Saturday, June 30, 2012

Being Grateful For...DIRTY DISHES?!?! {{{In Honor Of Wendy Partridge, 1978-2012}}}

What's your least-favorite household chore? You know, the one you dread the most and put off if you can?

For me it's the dishes. Not so much loading the dishwasher, but just the things that need to be hand washed in the sink. I don't know why I dislike it so much or why I procrastinate this chore. I don't mind doing a sink full of dishes at someone else's house, and at my house there usually aren't more than a few to do at a time, so it really doesn't take long. The warm water is even kind of relaxing. But still the prospect of doing the dishes gets me procrastinating every time, and I always say I can do those dirty dishes "later".

(Not my sink or dishes, photo copyright Miss Pupik, found on flickr here)

However, I've recently been enlightened to a new way to think about dirty dishes. I can be
thankful for them. I'll tell you more about this new viewpoint in a minute, but for now I want to leave those dirty dishes in the sink and talk about something more personal and sad that happened this past week.


Wendy Partridge
1978-2012

A childhood friend of mine, Wendy, passed away on Wednesday. Her death was due to cystic fibrosis (CF), an inherited chronic disease she lived with, fought against, and I suppose she would say learned from since birth.

Amazing. Miracle. Angel. Strong. Christ-like. Teacher. Hilarious. Example. Friend. Beautiful. These are the words people use to describe Wendy, and they're all true.

Wendy moved into my neighborhood during our late elementary school years. She was one year behind me in school, but we were just a month apart in age. We went to all our church classes together and often played in the neighborhood and sometimes at each other's houses. Wendy always had a cough and had a hard time breathing. CF primarily affects the lungs. Thick mucus forms in the lungs, causing extreme breathing difficulties. CF affects other organs as well. Over time the lungs and other organs lose their ability to function and the patient dies of the disease. It is a painful way to die. When we were kids that was one thing always in the back of my mind about Wendy: she was going to die. I was terrified about that.

You see, treatment and life expectancy for those with CF have improved greatly over the past 60 years. In the 1950s a baby born with CF would most likely only live a few years. When Wendy was born in 1978, the median survival age had improved, bur it still was under 18 years. Wendy and her family didn't know if she would grow to adulthood. If she would be able to serve a mission for our church, get a higher education, join the workforce, or have the opportunity to date and perhaps get married. Another CF patient in my grade at school died while we were teenagers. Wendy's time was always borrowed. That she lived and worked until age 33 is quite a miracle. (In case you're interested, the median survival age for CF patients born in 2009 is 38. So much improvement over the past 30 years!)


During our childhood Wendy was often in the hospital. I remember several trips our church classes took to visit her there. We would have our lesson in her room. These were tender experiences for me. Wendy's nurses would perform a fairly violent percussive massage technique on her back to break up mucus in her lungs. It looked painful. She was brave. She always had a sunny disposition and a smile. I never heard her complain.


After we graduated from high school Wendy and I worked together in church for a few years as co-teachers of three successive classes of energetic seven- and eight-year-old children. I'm sure Wendy surpassed me as a teacher in every way. She always had a strong testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and a natural and unselfconscious way of sharing that testimony with others. She shared her testimony out loud, and I was blessed to hear it often over the pulpit in our church services, but she also shared her testimony by her example.


Now, I don't want to make Wendy sound all pious and boring. She was funny! She had a sweet and quirky, somewhat sarcastic and self-deprecating sense of humor. We had some fun times co-hosting class parties at her house for our little students. (Class parties are a well-worn reverence reward for primary children.) After a few years as primary teachers together, we both moved on -- me to a church congregation specifically for young adults, and Wendy to a mission for our church. Yes, she was able to serve that mission she desired, and I can only imagine how many lives she changed.


Our paths crossed again after her mission for a while, but then I moved out of town and my parents did too, and we lost touch. The advent of Facebook put us back in touch with each other, and over the years I have enjoyed reading Wendy's funny status updates there.


While I was living in Pennsylvania I learned her health was really beginning to fail. A few friends planned to visit her as a class reunion of sorts, but I couldn't attend due to distance. I don't know if they ended up going. Her health improved somewhat and she was able to continue working.


