As most of you may grok based on my posting history, the house I live in has been going all to heckies for better than a decade.

I have finally gotten my family to agree that we must move. What is more I have convinced them at long last that it will be more economically sensible to buy.
Between medical bills (paid!), general expenses, and the fact that I have been unable to do much paid work for the past 5 years it will be tough. We found a grant we are eligible for that will contribute to the down payment, and we qualify for a program at the bank, so it will be doable. Stupid medical bills were actually a saving grace. We pay for what we buy up front almost all the time, and do not take loans or own credit cards. So we do not have a credit history except for those medical bills. Being fiscally responsible has its downsides.

Now we just have to find the right house at the right price.

4 bedrooms, not in a city or village, and at least an acre of land. Lord knows I would like a bit more land, but much more than around 5 acres would probably be to big a tax burden. Of course everybody else has their wishes, I have been trying to get across the difference between what you want and what you need. For example I want the laundry hookups to be either in a laundry room or in the basement, at least not in the bathroom. I don't need that, it would just be more convenient.

Poor kiri does not know what to think. I was looking at online listings with the help of google earth and she discovered that there are houses where the mailbox is a five or ten minute walk from the front door. She seems to have had no idea that such a thing was possible.
Poor woman thought living in a city of less than 40K people was country living. LOL! She grew up and lived in Columbus Ohio, which is a very different sort of place, until she came to us.
I am just done with living in town. Given the choice I would take us back up the hill to where DH's people are from. Unfortunately that would put us in Pennsylvania. Now there is nothing wrong with Pennsylvania except that services for the disabled are poorly provided in rural areas, and we have Ash to think about. He is going to be 18 next month and in NY that gives him 3 more years of public school, plus we have a center that caters to the needs of the developmentally disabled in this county, so this county is where our search focus is going to be.
Besides, if we stay in NY DD3 can finish her college degree at a better school, and I can get those pesky 3 classes I need to finish mine, all for free. Yeah, I did the drop out cause I got pregnant thing THREE times. After DD3 I figured I had best wait a while to go back because college seemed to be a fertility charm.
Now I don't have to worry about it.

NightMist