Oh Well...

We bought this house during the pandemic in a planned neighborhood. Those two things meant that you had limited choices. We could see the area where the neighborhood would eventually expand into and really wished they'd sell us a lot that backed on the woods. No go.

So this weekend Brent and I were out walking around the neighborhood and they've finally started building back in that area. And our house is there. The floorplan we have now, but backed against the woods on one side and a protected wetland area on the other. You'd have two sets of windows that looked out onto nature instead of neighbors. It was exactly what we had wanted.

We joked that they should let us swap. And whoever ended up with our place, sure, they wouldn't have brand new, but they'd have the improvements we did. The extra cabinets, the solar power, the catio, the finished yard. It would really be a bonus for them...

If only we had waited.

But that was four years ago. If we had waited and stayed in the townhouse hoping for a lot that backed to the woods to eventually come free we wouldn't still be looking. If we hadn't moved we would have made a different decision when the option for early retirement from Intel had presented itself two years ago. We'd have taken it, the townhouse would have been mostly paid off, and if not mostly at least a really low mortgage payment.

If only we had known.

And that's always been the case and the way we've framed it. We made the best decisions at the time with the information we had. Buying this house was the best decision at the time. Not taking early retirement was the best decision at the time. Every time you are looking at some major life event that's all you can do. Make the best decision at the time and hope for the best outcome.

And then Aesop's fable the shit out of it.

I bet that living right next to that wetland would mean terrible mosquitos. And that the frogs in the spring would be so loud we'd never get any sleep. And interest rates are so much higher now than when we bought that the payment would be terrible. And we probably wouldn't be able to sell the townhouse if we were putting it on the market right now.

And if we'd just stayed in the townhouse forever we still wouldn't have that lot against the woods, no yard or personal space at all. We also would still have knees that barked everytime we had to manage all of the stairs in one go. And I bet the neighbors that backed to us just continued to get worse and worse each time someone new moved in, as had been the trajectory.

Yeah, that feels a little better...