A couple of weeks ago she posted saying that she had had to leave her job, and that she was receiving hospice care. The end was near. I wrote to her privately about coming to visit her if she was up for it, and started reaching out to other friends who might want to visit with me. At first Wendy sounded like she might not be well enough for visitors, but then on Monday this past week she wrote and asked me to set it up. I wrote back and asked if Thursday would work, but a day or two went by and I didn't hear back. I went to her sister's Facebook page, thinking I would check in to see how Wendy was doing. Instead I saw the first of many condolence messages that would soon be flooding in, "I'm sorry for your loss."


Wendy had died, and I was too late.


In the weeks leading up to Wendy's death, her sister posted some links on Facebook about Wendy. One was a short video made about Wendy by a friend of hers, which I highly encourage you to watch, and the other was a link to a blog of Wendy's on a CF support website, where Wendy talks about the approaching end of her life. Here's a passage from that post. She posted under the name "stillkicking".


"...Well my friends, I don't know how much longer I shall be coherent enough to write my ramblings.  Also I don't want to focus on the negative side of dying.  It is a painful process.  But I never walk alone.  I thank the Lord that He is there helping me with each painful step.  


To close, with one last final sarcastic remark.  I wrote my own obituary, but my family doesn't want to use it (shocker), so I'll post it here  


"Now we lay her down to rest, a load of mucus in her chest.


Since she died before she woke, that's one less day she'll have to choke"


Happy coughing everyone, and be sure to laugh a little, cry a little and just enjoy the journey  God bless you all!"


How do you like that obituary? It's great! A taste of Wendy's humor.

I enjoyed that post a lot, so I clicked through a few of Wendy's other posts, and one really hit me.



Okay, Back to That Sink Full of Dirty Dishes

One of her posts was about doing the dishes at her house, and a sprititual experience she had while doing them. Wendy says it best, so I will put her full post here. Please read it. I promise you will be touched and have your eyes opened to a new view on work, trials, and what you think you "can't" do. Understand that Wendy was living at home with her parents, so the sink full of dirty dishes she describes likely weren't just from her.

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways
Posted By: stillkicking @ 04/11/2012 03:26 PM

So as things have been getting tougher lately, I'm pretty darn sure my days are numbered, and I don't think there's that many numbers in there  Anyway, it's been particularly hard with the "air hunger" games  I just can't get enough air, even on higher O2 flows.  It's a horrible feeling.  Plus all the other lovely CF things, exhaustion, coughing, constant aching, AKA crappy lungs.  Last week was particularly difficult and it was all I could do to make it to and through work each day. I started wondering and praying to know if it was a battle I needed to continue to fight, or if I could quit.


I work for a small business, so I only have a 6 month cobra extention.  Medicaid qualifications in my state are particularly difficult, I would have to wipe out all my savings and retirement before I'd qualify.  That idea doesn't thrill me, so I haven't wanted to go that route.  Anyway, come Saturday, I was still having a great difficulty with the air hunger and feeling awful.  There was so much to do and I didn't feel like doing anything.  I was however, thanking the Lord for a weekend to rest.


Well that evening there was a large pile of dishes that had been sitting out all day, I thought, I can't do much but I can at least, do these dishes.  As I began I immediately got my answer from the Lord about my work situation.  The Spirit whispered to me that work is a blessing to me not a curse.  He knows it's difficult but it also helps a great deal in taking my mind off the suffocating feelings of this stage of the disease.  I see how that is true, even while doing the dishes I immediately "felt" better, mentally wise.  I was able to focus my mind on something besides breathing.  Yes, there will be days where I have to rest, many of them, but inasmuch as I can work, it will be a blessing to me.


By focusing on others and serving and contributing whatever I can, even though it may be a great deal less than I used to, is what feeds and drives the spirit inside us, and the spirit can then drive the body further than it otherwise would go.  How grateful I am to a merciful God who pours out His blessings upon me and then opens my eyes that I may see them for what they are here and now.


Now please realize I'm not suggesting or recommending anything for anyone else.  This is my blog, and my experiences - you can go have your own  But for me this has been a big help and I've seen more and more each day at work this week, how much of a blessing it is to me, even when it's difficult


Happy Coughing everyone


----

I really can't add much to what Wendy said. All I know is, I will never look at my dirty dishes the same way again. I will always, always think of Wendy standing at the sink, gasping for air, washing those dishes and thanking the Lord that she could wash them. She is right. Work is blessing, trials are blessings, and WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!

