The Perfect House

So I've been dreaming about the perfect house lately.  Not because we have the ability to move anytime soon, but because that's what I do.  I dream of the future, I make (tentative) plans and get all excited about the possibilities.  I don't know why, I've always done it.  Anyway, I've been searching for houses that would fit our ultimate desires:  things like enough rooms to house a couple of college students, an older home that we can fix up and take advantage of the beautiful historic details, a great neighborhood where we can engage in community living with those around us, and a HUGE backyard so I can have my own little urban farm.  And, of course, all of this for an affordable price.

Something has been brought to my attention though.  If we found the "perfect house" and put our blood, sweat, and tears into fixing it up to be even more perfect - how much harder would it be to leave?  Not that I think we're leaving soon, but I do struggle with feeling unsettled.  I feel so very, very blessed to be in the place we are, with an incredible community, in a town that is just my size.  But I can't help sensing that God's going to call us to move on someday.  I mean what we have here is great, so shouldn't other places have that too?  Is it possible we're here to learn about what "living life together" looks like, to gain support and knowledge, and then take those ideas to a new place and teach a new group of people?  I think it's very possible, the idea of leaving just plain sucks - but it's very possible.

So with that in mind I've been thinking to myself, "I don't want to find the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood."  It will already be hard enough to leave at some point, even harder if we've settled into the only house in the world that could possibly make us happy.  Therefore, I've changed directions.  Not that I've stopped looking at houses - that's not gonna happen!  But I've starting looking at what house are out there that could be "good enough for now" when we are able to buy something bigger?  The only reason we want something bigger is because we LOVE having people live in our house with us.  And so far it's worked out in our tiny 2-bedroom town home.  But we're hoping to bring babies into the house as well, and that is going to make everything more difficult.  We'd rather not sacrifice the joy of living with other people, so when it's possible we'd like to find a place more suitable for that.

I also would like a place that doesn't need to be fixed up.  Again, because it will be much harder to leave something we have put so much work into in order to make it exactly how we always imagined.  It'd be a lot easier to move into a place that is ready to go, make a few updates to increase value, then sell it when we need to.  My ideal "good enough for now" house would have two levels - the first level with the typical living/dining/kitchen areas.  The master bedroom downstairs, connected to an office area, and then another bedroom down the hall for kids.  Upstairs there would be two bedrooms with a bathroom and an open living area.  I like the idea of our housemates being able to take some time to do their own thing, if they want to watch a movie, play video games, or whatever. 

You know, I could be wrong.  Perhaps we are meant to stay in Bryan-College Station forever and raise up people to send out and spread around the beautiful thing God is teaching us to do here.  I don't think I'll know until Jeff is done with school - what he going to do and where he is going to do that will tell us a lot.  We'll just keep praying for direction until then, and trying not to get attached to all of our things.