Feeling Stuck

Nick came to me this weekend, looking rather down and defeated, with a rather familiar lament about feeling stuck.  I wrote about our housing dilemma back in August, and it's still an ongoing concern.  It's easy to say, "You have a beautiful home, just be happy."  But what if you're not?  We have tried to sell without luck, we have had drama with our neighbours that seems to be getting worse before it gets better, and we are living a fair distance away from the city where Nick works.  It's not an ideal situation, and despite trying to make the best of it, it's starting to get the better of us.

I'm trying to do less complaining and more coming up with solutions, so I thought about it.  I weighed options, considered our choices, and then presented what I thought was the best solution to Nick, and he seems to agree.  After the kids are done school for the summer, we are going to rent out our home.  We are not going to make any money off of the rental, in fact we may end up subsidising it a bit.  It will, however, give us the opportunity to move on, and right now that is worth it's weight in gold.

We considering various options afterwards.  We may try living with my mother-in-law for a bit so we are able to stash away some money for rainy days, or we may just start renting in the city right away.  We will find somewhere that is cheaper than what we currently pay on housing and save the rest.  What is important is that we have both a mental and a physical fresh start.

All of the financial responsibility in the world doesn't really matter in the long run if you're ultimately miserable and feeling hopeless.  After our talk I could see a weight lifted off Nick's shoulders, and now we're (cautiously) excited about the prospect.  It's good to have decided this a few months in advance so we can get all of our ducks in a row and be aware of all the pitfalls we may encounter.  And now I have even more motivation on my decluttering path!