House Hunting

We've been looking at different houses and apartments since we arrived, and, you guys, this is hard.

We started out with a strong desire to live in the city (it's not a huge city, but we're definitely not in the country). We wanted to be within walking distance of the kids' school, in a three bedroom apartment. From our research, we knew that we wouldn't be able to find American sized rooms, but we were used to a semi-small, one bathroom house. Plus we got rid of a lot of stuff before we moved. Shouldn't be THAT big of an adjustment, right?

Ha. HA. There are three bedroom apartments in the middle of town, within walking distance of the school. And they are tiny. And expensive. Within about five days of arriving, we had to up our housing budget (honestly we were trying to get off cheap). I felt like we were on an HGTV show with a long list of must haves and a laughable budget.

We did find one place we liked. It was a plain set of buildings with modest apartments, but we could deal with the size. Plus it came with a garage that we could store things in. The best part was that it was about a 10 minute walk from the school. I emailed the agent with an offer, and the landlord basically said no because we have kids. That was a huge disappointment.

Miles took this picture

Since then, we've widened our search a bit to include some suburban type properties. These offer much more space, as well as small yards (gardens). And with three young kids, a detached or semi detached house sounds more favorable than being on the second floor of a small apartment. My kids like to run. And squeal. And run. But I admit to feeling disappointed at the thought of living in the suburbs.

So we just have to make up our minds. Do we want to live in the city or suburbs?

City:
Close to everything
Access to the lovely park, which has a huge play area, and events throughout the year
I can walk the kids to school
I can walk nearly everywhere (this is important because driving in the middle of the city terrifies me)
I can easily meet up with people
Wow, this driving thing influences me more than I'd realized.

But the cons are there too.
Very small accommodations (seriously, it's not uncommon for a third bedroom to be 7'x8', or sometimes smaller)
Some places haven't seemed well suited for young children
It's more expensive
It's not like we're going out to eat a lot once we move in, so how close do we have to be to restaurants?

Suburbs:
Larger living spaces
More for your money
More families (with more than one child)
Quiet
Storage space
I don't have to walk around in horrible weather

And the cons would be...
There aren't stores and restaurants around. Just houses.
I will have to learn to drive quickly, and drive much more often
I will have to drive into town for everything
We will need two vehicles
Will it be harder for me to make friends?

We have a few more places to look at, but we really need to decide asap. Cross your fingers that we make the decision that's right for us!