As I continue the series of Top Five on Tuesday I thought I’d invite you to our current hopes, dreams, wants & needs (okay, not really needs, but it rhymed well).  Today’s subject, the top 5 things we would do in our family if money were not an issue!

The criteria: the top 5 are less “dreams” and more reality of what we really would want to do if money were not much of an issue (or if it were there, here’s how we would responsibly handle the funds to meet the desires in the Aaby household.

Without further ado, this list.

 

 

 

 

Five: A new deck! We love entertaining in the back yard.  The summer BBQ, time in the kiddie pool and easy access to the play area in the backyard would all be enhanced by a newly designed, fully functional deck!

 

 

 

 

Four: Several updates to the interior (kitchen, bathrooms, etc.). We love our house, but it certainly could use a few “new” touches if we ever wanted to sell it.  I always find it interesting that many people spend big time bucks to update their house in order to sell it (just so the flyer can say “updated”).  Well, my belief, update and enjoy for some time, then you can still put the all-important “updated” on the flyer, but the double bonus, you actually enjoyed the updates!

 

 

 

Three: New Fence/Landscaping. Our house has three different fence lines, one on the west side of the house (still in decent shape), the south side (falling over) and the west side (several boards falling out/out already).  On top of the fence-line there are several little landscaping improvements we need to make in order to keep the yard in okay shape.  The fence is the most immediate need, but how to approach our neighbors with the suggestion and then figuring out who is really responsible seems to prevent us from moving forward to quickly… that and the cost!

 

 

Two: New Roof. It’s funny to think back to 2004, when we moved back to WA (from AZ).  When we made an offer on our house we asked the current owners to consider replacing the roof… well, they didn’t do that and the house was too good to pass up, so we went forward.  Well, five years later and the roof is still the original 1989 Cedar shingled surface.  We’re praying it makes it through (at least) one more winter!

 

 

One: Replacement Vehicle(s).  I am very thankful for our two wonderful Toyota vehicles.  The Avalon is now 11 years old, whereas her baby brother (the 4Runner) is 10 now.  I still suspect that they can go a good number of years, however, three growing kids and two aging (and higher mileage) cars does not make for a great equation.  So, if the money were there, I’d say we would first get Elisabeth into something larger (Sequoia, Highlander or dare-I-say, a Sienna… we’re not minivan fans, but might go to the dark-side if we have to).

Okay, which one did you want to pay for?  We’re taking sign-ups right now, hurry, only five options remain!

Grace,
Brian