Needs and Wants

We got a number from the realtor. It is depressing, but it is the information that we need to make some decisions. I have a few more phone calls to make tomorrow, but the numbers have shown us a lot. We will figure it out. At the end of the day I would like a moderate house and have more money to save and spend. I don't need a gigantic house. Renovating this house, even on a small scale, would be a good way to make some changes, give us more room, but still not be in debt for thirty more years. We just refinanced to a fifteen year mortgage. We really don't want to be in debt into our seventies. Even a twenty year mortgage would take us into our sixties. Fifteen years feels good. We would be debt free while we were both still working full time. It would give us time to save and bank a lot and help both kids with college. That is really important to me. It is just about scraping up enough to actually do a renovation. A full third floor renovation is really pricey. We aren't sure we can get the money. A moderate renovation gives us two bedrooms and a full bath upstairs, which would essentially become the kids floor. We would stay in our small bedroom. We would open the wall between the kitchen and living area and repaint. The current bedroom that the kids use would become a den. It would still be smallish, but I think that is okay. I am too old to try to keep up with the rest of the world. Being happy in a moderate house is more important than being unhappy in a mansion.