Thanks everyone for their insight. Our house finally closed yesterday. Of course you go through a lot of emotions, at least we did, (Couldn't wait for it to sell, then became sad at the thought of really leaving it...etc) but now that we've settled into a rental, we're happy to be done with the whole selling side of things. We also feel grateful to have had a sucessful sale in this market. Now that we are in the buyer's seat we still doubt WE would be able to make an intellegent decision based on one visit. Our needs/wants are a bit more unique than the average buyer though. If it were just my husband and I, I could see falling in love with something perfect for the two of us when I walked in the front door...in fact I did: We made an offer the other day on a home that I DID fall in love with on the first visit. I loved it when we pulled up and throughout the whole house. Had it not been an evening visit and we couldn't see most of the yard, I'm sure I would have talked my Husband into offering then and there. Come to find out, it was a short sale and in reality it was perfect for US, but not for our son. We convinced ourselves that we could make the modifications needed to make it work for everyone. Our Agent explained it could take months to hear back so we could offer and continue to look and pull the offer at anytime so we decided to go for it. We have since rescinded the offer when we realized no matter how much I wanted it, and modifications included it wasn't the right house for ALL the family members. I would have always felt it was a selfish decision. Since then we've gone back to another house we've been watching for a 3rd visit..... and now plan to offer on because it's a good compromise house for everyone. I guess it took 3 visits to convince me that I was doing the right thing by choosing this one. It's not that I didn't like it, it was just not what I had envisioned we would buy which was a forever dream home. I've realized it might not be possible to mesh what is perfect for me with the needs of my son. So, after that really sank in and I became ok with it, I feel good about this offer. It's a low offer (I think it's overpriced and part of the reason it's been on the market 10 months) so if we get it, we will be able to make the changes I want that would make me happier with it, and it is an AWESOME place for my son's needs. Wish us luck!

I guess it all depends on how much you call from home versus away from home or on the road. We use pre-paid cellular. The new phones were free after rebate and my wife and I each spend about $5-$7/month for the STI Mobile/Sprint service. We only make quick 1-2 minute calls for necessary reasons and it works fine anywhere in the country that Sprint covers. Voice mail and text messaging are turned off on both cellular phones. Other cellular providers are now joining the pre-paid game with good deals. We are still stuck with the old telephone company for home and home office lines. I must have the reliability and quality of a landline for my business. I do pay too much for long distance, toll-free, and local service for my business compared to the low rates available today. Bills are typically $35-$50/month for relatively low volume usage. The last time I switched was from MCI to Ameritech(i.e. SBC/AT&T/who knows?) It was a pain to switch, but the new lower rates were good for a year before they went up again. Our home phone line just went up to $22/month for local phone service. It started at $18 several years ago. Pre-paid long distance service is $.025/minute using cards from companies like Cheap Phonecards. The latest cards don't require you to enter the pin every time from home and you can program the 800 access number into speed dial. The long distance cards are great from hotels too. We are seriously considering the switch to broadband phone service, but our local numbers are not yet portable for Vonage or the others. We are just outside of their large markets. Broadband cable internet is $30/month and speed is around 300K or 10 times faster than dial-up. It is fast enough for our needs. The total bill (excluding my business) is around $67/month for all phones and broadband for my wife and I. Here is a link that might be useful: Cheap Phone Cards

I'm in the same boat, BB. Had my double mastectomy in May, with reconstruction, and it has taken for-EVER to get my stamina back. I'm still not there! I tire out so very easily anymore, it just kills me. And now I'm a slug. A big ol' slug. I do have hobbies, make my cards, read books, play PC games, TV etc ... but nothing that gets me up and moving in the evenings. It seems like when I get home from work, I'm just beat and the only things I do, are from this computer chair. So we've bought a Wii for Christmas, with the Wii Fit Plus game, and I'm really looking forward to playing with that. I hope I like it as much as everybody else seems to. I'd like to get moving, and have something that shows PROGRESS which should give me incentive to keep doing it.

Wow! What amazing words of wisdom - thank you for all your comments. Just to add a little color on some of the questions that were asked: We had our 3 kids very early, so while they are all off to college now my wife and I are still relatively young (48 & 46, respectively). We are still very healthy and active so we probably won't think seriously about retiring until we are around 55 or so. We have been working with an amazing architect over the past several months. He has been incredibly thoughtful in the design and flow of our house. It is absolutely beautiful. We are in the Midwest so part of the square footage includes basement space. The current design has about 3,600 sq ft on the main floor, 1,600 sq on the 2nd floor and about 2,200 finished sq ft in the basement for a total of roughly 7,400 sq feet of finished space. This does not include the 6-car garage, pool area or outdoor space. The first floor is pretty normal - foyer, kitchen, dining room, great room, master suite w/attached laundry, pantry, mud room, office, music room, lanai and a couple of half-baths. The 2nd floor has 3 bedroom suites and a laundry room The basement is where all the "nice to have's reside" For example, we have a large bar area, wine cellar, TV room, fitness room, dry sauna, play room (for future grandchildren), pool bathroom and a bunch of storage. The basement also walks out to a covered outdoor kitchen area which then flows into the pool area. We entertain a ton so we designed the basement to be very open and spacious. We also have a lake house that is a couple hours away. Honestly, we are thinking of selling it because we are not sure we will ever want to leave this house... although I think our kids will protest quite heavily because they love to go to the lake! The house will sit on roughly .75 acres. We fully intend on outsourcing all the landscaping, yard work and pool maintenance. We both have pretty demanding jobs and don't really want to spend all our free time pushing a mower around or cleaning a pool. No offense to anyone - we have done this work for years, but the older we get the less appealing it is. We are installing a geothermal system that will not only heat and cool the house and provide hot water, but it will also heat the pool very efficiently. We are also going heavy with insulation, windows and doors. We had an energy study performed and all indications are that our utility bills should not be significantly higher than our current house. Long story short - we are going to go for it! Maybe in 10 or 15 years it will be too much for us to handle, but until then we are going to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of this house and create some wonderful memories with our family. Thank you again to everyone who contributed to this thread. We are sincerely thankful for your input.