the door on time. The neighborhood is in year 3 of a 7 year plan. Our hope is to get in at the end. Maybe some end-of-year/end-of-neighborhood savings. Then again, for this house... I can't imagine paying any less.
I never thought I wanted to live in another 2 story house again. The electric bill SUCKS and I'm afraid of the kids (or myself) falling down the stairs. But, for some reason, this house made those fears go away. I think it may have been the fact that I wouldn't have to jerry-rig gates onto them like I do now. Or that I was completely overwhelmed with the awesomeness this house projected.
I loved this house. The gameroom with a wet bar is perfect for us. The media room is perfect for us. The master bedroom with a nice bathroom and huge WIC is perfect for us. The thousand rooms upstairs is perfect for the kids and guests. The backyards are a good size for the dogs and kids and their stuff, plus room for a garden.
So, now I'm crunching numbers and figuring out how much we should be saving. Plus, we don't have much to furnish a home this large, so I need to make sure we have enough left over for that. The scary thing is.... it looks VERY doable. This would be our forever-home. And I love that we would never have to move again.
My hope is to pay off my student loans in 3 years. This is doable. My hope is to save $25,000 in 3 years. My hope is that we'll make twice what we owe on our current house when we sell. My hope is that the house will sell within weeks. My hope is to put between 20-30% down. My hope is that we don't have our hopes up too high already.
We've taped the floorplan to our bedroom wall so that it is a constant reminder. I think I'll move it around periodically so that it doesn't become part of the scenery and we lose focus.
6 comments:
WOW that's a HUGE house! You will be closer to my house :)
It IS huge... I loved the layout though... It's going to be a beast to keep clean though.. eek! It's so much cheaper than we thought... we figured $500k easy... it's half that... can you even believe that??
Houses are SO cheap right now! Liberty Hill is really nice...they have a great school district too! But...I think property taxes are high! But that's me speaking, because I think property taxes are WAYYYYYYY too much here in TX!!!
They are high because the population is only 1,400 people and there aren't any businesses around. They are getting a Home Depot, Walmart and CVS soon though.
But yea... taxes suck... too bad we have to pay them to have other public services though... hehe
Heh. That house would be around 1.2-1.5-ish in my town. =)
Would you clean it all on your own?? (Steve wants a house like that, but I refuse to move somewhere that big! =)
Eek... Natalie, I totally just saw your comment... The cleaning would have to be a family affair. Kaylee will be old enough to keep her toys put up and to fold towels, or maybe socks... maybe even dust things at her level. Brian and I would tackle everything else. The good thing is 2 of the bedrooms would serve as a guest room and a mancave... I never clean the mancave - that's Brian's job.. and the guest room would only need it when we'd have guests.
I imagine the game room and media room wouldn't need more than vacuuming and dusting periodically. Same with the family room, livingroom and dining room... Those would have to stay picked up daily because it drives me INSANE to have the common areas messed up.
Our biggest problem/scary thing is the kitchen. It's the hardest thing for us to keep clean now and won't get any easier.
$1.2-1.5... YIKES! But honestly, that's now unreasonable even in my area. This town is super small and several towns away from Austin. That influences the price for sure.
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