Educational Experience

We've talked about moving for awhile now, but we never actually do anything about it. We have a lot of stuff from living in a house with mucho storage space. Having to move all of that stuff or go through it and get rid of it is what keeps us stuck in place.
This week, Paul and I had a lunch date and saw a house we might like. On the spur of the moment, we called the realtor and scheduled an appointment.
The neighborhood was so-so, but the price was right, and it looked nice on the outside.
We took Abbie with us, and she does NOT want to move. I wondered how she would do. Turns out, she likes looking around in other people's houses.
Bottom line - it was an educational experience. As soon as we got in the car (after seeing the house), I told Paul that looking at someone else's house just makes me appreciate ours even more! Not that I'm critical when I go visit someone at their house, but when you're looking to buy a house, you have to look at things with a different eye. You have to ask yourself, "Could we live here and be happy?" and "Do we want to put our stuff HERE?" and "Could we make this place our own?"
The house we looked at was newer than ours, but it wasn't better. Not that ours is superior or luxurious, but the other house was not even comparable - even though there was a little more square footage and an extra bedroom. Bad carpet, gross tub/sinks, tacky appliances, worse counter tops than ours, not enough storage, broken tile, dirt in crevices....
We've decided we need to look at many more houses so we can decide once and for all if moving is our best option.