House Hunting

My husband and I have both been feeling restless lately, and I think my husband's restlessness is the main reason he is interested in looking for a new house. Yesterday for Father's Day we went to look at two houses. One was probably in the same price range as our current house. The other was probably out of our price range entirely (unless we want to sign up for 30 years of debt). My husband, at 6 feet 6 inches, is too tall for either one of the houses. When we were looking for our current house, he told me that any house where he would bump his head on a ceiling or doorway was automatically out of the running. I had forgotten how many houses we disqualified when we were looking the first time around because of low doorways. But I don't blame him ... who wants to have to think about ducking (or else get a bump on the head) each time they walk through their home?

Gracie had never been to an open house before, but her reactions were cute. "Oh, look at this room," and later, "This kitchen is really nice." One of the houses must have had a family with young girls because there was a play room with a dress up box. We asked Gracie which house she liked best, and she said she liked the house with the dress up box. How do you explain to a three-year-old that the dress up box doesn't come with the house?

I think (I hope) that my husband is not really serious about buying a new house any time soon. He knows it takes me a long time to get used to the idea of change, so he likes to test the waters with outrageous suggestions, but he usually takes his time in actually acting on them. And I am surprised at how quickly my attitude changes when he makes his suggestions. A few weeks ago I was horrified by the thought of ever moving from our current house. (I do love it here!) But now I am at least open to looking at some other houses and getting a feel for what we like and how much it might cost.

Now back to the subject of houses and debt. After we re-did our budget, my husband and I decided to pay a little bit extra on our mortgage each month, to try to pay it off sooner. When I went to the bank to change our automatic payment, the teller tried to convince me that a mortgage is "good debt" and that I shouldn't be so anxious to pay it off. I guess it probably is better than some other kinds of debt, but wouldn't it be better to be out of debt entirely? Wouldn't it make more sense to earn interest rather than to pay interest? Am I missing something here?