Plain Advice

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, and there are some who have been giving me a hard time for the “blogging drought”! (*wink wink* you know who you are). There are also others who have expressed genuine concern via e-mail, wondering if something is terribly wrong in my life. Let me assure all you loyal Plain Advice readers that this lull is only temporary. I still have lots to say and I intend to say it all!

About 3 weeks ago my husband and I decided that we were going to embark on an exciting and stressful journey… building a new house! Ever since we made the decision, I have been a bit preoccupied with all the details going into such an endeavor. Wow, I never knew all the decisions that went into creating a new home. We have chosen a builder that gives basic floor plans to choose from, which helps narrow some things down. But still, there are still lots of choices to be made, such as where to put the kitchen, bathrooms, countertops, cabinets, flooring, appliances, fixtures, …. the list seems to never end.

The builder we decided on is developing communities in several cities that surround our current location. We initially chose a lot in a neighborhood that was close to our extended family, and otherwise felt like a good place to live. However, we realized after about a week that it was really stretching our budget to get the house we wanted in this particular neighborhood.

We shopped around the other communities and found that for about $30K less, we could build a home that was considerably larger and more upgraded in a neighboring community (about 20 minutes south of our initial choice). We impulsively signed the papers and moved our lot to this new location.

My husband immediately felt uncomfortable about the decision. We both chalked it up to him not liking the piece of land we chose in the new community, so we decided we would change it the next day (different lot in that same development). I took a Unisom (hadn’t slept well since we made the decision to build…) and so I became numb to any and all emotion until morning. When I woke up, I felt sick to my stomach and uneasy about the decision we had made the night before.

Jorge and I discussed our uneasy feelings and decided that we should listen to our gut reactions. Within a few days, we made a firm decision to move back to the former neighborhood and build a smaller home. With this decision came peace in our hearts and and confidence to move forward.

The reason I share this experience is because it is a real life (simple)example of following intuition. I don’t know why we felt so much better about one neighborhood over another, and perhaps we will never know. But deciding where to move and raise our children is a really big decision, that will affect their lives in really big ways. I feel sure that we made the best decision we possibly could, because my intuition has never guided me in a direction I regretted.

It’s also a bonus to have a spouse who had the same intutive feelings that I did about this major decision.

When have you made decisions based on your gut feeling, and what was the outcome? I would love to see some discussion going on about this in the comments.

Again, loyal readers, I am sorry for being missing in action for several weeks. It’s good to be back!

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