Well to put it simply, we’re kind of crazy.
I mean, we LOVE the house we’ve been in for the past two years. We absolutely love the location. We can walk to the Square for restaurants, shops and festivals, which is rare OTP (outside the perimeter for any non-ATL people). We’re also in a historic district with lots of different styles of houses, and we’re not that far from the interstate. Our current house is cute. It’s pretty. It’s decorated. It’s in immaculate shape. (All things which our new house isn’t.) But, it’s also small. That’s not really a problem now considering it’s just me, Stephen and the cat (who arguably takes up the space of 2 or 3 cats).
However, we know that someday it will be an issue and we will need a bigger house. We also know, that we want to stay around the Square in the historic district, in an old house. We want something with character and more space. The problem is, pretty much everything bigger than our house now around the Square is way out of our price range. If you can tack on ‘historic’ and ‘walk to the Square’ to your house listing, it’s like you can instantly charge more. We were very fortunate to get our current house at such a great deal (and it is coming back to help us now that we’re selling), but for the most part, a bigger house around the Square is a couple hundred thousand more than our price range.
And that’s where our new house comes in. It’s bigger. It’s older. It has more character. The lot is almost twice as big. We can afford it. But it’s a little rough. And it’s going to take some work. A lot of work. And we love it. The way we see it, if we’re ever going to tackle a big whole house renovation/restoration project, now is the time (when its only me, Stephen and the large cat.)
This house was too good a deal to pass up and it let us get our bigger house around the Square. Ironically, it also has almost everything I wanted on my ‘wish list,’ (high ceilings, unique features/character, two living rooms, master suite with bathroom, room to grow into, etc.). The things it doesn’t have can be added someday (clawfoot tub, awesome kitchen, porch, garage. etc). We love the house the way it is and at the same time excited about the potential it has for the future. Hopefully, this will be our last move and we’ll be here for many, many years to come.
At least thats the plan. Six months from now when I’m tired of painting baseboards every weekend, out of money, and sick of living in a disorganized mess, maybe I’ll think differently. 
