I've had house envy ever since my friends moved into a fabulous, and I mean fabulous, 1960 ranch house in our neighborhood.

When we bought this house, we still had a mortgage on a house in a hurricane zone, and were looking for something manageable, that w could work with and that we could afford to pay off within 5 years. There were also almost no houses for sale in this area, as someone basically has to die for a house to go on sale.

My hubby loved this house. I had my reservations but thought I could work with it.

It seemed like tons of space until we had two children and suddenly had no guest rooms.

So,when my friends moved into a house that was all the things we wished our house would have been, it was hard.

We casually looked at a few houses for sale, but deep down i think it's a better idea to just sit tight and learn to love our house again.

We don't really want to go through the hassle of moving, all for a few more square feet.

And, we don't want to start from scratch making improvements inside and out. We've already spent $30,000 on windows, roof, furnace, paint, etc. that we have no hope of recouping in this market.

SO, the plan is to make the most of this house, which is small but paid for, has a bedroom for everyone, even if not a bathroom to go with it, and has a decent fenced yard for the kids.

I think it will help that we are finally starting to get to the "fun" house projects. Things you can enjoy, not just things you have to do to preserve your investment (like a furnace). Our new kitchen will be done next week (counters and cooktop converted to gas).

And,we've decided to extend our concrete patio to the entire length of the house. it will give us a really nice space to spread out for kids and adult fun in the backyard, while still leaving most of the yard trees, grass and flowers.

This is part of my plan to fall in love with this house. I want to create a mini-forest flowering woodland forest-style oasis in the back. A place for us to have fun, and for the kids to explore, and to have friends over to sit in front of the chiminea, grow some berries, and support local wildlife. I think we can pull it off, and for not a lot of money, apart from the patio.

OK, so I will never have my own bathroom, even with two boys in the house. But I will still have a paid-for house.

We also are going to go hard on the green thing. We hope to redo our insulation this fall and to add solar panels in a couple of years. All of this will only be possible if we stay put.

Plus, with this house, we already know what we are dealing with and what the issues are. With a new house, we'd be starting over completely.

So, I am determined to fall in love with this house and stop dreaming of one that's bigger.