home sweet rental?

We are coming up to the end of our lease.

Which means one of two things might happen:

1. They beg us to stay and they offer up freebies or incentives to stay. Which hubs and I are down for.

OR

2. They raise our rent.

This is leaving hubs and I at a possible cross roads. What happens if they raise our rent? Do we stay or move? Do we really want to move in to another apartment?

Hubs and I have been trying to brace ourselves for both scenarios. Obviously we would like scenario numero uno but lets face it number 2 is probably more likely. We don't want to move again but then again we don't want to be paying over $800.00 for a 2 bedroom town house. Hubs has caught the home owner bug ever since we helped my brother and SIL move in to their first house. So I brought up that possibility, seeing as if we had our way our next move would be to something more permanent. I started looking just to see what was out there and even in this market it isn't much. Ok, let me rephrase that, there is a TON of houses out there but because of where I live you don't get a lot of house for your money. Ideally we would want our house payment to be below or equal to what we are paying now in rent and although it is do able it is just so scary to think about.

We have checked our credit and found out what we would be able to afford and honestly this is with in our spectrum. I mean it could happen. But I think for hubs it is the final nail in the coffin that is staying in the cold and frigid north. He has been itching to get back down south and I don't blame him. He is working at a job he hates, my family is crazy and manipulative of me, and it is cold here more than it is warm. But for some reason it just isn't working out, we both have put ourselves out there and to no avail.

He wants to have hope and that is fine, but I don't want to be moving every time our rent goes up hoping that maybe this month will be the month we get the call to pack our bags. I already did that, that is how I spent the first 7 years of my life, always moving. I want roots, big thick roots that you trip over. If we were to do this we would have to be here for long time, like 10+ years long time.... and I don't know if he is ready for that.

Last night though, just for an adventure we went and looked at a house that I have been eyeing for a while now.

We like the neighborhood seeing as it is only 6 years old. This is one of the first houses to be built and as you can see it has been updated. It is fun to look, to imagine where the Christmas tree would go, your door bell ringing at halloween time and being greeted my ghosts and goblins, the smell of burgers on the grill and the American flag catching a breeze on the 4th of July.

We will see what happens in the next few weeks. I am not saying we are buying a house, but a girl can dream.