Well...I am a sucker for a cathedral ceiling...

...and the spectacular view didn't hurt a thing, either. Of course, I forgot to take the camera.

We drove out to look at the house yesterday.

We'd very nearly talked ourselves right out of it before we even headed out.

There are a gazillion reasons why we shouldn't move. We love it here. Everything is soooo damn handy. I'm 10 minutes from work and Zig is about 20. The management is right on top of things...something breaks, they're here to fix it or replace it within a day. The rent is reasonable. The utilities are so cheap they border on ridiculous. The apartment itself, while not exactly on Taj Mahal standards, is quite spacious and extremely well laid out.

So we'd decided that this house had to be something pretty damn special before we'd even consider moving. I was even glad that it was cold and snowy and just plain crappy out...I figured that'd kinda kill the mood, so to speak. I had a whole list of questions for the owners and figured that if even one wasn't answered the right way, that'd be the end of it.

They answered every last question the right way.

At first, I didn't think the house was anything special from the outside. Until I realized that you drive up to the back of the house...the front faces the river. Duh.

It's small...a little smaller than what we have now, but still a perfectly acceptable two-bedroom size. But the living room has a friggin cathedral ceiling. And a loft. And a huge window overlooking the river. And there's a large (probably 12 x 12) deck...that leads to a spacious, wooded lot...that leads to THE RIVER. There's a friggin beach. It's not a big beach...but a BEACH. With a firepit. The marina is within walking distance should we decide that we can't possibly live without a boat.

We saw tons of different kinds of water birds...flocks of gulls...Canadian geese. And the area is thick with bald eagles, though we didn't see any while we were there. The rent is exactly the same as here. The utilities are about the same. I can paint or redecorate to my heart's content. And while we can plant whatever we want to, (Oooo! Flowers and herbs and tomatoes and...) they take care of all the mowing. Good gawd...could it get any better?

Yup. Brand new stove, refrigerator and stackable washer and dryer are included. Oh, and no water or garbage pick-up bill, either.

The only drawback is that it'll add 15 miles or so onto our commute. I really don't mind, but then I only work two and a half days a week, anyway. The Zigster is the one that it'll affect the most, so I told him that it all boils down to whether or not he wants to add the drive.

Lessee...30 extra miles a day and we have our own little "beachfront" property...or stay here and sit on our cramped patio and pretend we're on our own little beachfront property.

Boy, that's a toughie.

Yea, right.