And in other news

We have found a new house. A really really nice house.

One of the nice things about the current real estate market is that it's not just good for buyers. It's also very good for renters because the people who can't sell their houses are often renting them out instead. And since they're just trying to cover the mortgage, not make a profit, you can get quite a nice price indeed for a house that's been fixed up to sell.

So it's not just that we're getting:

- Much more space
- A lovely setup in the basement with a family room with a wood-burning stove and an in-law suite that will serve as a great space for having a schoolroom connected to a playroom for optimal older-kid-teaching and toddler-entertaining
- A fenced backyard with a storage shed, across the street from some nice woods

The fact that they were trying to sell the house means that we also get:

- Nice, up-to-date appliances that aren't the cheapest models available
- Clean walls and carpets that aren't Rental Beige (and thankfully also not orange shag)
- New, energy efficient windows and doors

All for not much more than we're paying now. Groovy.

Really, the only real drawbacks I can think of are that it's not that convenient to a grocery store and all of the banisters are metal which will make it hard to set up baby gates, a necessity in a three-story house. In particular, we need them on the stairs going up to the third floor, which are fairly steep and lead down to a brick wall at the bottom. Ai-yi-yi. We like our toddler's brains on the inside, thank you. Right now, he's terrified of going down stairs on his own, but he'll outgrow that eventually and I think my hair will go entirely grey at that point, the hair that's remaining after I've torn large portions out, that is.

And, of course, the REAL disadvantage of the new house: now we have to move. Sigh. Can't I just hope for helpful moving fairies to arrive and magically transport all of our stuff to the new house, conveniently organizing and purging in the process? Sounds like a plan to me!