Running around, completely paralyzed

Fair warning, I'm back on the house buying/selling thing. Yes, I'm completely neurotic.

Here's the thing: I feel like this is such a huge decision that we're completely paralyzed with the fear of making the wrong choice. I mean, it was a big decision when we bought our first house, but we knew it was a starter house...that we'd be looking to move in 5 or so years (it's been 7 years). We were okay with making some trade-offs, like having less closet space than we'd like, or living on a busier road than we would have preferred. We knew that we'd only have to live with it in the relative short term.

Now we're trying to buy our FOREVER house. But as everyone knows, you can never find the perfect house. You always have to sacrifice some of what you're looking for. It just seems like such a bigger deal now, though.

Part of the issue is we're not sure where we want to live. We're looking in the town just north of where we live now. It's very similar in feeling to where we live currently. Very much a suburb...subdivisions and plazas aplenty. We don't dislike this area, but we aren't in LOVE with it, if that makes any sense.

We're also looking in the more western suburbs. It's still suburb-y, but more rural as well. Everything is more hilly and spaced out and...idyllic looking. It appeals more to us. But, to be honest, we've never lived anywhere like that. Would we miss the convenience of having three grocery stores within 10 minutes of our house? Of the relatively high number of restaurants and shops available? The convenience in general of having most of what we need close by?

And then the uproot factor comes into play. If we choose a town close to where we currently live, we don't have to change anything. The boys' preschool, our doctors, our friends: things might be slightly further away than they are now, but not unreasonably. If we moved a half hour further west, it would be far enough that we'd really be starting over. We'd have to change everything. Which is scary, though we've done it a number of times before, and it's always been kind of exciting as well as nerve-wracking.

It's confusing. As I said, we're having trouble making this decision that will have such a far-reaching affect on our lives.

Oh, and I'm also flipping out about taking on a bigger mortgage than we have now.

On the plus side, we found a house we like in the close town. Of course, there are a number of negatives, though: it REALLY would max out our budget, it only has 3 bedrooms when we'd really like 4, it is on well water, it has a ridiculously large master suite (completely out of control, and not at all what we need or want...the wasted space of it just makes me angry!), it only has one garage space. There are actually good things about the house (quite beautiful, beautiful, quiet lot, bigger than we expected to be able to afford), but as I said, we're finding ourselves completely overwhelmed and unable to commit!

Part of me wants to say, "Well, we're having doubts for a reason. Better pass this house by". The other part of me yells, "You're NEVER going to stop having doubts about any house, and you'll never find another house this nice! Don't be an idiot! Make an offer!"

Who knows.

Of course, ha, ha, our current house hasn't sold. It's not getting a ton of interest, either. Only one "second look", and the couple ultimately decided they didn't like that there are duplexes in our neighborhood. What? It's weird the things people will latch onto as a negative.

It'll all work out.

Right?