Today, Mr Moo and I visited a new subdivision that's being built not too far from here to check out the houses being built. We recently learned that 5,000 new homes are going to be built in the next few years just north of us, which means traffic going by our house is going to increase about a billion-fold as time goes on. We didn't have plans to move anytime soon, but are wondering if maybe we should get out of here before the value of our property starts going down. So, just for kicks, we decided to look around a little.

The subdivision we visited today is being built by the same company that built our current home. Rather than just "custom homes", this new neighborhood has "manor homes". They're bigger, better and a considerable step above, quality and detail-wise, than what we're in right now - real hardwood floors, solid wood cabinets, crown moulding, stainless steel appliances, etc. What it all boils down to is they cost a small fortune.

I stopped by the site yesterday on my way home from the optometrist's office to pick up an information packet. We looked through it last night and found a floor plan that would work well for us and my business. The house has 3213 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, media room, den, 3 baths and a 3-car garage. That's plenty of house for two people (and way more than we have now). We would have to have a wall removed between two of the smaller upstairs bedrooms to make a large enough space for my sewing studio, but, since it's not a load-bearing wall, that would be a simple thing to do since it's new home construction.

We took a tour of a home that's already been purchased and is nearing completion. It was absolutely stunning. I loved the amount of open space, the flow of the layout, all of the detail work. I could seriously imagine us living in that house. There were a few things that we didn't really care for, the biggest being the price. That particular house style starts at almost $600k. Ouch. While we haven't completely eliminated the possibility, I think there were enough things that we didn't like about the house and neighborhood (for example, they're putting these giant houses on lots that are smaller than what we have now) that it's very unlikely to happen. For that kind of money, we'd be better off moving a bit further away from the city and custom building a house of our own with a bit more land. So, looks like we'll sticking around here for a little while longer at least.