On the other hand

Maybe buying a house just isn't what we should be doing right now.

We went to see the house outside the city. It's lovely and has a yard like a park. It's a good size for us - not too big - and has the most amazing wrap around covered porch, perfect for sipping hooch and shooting at the neighbour's dogs (because that's what you do in Saskatchewan, apparently). But they want big money for what is - no matter the porch, yard and basement bedroom - only a two bedroom house. And there's no garage. And the kitchen could use a bit of help. The biggest drawback might be not having a big enough closet for Mr. Wumpus's suits (he really did raise this as a concern. He's so metro).

Then we got thinking - maybe now is the time to do things a bit differently. The market here has gone through some big growth years; will that continue? If not, and things go south like they did in Calgary, we could be left living in a house that's not worth what we paid for it. Now, if we planned to be here 20 years, this wouldn't matter, but we're likely not here that long. We need to make a smart move; time is not on our side.

We've gone through a few scenarios: Buying this wee house and diving in to small town life, or renting for a year, selling the car and squirreling away every red penny, to bumping up our mortgage range and building. Yes, we are this skitso, apparently.

It's likely we'll end up somewhere in the middle. Not quite gypsies, not quite suburbanites.

I'm not sure how I feel about it all. Mostly, I just want my baby's crib and my pantry contents. If I had that, I'd be happy to live in a (really big) tent right about now.

P.S. Happy 13 months to Chou! Letter coming tomorrow.