Whoa

So life has gone crazy in the last month. It seems like forever since I last posted.

We're in a bit of a houseing dilemma.

Hubby's Dad had to go to the hospital. He is quite overweight and has poor circulation in his legs. He is a veteran, so he gets to take advantage of the veterans services in our area. Such as monthly doctors appointments to monitor his health. He has poor health, I'm sure they don't do this for every veteran unless needed :).

Anyway, because of his being overweight, he spends most of his time sitting. He has back problems (never has seen a chiropractor.um, ok?) that have caused lying down to be painful, so for about the last 15 years he has slept in a recliner. This has caused bedsores all over his legs and backside.

These sores were getting really bad. They admitted him to the hospital, and then to a care center. He should be at the care center for something like 4 weeks.

So this got hubby and I thinking. His parents live almost 2 hours away from where he has his monthly doctor visits. Is it time to think about moving to a home where his parents can live with us?

So we thought about this, and started looking at possibilities. But when we approached his parents, they said, thanks but no thanks. They are quite comfortable where they were. Also his Mom is working and didn't want to commute 45 minutes every morning. I guess she doesn't want to deal with early retirement? Anyway, They make as much if not more than we do, but have a lot of debt. So hubby also offered to help them get organized and out of debt, but they refused that also. So hubby has organized a meeting of some of the siblings tonight to discuss the situation and see if we need to do anything, or if we should just leave them be.

Can I just say the debt thing drives me nuts. According to hubby's Dad it's all his wifes fault. She is always buying things. That leads me to say, um, ok, so you didn't tell your wife after this many years of marriage that she should cut down on the spending? Being a victim is ok I guess, but for over 25 years? At this point I say its both their faults. In my book its not ok to play victim for this long. I'm not explaining myself well. But hopefully you get the gist.

But the whole houseing thing got us thinking. The land and home prices around here are going up. We would like to buy around an acre, so that means what we can afford is getting smaller and smaller. So I've been anxious. So I've been looking.

Meanwhile another situation is going on. My brother, who runs a picture framing business (although it's much more than that!) decided that he wanted to do something else for awhile. I'm not entirely sure of his reasons, but that isn't really my business. So My parents, who also own a piece of this business have offered to run it for a while. So they are going to sell their home, and buy my brother's home (the business is run in his back yard). Their home is on 2/3's an acre and my brothers home is on 2.? acres. My parents are getting older (mid 60's) and were having problems taking care of their 2/3's an acre. So my brother's land was worrying them. So they heard we were looking at land and approached us! They want us to buy around an acre. So yay! C and A love Grandma so this will be great. But it needs to happen quickly. We want to pay fair market value to avoid any bad feelings, and the land prices are going up up up!

The other thing that's great is that if there is something we want to do (such as a huge garden) and there isn't room on our land for it, Mom and Dad are ok with us doing it on their land. Of course we wouldn't do anything permanent, like a shed on their land, because we would want it on our land in the event of either of us selling our home down the road.

The other thing that makes this great is that Mom and Dad are planning on a mission in about 2 years when mom retires from her job. So at that time, we would be here to watch over the house, and maybe the business. I'm not sure if they will have anyone stay in the house. We'll see in 2 years. And the thought of working the business makes me nervous. But my sister L lives near and has a lot of interest in the business. So it could all work out.

It could all explode too.... so I just try not to think of it. :)

We're going to go look at a home building company today. They say that they can build a home more efficiently than other companies. They only build 7 designs. This makes me a bit nervous. But they also say that they save money without cutting corners or using inferior materials. That sounds good. But we won't make any decisions without a LOT of thought.

crossing my fingers!