----

Wendy Partridge's Obituary and Funeral Information

One of my favorite articles: The Blessing of Work ("Work is not a matter of economic need alone; it is a spiritual necessity..." It includes direction on how to apply your interests and talents to your work and how to teach children the value of work.)


Video about Wendy, "The Joys of Adversity"






Visit the website of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to learn more about cystic fibrosis, get involved in increasing awareness and research, or make a donation

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Thank you for reading. I'm interested to know, what's one positive lesson you've learned from someone in your life who is now gone?

Friday, June 29, 2012

Beloved Vintage 1970s Dream Home: The Master Suite, Living Room, and Basement

Part three of my beloved 1970s Dream Home (part one herepart two here, part four here). Let's do this. We were last walking down the hall, and now we've passed the laundry, dining library, hall bath, girl bedroom, and also a linen closet that is not pictured. Next we arrive at the master suite. For the king and QUEEN of the castle.


I'm not sure how the colors read on your monitor. On mine they look silver and pink, but in reality the color scheme was more peach and blue. That blue tone-on-tone damask wallpaper? We're gonna see a lot of it. The master bath has a bathtub and separate shower, a vanity, and I'm assuming it also had a toilet but I don't see it in these pictures and I don't remember where it was.


Carpeted bathroom. Moving on to the master bedroom proper. First we come to the walk-in closet.


Like the dining library, this room is long and narrow. It is lined on both sides with closets. Just imagine a mirror image of this picture on the other side. Like the dining library, the walk-in closet has a huge chandelier. Okay, I think by the looks of it I'm going to stop calling it a walk-in closet and start calling it a dressing room. It doesn't have a door that closes it off from the rest of the room, though. So maybe dressing hall? If you were standing and taking the photo above, you would have your back to a bunch of floor-to-ceiling built-in cabinetry. Doors, drawers, etc. You can see a tiny portion of it in the next picture.


Let it be known that this carpet is MORE PURPLE in real life. And there's our first taste of the wood paneling that will now become ubiquitous throughout the rest of the house. Fireplace #2 makes an appearance.


Another view of the bed, and a conveniently located avocado green telephone. Some of you may know that I am obsessed with tufted velvet headboards.


More built-ins in the master bedroom. More EVERYTHING. More wallpaper, more drapes, more purple carpet. MORE! While I know books would look great in those glass-front cabinets, personally I'd fill them with rows and rows of gorgeous shoes.

Switching gears, let's pretend we're guests and enter through the front door. I said they had a surprise, right?


Stained glass! (Not two creepy eyes. though that's kinda what they look like in this picture.)



As you come in the front door there is a coat closet to your left in a little entry area, a biiiiiiig coat closet in perpendicular to you in a hall that leads to the main hall of the home, and there is also the fancy staircase that leads downstairs. I wish I had rung that fancy doorbell. I love a good doorbell chime!


One thing you can kind of see in this picture, and hopefully a little better in the next one, is the crown molding. It's a chunky, thick (maybe 7" tall by x 5" deep from the wall?) curved convex molding with an egg-and-dart detail. Kind of like this one. It is lovely. It's used throughout the entry, living room, and master bedroom, though I don't think it's shown to best effect by the dark wood paneling that often abuts it, such as in our next stop, the living room, which is on your right as you come in through the front doors..


For having such lovely molding, it's a shame there are no baseboards! The carpet runs up the walls instead. Above you see fireplace #3, another grand chandelier, some heavy drapes, and blue wall-to-wall in the cavernous living room. The drapes shown above cover one set of the french doors onto the east covered patio.


These drapes cover the huge south-facing bay window. There are sheer drapes against the glass, then the thicker drapes across the bump-out, so you could walk in and stand in a little room surrounded by curtains. My usual m.o. with curtains is to never have any because I can never decide/afford what I want. But after all, "Curtains!?! Who needs curtains!?!" That was for you, Alice and Emily :)

The staircase is quite wide and grand. Of course, it goes downstairs rather than up, so it's not really all that grand. At the bottom of the staircase is another odd feature. When you reach the bottom of the grand staircase, to your right is this:


Now, for some reason I don't recall this being closed off by a door of its own, but it must have been, right? The realtor said the family referred to it as "the vault". It's a concrete room under the front porch and portico. Most people use this type of space as a cold storage room, but there's actually another cold storage room in the house that we'll see soon. This concrete room is a big old question mark. but I have plans. Oh yes, I have plans.


