The Five Year Plan

I often see on extensively researched family education television programs, like *ahem* WifeSwap, that a lot of couples/have Five Year Plans that they plan and then constantly monitor their progress against or work towards. Today Aaron and I discussed what our Five Year Plan would be.

The upshot of our discussions was we haven't even worked out what we're having for dinner, good luck us working out what we'd be doing in 2017.

INTERJECTION - Oh my dear god, I'll be 40 in 2017. *FAINTS*

The discussion did make us think about where what we're planning on doing with our house though. Our house is small, probably a little too small (mostly because we're hoarders, I can't cope with minimalism) but realistically large enough for a couple and a cat. It's an older house that had always been half heartedly renovated, so there's mod cons missing like an ensuite or walk in robe (want!) but we've redone the kitchen and bathroom, it's well airconditioned, and the rooms are laid out well. We're also lucky that we bought it at a very good price and we think we'd be able to sell it for over half again of what we paid for it.

Today though we looked at some display houses, which we usually end up pointing and laughing at, because there's always weird empty spaces or windows that would be impossible to clean etc. But today, was different. Today, there was one I really, really liked. Aaron was a fan too. So we talked about whether we'd consider knocking down our house and getting a more modern one. Obviously having renovated the kitchen and bathroom within the last two years, it wouldn't be something we'd want to do now, but would we want to? Are we happy to stay in the same suburb or do we actually want to move onto a new area etc?

Similar to the 5 Year Plan discussion, the conversation didn't actually come to a real conclusion. I think we know we're both too lazy to ever build, so if we wanted to upgrade we'd move. Which lead to a discussion of where. I have a dream of returning to the suburb I used to live in with my family, but houses there are now close to, or a million dollars. It's hard to realise you can't have your dream, and I really don't want to live anywhere else but there, so anything else would be a compromise, which is hard to get excited about or plan for. It's also hard to look for an upgrade house that's not a family home, that childless us don't need. So what do we look for and where? Aaron has a slightly wider search area than me, so I assume I'd let him pick! It's also hard to think about having a bigger mortgage than the one we have now, one that lets us go on overseas holidays and have the luxuries that we like.

As a result, it looks like we're staying put for a while, and I'm happy. The walk in robe and pantry will be mine one day, I just don't know where or when.

So, a big discussion that lead to absolutely no future plans and a planned blog entry that turned into a ramble. Today's lesson learned is sometimes life doesn't need plans.