The Creek, originally uploaded by cheryl.
Our kids have always been city kids. Not big city, by any means, but city none the less. The state university is here, and several large employers are here, and it's the second largest city in the state. Our old house was in a subdivision created from an old farm, with a few sections of untouched (at least for now) farmland in between. We used to walk to that section all the time, just to let the boys roam outside of sidewalks and fenced in yards. They loved it. They loved it so much they cried if we strolled past it without stopping.
We've moved several times in our marriage, always to another house in another subdivision with neighbors only a few feet and a fence away. Josh and I have lived in five houses in the span of ten years. The kids have lived in three different houses, counting the one we live in now.
As we start thinking long-term, we are once again faced with a question that's always been in the back of our minds. City, or further out? Josh and I both grew up further out, with Josh probably a little further out than even I was - his county only had one high school to my county's four. With it's close proximity (about 20 minutes) to the city we currenly live in, his county has stayed small.
And we can't decide if maybe someday we'd like to build our "final" house there.
There will always be the question of timing. When is a good time to build that last house? How soon will I give up the bigger (read: better-funded and better equipped to handle special education needs) school system that our boys are currently enrolled in? Will I ever? Am I willing to give up having a grocery store and city park within walking distance? What about work - how far are we willing to drive every day to get to and from work? Or doctors appointments, or other things?
There are so many questions still.
Some things have come up that have made us start considering some property as either another investment or a long-term place to live. We've taken the boys out to this piece of property a few times, and they seem to love it out there. The open spaces. The creek (which is great for throwing sticks into for hours upon hours). The room to run and yell without anyone noticing or caring in the least.
There are selling points, obviously. But the question still remains. Are we city people, or are we country people? Only time will tell ...