House hunting

I felt a little overwhelmed looking at houses today. Right now we are looking at new ones in a small, but growing community about 15 miles from our house. It's a quiet town (for now) and has new schools....everything is new.

We looked at several models and the one thing that kept frustrating me is the SMALL kitchens and living rooms. With seven of us, we really need a big kitchen and living room.

Here are my IDEAL speks:

*multi-level house
*South facing
*Central Air
*Big Kitchen with an island/bar
*Large enough kitchen space to accomodate our large table.
*Big Living room
*Built in entertainment center/TV nook w/ possible gas fireplace below.
*Laundry room large enough to hold upper cabinets and a built in shelf for folding and on the same level as the bedrooms.
*4-5 bedrooms..all on the same level
*Basement with large enough room to make a good size dance floor...at some point.

We also want hardwood floors and luckily my boss is a floor installer and will give us a smokin' deal on labor. We'll get the wood from our wood floor warehouse. I'm not sure if I want hardwood in our bedrooms...but at least the main living rooms, kitchen on main floor.

All this can happen...it's quite possible we could get everything we want, plus pay off all our bills (including car), get shutters, put money down on the house and have some savings....which would be GREAT!

Our main concern....Where would we live while this house was being built? We don't have any family that can hold our huge brood and I'm not really excited about paying rent in an already inflated housing market.

We could look for houses being built that are almost done, but then we lose out on any "upgrades" or changes during the building process. We could also look for houses that are already built/lived in, but then we're looking at living in the valley and paying an absurd amount of money to live in the valley. That's why we're selling...because we know that we will get an absurd amount of money on this house. TWO people who have recently sold their homes in the past 2 weeks have had their homes on the market for a couple days and were offered TEN THOUSAND more than the asking price. It's crazy, but to our benefit!

I'm excited to be out of debt and have some savings. I know that God will work out everything for us...I just have to trust in Him.