Where should I go??

Since I sold my house in July, I've spent a lot of time thinking about what to do now. I've been living in a very nice modern apartment for the past three months, and to tell you the truth, I hate it. The apartment is nice, but I don't like the complex. Everyone who lives here is very cold and detached. No one has anything to do with anyone else and they go out of their way to avoid one another. My son sent me a text message the other day... "Something really weird just happened." I responded, "What?" He answered, "Someone actually said 'Hi' as I was going to my car." Go figure.

So I know I will not be staying at the apartment after my lease is up the end of January. But I don't know where I'm going. I'm kind of at a crossroads in my life and am not sure what my next step will be. I'm not going to go into any great detail about that, but I will say that I'm not sure that Texas is where I want to spend the rest of my life. Not crazy about the scenery...

I've thought a lot about what kind of place I'd like to live in if I decide to buy again. I drive by this house every day on the way to work and love it. Small yard, cute, front porch, character...but it's not in a very good area...not to mention it's not for sale. But this is my kind of house.

When I was in the process of selling my house, I did some looking at other houses for sale and found this one. It's been on the market for at least a year. Last time I checked the price it was about $120,000. It only has two bedrooms, but it's on the edge of a historical area. You wouldn't think it has much to offer...

...but it is right next door to this...

So I'm thinking it has lots of potential if you're willing to put some money into it. I haven't seen the inside, but am thinking of checking it out (but am wondering why it's been on the market for a year).

Just out of curiosity, I checked the rental ads in the paper last week, and found a listing for a loft apartment downtown. (It's the unit with the lace curtains above the restaurant in the picture below.) Lofts have always intrigued me, so I checked it out. It was above an Irish bar. It had 20 foot ceilings and the walls had exposed bricks. The kitchen was brand new with stainless steel appliances, but it was teeny tiny...and no storage. It would have been okay for one person, but definitely not two. (Not to mention the fact that it might have been a tad noisy living over an Irish bar on the weekends!)

So now what?? On my way home tonight, I decided to swing by a subdivision that peole have told me about...it's new and very reasonably priced. I saw that they had models to look at, and since I had my camera, I decided to take some pics.

Sidebar: I'll have to say that one of the fond memories I have of my mother is when we'd check out new subdivisions and go through the model homes...so the rest of this post is dedicated to her.

This was the Blanco. When I showed my son the pictures, he didn't like the way it looked. I told him they tried to make it look like a mid-century bungalow, but he didn't get it. I liked it, though. (All these homes range from $108,000 to about $200,000.)

Here's what you see when you walk in the front door...

And up to the second floor...

From the dining area into the living room...

And the kitchen...

This was the very small master bedroom on the first floor.

I do like the fact that there are large windows...

Here's the rec room on the second floor...

And the doorway for the Hobbits...

Actually a storage area...

A second floor bedroom...

And another very small one...

Here's the three story...

The formal sitting room...

...and dining room...

The view towards the kitchen area...

And the family room...

View of the kitchen...

A bedroom on the second floor....

Another bedroom on the second floor...(love all those windows!!!)

The master bedroom...

...and master bathroom...

And the third floor...

More hobbit rooms...

Other side of the third floor...

Additional bedroom on the third floor...

A nice screened-in porch...

And this was an option my son was REALLY interested in...a "guest suite" above the garage for about another $40,000. You have to admit...it's pretty cute.

And here's the only one-story...

This one was being used as the office, so I was only able to get pictures of certain areas of the house. Here's the family room off the kitchen. The formal living and dining room were being used as the sales room.

Kitchen...

The other direction of the family room....

And the master bedroom...

They also offered properties like condos in which they provided maintenance for yard and outside work. The HOA was only $75 per month, which seemed pretty reasonable to me. Here's what they looked like...

This was a split-level...something which I didn't think they built anymore. Split levels are kind of wierd...you either have to go up...or down...

Here's what the "up" looks like...

The other way...

And the kitchen...

A bedroom upstairs...

A small extra bedroom upstairs...

A possible extra kitchen area downstairs (which could be good for my son)...

And the family room downstairs...

And the bedroom downstairs...

And the final lowest priced place...

This place is maybe just a little bit larger than the apartment I'm renting.

Looking to the dining room...

View of the kitchen...

The living room is pretty small...

This is what you see when you go upstairs...

And two very small bedrooms upstairs. This place would be good for only one person or a couple with very few belongings.

The other bedroom...

One of the things I liked about the subdivision is that all the houses looked different...not a cookie-cutter kind of neighborhood.

So what do I do? Oh, hell...I don't know.

Then there's always this kind of space for $20,000 in Mexico...