On the other side of the staircase a short hall leads to this gigantic family room space. It's divided into two rooms by a huge walk-around double fireplace. This side of the room might be for lounging or movies.


This side for games? Again with the built-in storage. There is room in this side of the room for a pool table and a game table.


The double fireplace as seen from the game room side. The back side of the fireplace also features a safe concealed in the brick. You know, where I can keep all my valuables.

Then we have a room you already got to see, but in case this sight wasn't seared into your brain, I'll refresh your memory.


The "exercise room". I'll let you determine what kind of workouts we're talking about.


The bathtub. I didn't mention this before, but the faucet on this bathtub is identical to the one at my current kitchen sink, and the one in my parents' Centerville kitchen sink. ????!!!!???? Sort of like this one, but an older model. Again, my reaction can only be summed up with question marks. ????? Why a kitchen tap in a bathtub?


That's the 3/4 bath that adjoins the tub room. It can also be accessed from the hall. It's hard to read the date on that calendar, but the last times April 1 was on a Monday were in 2002 and 1996. Update: On closer inspection I think it says 1991, which also had a Monday, April 1. I guess someone hasn't worked out for a while!



Attached to that bathroom is an imported Finnish sauna. For some reason I'm remembering it as having two rooms, but I don't know if I'm right on that.



Hmmmm. This large bedroom contains a wood-burning stove. I think I'm beginning to get the idea about heating this huge house in the Cache Valley winters. I pretty much can't get on board with the idea of my boys sleeping in a remote bedroom next to a hot stove. I'll have to think on that.


Also downstairs is this gigantic storage room. But what I'm thinking is, this = theater room and the "vault" = storage room. Good idea?

That concludes the interior portion of the tour. You may be wondering, where are the rest of the bedrooms? But that's it. This 5000 sqft house has only three bedrooms. I mean, I guess someone could sleep in the dining library or the tub room, but as it stands there are really only three bedrooms. See why I said the house is wrong for us in size and function? Twice as big as we need, with half as many bedrooms. One of the whole reasons for moving is to gain another kid bedroom and hopefully a guest bedroom. This huge house has neither, without some creative rearranging or the addition of a second story (don't think I haven't thought about it!).

Okay, despite that leeetle drawback, there are still more things I've yet to show you that go in the plus column. Come back tomorrow for a walk around the grounds!

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Let's be honest here. Some of you who have been yaysayers, what do you think now that you know the bedroom situation? Anything anyone liked particularly about today's set of pictures? I know the photo doesn't do it justice, but the master closet is quite amazing. Too bad I'd have to give the master bedroom up to one or two of my children so I could sleep in the room with the wood-burning stove. But hey, then I'd be that much closer to the heart-shaped bathtub!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Beloved Vintage 1970s Dream Home, Part Two

Many thanks to my yaysayers and my naysayers who commented on my post about my vintage 1970s dream home. (Click that link to catch up on my ill-advised, unrequited crush on this house.) I'm back today with the more of the pictures and info. (See Part One here, Part Three here, Part Four here)

I should probably tell you that the MLS# of this home is 1092769 and it is listed by Jacob Howell of Century 21 N&N Realtors. But don't go running out and stealing it out from under me! Jacob told us the home was built in 1977 by a custom homebuilder for his wife. She designed the layout and gave mucho design input. Something tells me the "exercise room" (sauna, tub, etc.) may have been his domain.




Okay, you'll recall that when you approach the home you're greeted by this amazing automatic wrought iron gate that says, "You're not allowed to come in here and steal my furniture, but you wouldn't want to anyway, because I don't have any, because I spent all my money on this house."

Before you enter the gate there is a large, level asphalt area with a basketball standard and parking for a few cars.


Proceeding up the drive you first see the east side of the house, which has a covered patio reminiscent of the north facade of the White House. Those french doors lead to the living room. More ironwork. Lots, lots more! And that's just the start of it.


Next you proceed past the south side of the house, which features a portico over the main entry. Waaaaaaaait a minute! Where have I seen this before? Sensing a theme? The bay window on the right is in the living room, and the window on the left is in this room that I'm not sure whether it's a library or a formal dining room, or in my world...BOTH.


