Our new house has mountains with trails down the street, a basketball court, pickleball courts, a splash park, and playgrounds. Not all neighborhoods have those things. Dan's excited about the pickleball courts. I wish we had a pool too, but maybe that'll come later as the neighborhood grows, or maybe we'll put our own in our backyard.
Sometimes I panic and regret not picking a much larger house with an upstairs and loft and more living areas and a fifth bedroom and more storage options. I've freaked out a few times, then pulled it together again and determined to make this work well and that it's for the best for our next phase. We really don't need a huge house at this point or lots of extra stuff anymore. Some of those big houses we looked at are older and not in great shape like a new one will be. Bigger houses didn't have this nice RV garage Dan wants, and HOAs don't allow us to store trailers and machines on the property. I also don't want to air condition an enormous house with an upstairs and vaulted ceilings. Once I figure it all out, this house will fit us great, and we're excited it's brand new in a neighborhood we like. Buying brand new also allowed us to lock in at a super low interest rate because the builders buy down the rate as an incentive, so it made more sense to go this route.
