Stillwater

We made the move to the 'burbs!  As much as we loved the convenience of living so close to downtown, we did not love the crime, especially for raising a little one.  I used zillow.com to search for homes, and this time I looked for neighborhoods where everyone paid a similar amount for their homes.  The neighborhood we chose has an HOA with a small yearly fee for upkeep of the neighborhood and swimming pool.  It also has rules, which I actually like because it protects everyone's property value.  In our old home, we constantly ran into situations where neighbors did tacky things to their yards.  Every day, I would look next door and think, "Ok, surely they can't fit any more vehicles (RV, boat, motorcycle, truck, car) in their front yard!"  And every day, they would surprise me!  In our new neighborhood, they can't.  I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of my personal freedom to be tacky in order to protect the value of my home.  We also have a neighborhood pool a short walk from our new house.  Here is Stillwater:

I love this house!  It had the layout I wanted.  As long as a house has good "bones," I'm happy, because all of the cosmetics can be changed! 

I found out I was pregnant with our son the day after we moved into this house, which was kind of perfect timing, and kind of hard because I wasn't really supposed to be lifting heavy things, climbing on ladders, exposing myself to paint fumes, etc.  So, we have been on a much longer reno timeline on this house, especially because little dude keeps us so busy!  One thing at a time...I'm always changing something in the house!