"Why yes! I DO have a lion on my porch! How kind of you to notice! No, no, no, no, no...not at all ostentatious!" Incidentally, my current front door is of the exact same style as these front doors (though single, rather than double). Coincidence? Or fate??? I say exact, but I mean in shape and style. These doors hold a special surprise you'll see when we reach the entry hall.



Arriving at the top of the driveway you can pull into the double garage, or just under the double (possibly triple?) carport. The door you see to the right enters into a small vestibule off the kitchen/family/informal dining area. There is also a large additional room behind the garage for wood storage and a workshop. Or for hoarding vintage furniture. Whatevs.

See that railing to the left? Go ahead and walk over there.



Boom! Sorry it's blurry, but that's the western view from the property. Oh, the sunsets I could watch from here! Let's make a quarter turn and look southward.



BOOM! Hello, entire valley. Hello, mountains. This is also the view from the living room, formal dining/library, and semi-formal dining room windows. Yum.

Okay, for good measure let's make another quarter turn to take in the view east.



It's about a half-mile walk up into the mountains. And what's that building on the right? We'll cover that later.

Moving on, we'll head into the house. We're family, right, so we can enter through the kitchen door rather than through the fancy double front doors. Like I said before, we enter into a little vestibule with a coat closet and bench. A mini-mudroom, if you will. Not pictured.


To our left is this family room, with a fireplace and french doors (more ironwork) that lead to a covered patio in the backyard. I hope that tangled, corded phone is included. What a treasure. You'll also note our first of many sets of extravagant draperies. This is the casual part of the house, so these are casual draperies.


Closeup of the fireplace (one of six in the home). Sign me up for the hot pink cinder sweeper!


Okay, here we have the kitchen, which is on the right as you come in through the vestibule. You can see the coat closet door and the knob of the exterior door. The cut-out above the dishwasher looks into the family room. Is that a....microwave??!? Cutting edge circa 1977? And a very complicated-looking wall oven with lots of instructions? And a brown dishwasher? But wait, there's more.


Flat range with two burners that seem to be more popular than the others, brown trash compactor, and then there is, of course, the special cabinets and cabinet hardware. 


Bar and semi-formal dining area as seen from the middle of the kitchen, Where is the fridge, you might be wondering?


Fridge-ezzzz, I think you mean! Two side-by-sides sit side by side on the wall opposite the sink. #AstronomicalRenovationApplianceBudget.

A door can close off this informal wing from the rest of the house. If we proceed through that door and into the hall, the first room on our right is the dining room-slash-library.


I wish I had a better shot of this room. It's long and narrow and is lined on both long sides with identical banks of room-length, floor-to-ceiling built-in cabinets. SERIOUS amounts of cabinetry. Up there in the upper-right of the photo you can see a bit of the chandelier.


There are at least ten chandeliers in the upstairs of the home. Most of them are big like this one, with a few smaller ones thrown in for good measure. Oh yes, you can bet I'd find a way to work with them!

Across the hall from the dining room is one of my favorite rooms in the house.


The laundry room! I wish this photo were better, because it is more PINK in person. PINK. PIIIIIIIIINK! Wallpaper = Keep. It's a fairly spacious room with more cabinets, a counter, and a sink on another wall.


Next on that side of the hall is this pink room. Not the same kind of pink as the laundry room. In other words, not the good pink. Though it really wasn't as dusty pink as it looks in this picture. But yes, very pink. Carpet, wallpaper, drapes, chandelier. Could be kinda sweet, though.


Hall bath with harvest gold sink, bathtub, and, yes, toilet. My world, my question: If I had a yellow toilet, how would I know when someone...was letting it mellow...so to speak!? Very concerning. I live with a bunch of boys, you know! The little ones try hard and usually remember to flush, but the big one...

Okay, this post is getting epically long already, and we still have so much more to see. So many more drapes. Sooooooooo many more. The royal purple carpet. The paneling. The paneling. The paneling. The other five fireplaces. The sauna. The lot. The orchard.

I think we better save some for tomorrow!

