The Te-Tes: March 2009

Peter owns a lake house (actually, there are 2 little houses on the property) outside of Burnet. They have been sitting vacant for about a year now, with nary a buyer in sight. Now that we both work in Burnet, we've been looking for a house to buy.

We haven't found a house we're madly in love with. And there really isn't anything within our price range (which is pretty low as it is).

So, we're considering moving out to one of the lake houses. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros
1. Free rent! (Well, sorta). We've been paying the mortgage on these houses AND rent. So, we'd be saving a lot of money per month. Which leads to:

2. Saving money for a down payment! We'll have a nice down payment in a year if we did move out there.

3. Sprucing up the lake house! While we're there we plan on doing some fixing up of the house which will make it more livable and hopefully help it's resale value.

4. A cat door for Sally! Our kitty loves to play outside, but she has to wait until we get home in the afternoon to be able to do it. We live in a rent house now, so we can't exactly cut holes in the doors. If we lived in a house that we own, we could do that!

Cons
1. We're nervous for Sally. This area is a lot more "wild" and I'm worried that she'd get into something or that some big animal would come get her. Though, most of the animals in the area are cows and deer. I don't think they like to eat kitties.

2. The drive is dangerous. The road between the lake house and Burnet is very twisty and turny with no shoulders, and there are a LOT of deer out there. So driving at night can be hazardous.

3. The houses are little bitty. There are 2 houses on the property, and according to their real estate listing they're 1600 square feet, together. So, seperately, they're probably about 900 and 700 square feet. Right now our duplex is about 1200, so that would take some getting used to.

4. The cost of "amenities." The cost for having internet and TV is a lot more than we're paying now. It's hard to get those things when you're 12 miles outside the city limits.

Well, it's neck-and-neck with the pros and cons. I don't think any of the cons are undoable for the amount of time we plan to spend out there. And I dont' think any of them outweight what we'll save for a downpayment (except for Sally. But, hopefully she'll get used to her surroundings).

The idea is looking better and better, but there are still things to think about.

My darling friend Barbara is going to be blessed with two children in a few short months. So, we gathered this weekend to "shower" her with gifts for the wee little ones.

Barb's friend JoDee and I painted our butts off on Friday, and got the babies room almost completely painted. (Don't worry, we made Barbara stay in the other room. No fumes for her!) I meant to take pictures of the work in progress and I completely forgot! I'm sure Barb will post pictures when it's done.

On Saturday a lot of us old THS girls and some of Barb's college friends and moms had the brunch shower. Here are some pictures from the day:

This is the wreath I made for the shower (I have to brag, this is the craftiest I've ever been).

Barb showing off her new wipey warmer.

Our friend Mary had never heard of wipey warmers and thought they were hilarious. Barbara's mom, Susan, is in this pic with Mary. Can you believe she's going to be a grandma? No way does she look old enough!