In a couple weeks we will have been back in So Cal for four years. We moved to the Bay Area in 2005 when Elliott was just 5 months old and called Nor Cal home for three years until we moved to our current location after Jay accepted a job in Woodland Hills.

We love it here. We love the school, the neighborhood, our home. But….we have been “looking” and “in the market” for a home to buy for three years now {our agent is VERY patient!}. When we moved here and decided to rent, I must admit I was a little hesitant. I wanted to own so that we could do what we wanted to and feel like it was HOME. Not to say that our house hasn’t felt like home for the past four years, but I think in my head that this has been a temporary, sort of holding pattern, since we moved in 48 months ago. Of course I have tried to make it ours and put plenty of holes in the walls, but it just hasn’t felt permanent.

The up-side to renting is that if something goes wrong, you just place a call to the management company and they handle it. We have been very fortunate to have great service and in-turn have been great renters. We know how it feels to have someone living in {your} home as we have a house in Nor Cal that we currently rent out. We take pride in our home, but it is time to find a place where we can truly hang our hat until Holden is off to college and Jay and I decide where we want to go next.

We’ve decided to expand our search to other neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with equally great schools, but we have mixed emotions about this because we have formed bonds here in this neighborhood. We have awesome neighbors. We adore the small {California Distinguished} elementary school that is 1/4 of a mile away. The problem is is that there’s little to NO inventory out there. We are ready to buy a home in this neighborhood, but there is nothing to buy. We did make an offer on a place right down the hill, but most likely lost out to someone with a heftier down payment. We’re OK with that because that is a sign that it wasn’t meant to be.

{pin the smile on the skeleton at a monster mash b-day this weekend}

In a way we feel like we’re going into this move blindfolded. Are we making the right decision? Should we just continue renting? Should we take advantage of the low rates and buy? What is the economy going to be like after the election? Should we wait to see if something comes onto the market in our neighborhood or go ahead and move away and eventually have to pull the kids out of their school?

I just have to keep reminding myself that we’ve made three BIG moves in the eight years that we’ve been married and each time we’ve done just fine. Change is scary and comes with a lot of unknown. I know it will not {ruin} the kids to switch schools, but I do know that it will be difficult. That just means that the four years that we’ve spent here have provided many memories and lots of wonderful friends. And that is something no mortgage can buy.

Hoping to remove the blindfold soon and open our eyes to our new HOME….no matter what neighborhood it might be in.