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What's your favorite pic/part from today's post? I think my favorite was when it dawned on me that this house was trying to be the White House. But if I lived there, my favorite part would be the laundry room wallpaper. PINK!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Worst School Picture Ever and Other New Content

My next post will be the rest of the photos and information about the oh-so-amazing 1970s Dream Home. For now I wanted you to kow that I added some new content in the top tabs. Check out About Me to find out the color of my favorite shoes, Home Tour to access (so far) the floor plan drawings you already saw on a recent post, Projects to see how much I haven't accomplished so far, Embarrassing Photos to see the worst school picture ever, and Contact Me / Writer For Hire to get in touch or ask me about writing with/for you.

Flattering, no?

Vintage 1970s Dream Home: I've Fallen In {Completely Irrational} Love

Note: This is Part One of my series of posts about this fabulous '70s gem of a house. Be sure to keep reading because you're going to see something unbelievable at the end of this post. Then you'll be dying to see more, so click to visit Part TwoPart Three, and Part Four for more wood paneling than you've ever dreamed of photos of this amazing home.

Hey there! Long time, no post! Between my other blog (Lisa Loves Logan - check out today's post about all the great food factory tours and free samples in Cache Valley) and the real estate course I'm taking online and my family and my home and my house hunt, and a freelance writing project for a soon-to-be-launched website, I have been swamped! I want to give just a teaser, though, of the house that has stolen my heart. I visited it at the Valley-Wide Open House Day that was held in Cache Valley a couple of Saturdays ago.

It's a truly vintage 1970s house that is $25,000 above the upper price limit I had set for us, wrong for us in size and function, and in need of massive amounts of updating. And yet I just can't get it out of my mind! It's like I'm a new high school graduate with a crush on a handsome older man with a bad reputation. I know it's not gonna work out but I just keep turning over in my mind how I can make it happen. And now no other house (except a beautiful, already-updated one from the same era, that is also the same degree out of my price range) seems to be able to capture my heart.

Okay, without further ado...here it is.

Somewhere in Smithfield, Utah, hidden behind this dramatic iron gate...


...looking out over this view...


...lives a circa 1977, 5112 sq. ft. mansion on almost an acre of land:


And hidden deep, deep, deep within the basement of that mansion is something I have never seen outside of a 1980s advertisement for a cheesy honeymoon resort in the Poconos...

{{{scroll dooooooooowwwwnnnn...I want to build some suspense here!}}}























...a HEART-SHAPED bathtub, sitting by itself in a large, red-shag-carpeted, vintage-Mylar-zodiac-wallpapered room!!!!!


Have you ever, ever, ever seen anything like it? I was super, duper confused about this room until I read in the listing details that the home has an exercise room. I guess this is it. Wowowowowow...wow! The room is attached to a 3/4 bath, which is attached to a two-room imported Finnish sauna.

Let's get a close-up of that wallpaper, shall we? Gah! It's black and white on three walls and silver Mylar on the back wall.


Now, confession time. Of course the red carpet would have to go. And the tub, unless there is some way to move it or work around it? But, I would totally, totally, totally keep that graphic vintage black and white zodiac wallpaper if at all possible. I'm envisioning my office/guest room. And look, Emily Henderson from HGTV's Secrets of a Stylist works with a graphic black and white wallpaper here:

Photo by Mark Champion, from Emily's blog. Click the link for a lot more cool pictures and close-ups of the wallpaper. Dream headboard, too.
Sooooo, tell me, what do you think? Do you want to see more pictures of the handsome but all-wrong-for me older man (er, HOUSE) I'm infatuated with? Believe me, there is more craziness!

How can I manage to say Farewell To "Can't Buy This House"...because I really want to buy it. I actually could swing the purchase, I think, with some negotiating and financial finagling. But then I wouldn't have a single dollar in my monthly budget for renovating. It's actually in clean, pristine condition. It's completely livable, but you'd just feel like you had gone back in a time machine.

Hmmm. It's that old real estate-buying question. Do you stretch or do you stay conservative? What are your experiences with stretching? Was it worth it? We stayed extremely conservative with our condo purchase, which worked out well for us since we had to rent it out shortly after our purchase. But now we are definitely outgrowing it. If we had stretched instead, we probably wouldn't be looking to move right now. If we stay conservative AGAIN, we will probably have to move again in a few years. We've moved something like 13 times in the past seven years. Boy, am I sick of moving! Time for me to settle down and relax...in a heart-shaped bathtub!