Starter homes or finishing homes?

I have been busy researching homes for our upcoming move. Since "Buying and Selling" on HGTV is filmed in the Austin area, where we plan on settling, I have been watching the show to get a feel for the market.

Unfortunately, the show can be quite insulting. Seeing people whine because their children's futures will be ruined if they can't get into the $550K home.

I did see the sort of home I was looking for on the show-- the sort of home that the sellers were leaving for greener lawns. Apparently, the sort of home that I've grown up in, that I think of as a "regular house," is called a "starter home".

It's the kind of home that my grandparents lived in, the kind my mom lives in, and the kind I've always lived in. I guess it's the residential equivalent of first grade!

Well, we are looking for the perfect starter home to finish in!

Moving to Texas!

Home... Finally. I left my teenhood home in Boerne when I moved off to college in 1993. Since then, i've been in a variety of temporary housing, from dorms to apartments, from barracks to tents to military family housing.

Now, as my husband gets ready to retire from the army, I grow increasingly excited about finding the perfect permanent home. It seems that I go from Zillow to Trulia to Realtor.com throughout the day, trying not to fall in love with a "perfect" home in a bad neighborhood, or to get attached to a too-good-to-be-true deal that is sold within days.

I also have the urge, after spending twenty years traveling and pursuing excitement, to settle back in to small town life. My big fear is that of a transplant trying to spread roots in an established garden.