Recommitted

Yesterday after our pre-construction meeting for the new house, I went and walked the frame of the foundation. I have to admit, I was surprised by the...modest size of the backyard.

In fairness, I shouldn't have been. We had the plot plan; we should have studied it more closely. We hastily had assume since the lot was bigger than our current one, we'd end up with about the same size backyard. Not true.

We talked about it a lot last night. Ross really wanted a large yard and while I can't say I was set on a LARGE yard, I wanted at least what I have now. Something with ample room for swingsets and the like. At the end though 5 points led us to our conclusion:

1. We're very unlikely to get the location, price, floorplan and yard size we want all in one house. We're probably going to have to make a concession on something.
2. The things we do most frequently in our backyard now are all on the porch. Grilling, reading, sipping wine outside, these things do not require a large yard.
3. Kids don't play in the backyard for long. As soon as they hit school age they'll want to ride bikes, run to the neighbors, play basketball in the cul-de-sac, etc. Heck they might not even notice the size of our yard.
4. It gets REALLY hot in Texas. Outside things are really only optimal for about 5 months.
5. Who needs a big yard in suburbia when you have a country home?

And so that last point recommits us to our plan to buy a ranch/country home place one day. In fact, we might even try to move that purchase up a year or two. Round Rock will be our dream HOUSE and no-wheres-ville Texas will be our dream yard.