Yes No Yes

Last night, we talked some more about whether to mod the existing house or build a new one. (Funny, I never think about buying an existing one. I guess I should.)

I admitted that if I knew of someone who had done what we contemplate doing -- adding a structure to the house, incorporating an elevator -- and it had come out well, I'd be envious, yet I can't be confident that we could pull it off. We tossed around some numbers regarding how much we'd be willing to spend to construct and furnish such a structure. My wife told me that at some point, relatively high, but not atmospheric, in the range of plausible prices, she'd not want to proceed, but would prefer a new house. That surprised me, as although I knew she had an upper limit (so do I), she'd never quantified it (neither had I). That helps planning.

So we doodled some thoughts, talked. She asked if I liked her sister's house, up in Connectidots, and I said that I did, pretty much -- but that I did not regard it as a small house, as its got a huge living room, a spacious kitchen area (its an open floor plan), and such. I wouldn't be surprised if the total floor space was equal to ours, if not more. We talked a little about a house that a friend of ours had built; it's the classic little jewel of a house, emphasis on both jewel and little. We don't need exquisite. We talked about a condo her sister had lived in for a while, and were surprised to find that she really liked it, and I really didn't. We talked about why.

This talking is good stuff.

It really feels -- for the nonce, anyway -- like we want to build, not mod. Which is not to say we won't explore more about modding this house, but its no longer the yeah, thats what we're going to do that it was a week ago.