Christmas has arrived

I should have waited until later...I will take some with the tripod one of these days...

More house updates!!

I have been really bad about taking pictures lately, I just never think to grab the camera, and most of the time I know that if I did take a picture, it would have piles of toys, dirty dishes and laundry in the background so I wouldn't share it anyway.

So, for now, all I have to offer is updated house pictures. Things are moving along and we got to spend last weekend painting. Cory and I painted three of the four bedrooms upstairs so that we could take advantage of the lack of trim to tape around and carpet to ruin.

When we stopped by there the last couple of days we have seen the trim starting to go up, and the tile floors starting to go down in the bathrooms and laundry room.

This is the master bedroom



Thea's room


Leila's room



And the front...which already looks different. The rail is now complete and the garage is being prepped for the stone. I am thinking stone will be applied this weekend or early next week? We have a schedule but it doesn't seem too accurate since it says the stone was to be done on the 8th.

House stuff

We rolled into town after a week in Warsaw to see tons of house progress! We were thrilled to be able to walk into the house and actually see the layout all framed up and to be able to show the girls their future bedrooms. It makes everything seem so much more real!
This is the view from the outside...part of the roof of the porch isn't on there yet in this picture, but you get the idea. The house will have a rail on the front stoop. I could say it is a porch, but it is really pretty small.



This is Leila in the bonus bedroom over the garage. It is bigger than either of the girls rooms, but we are going to use it as an office/craft room for our computer workstation and my sewing stuff...maybe a little table and chairs for the girls to color at. That bedroom also has a pretty huge walk in closet that we can use for storage, and opposite that closet is the laundry room.


This is a picture that I took from the front door. Our downstairs is all open. The small window is in the kitchen.


Our closing date has been moved back and so we are now looking at mid October because of the raining June/July we had. It is disappointing, but we want everything done right...we don't want to move again!

House progress!

We are starting to get somewhere now!

The decking for the first floor went down at the end of last week


And today...







The first floor is basically done! There aren't many interior walls, there is a bathroom and a closet, otherwise it is completely open.

The garage floor hasn't been poured yet, so they have not framed the garage. I am not sure if we will see the second floor go up before we leave for a weeks vacation this weekend, but either way, we are so happy to see things moving along and really curious to see what it will look like when we get back into town!

House Update

Looks pretty familiar, huh? The lack of house updates is not due to lack of blogging time, but rather lack of progress. As disappointed as we are that things haven't been moving along, we are doing our best to not worry about it and to trust in our builder. The weather has not been favorable with the excessive amounts of rain that we have had during June and July, and it is making it impossible to backfill around the foundation. We are waiting and hoping that this won't hold us back from closing on time, and we have been assured that it isn't crisis time yet. The builder has built a house from nothing to complete in 70 days and we are currently 61 days from our proposed closing date. Rain Rain Go Away!

The good news is, once they get started, it should come together really quickly to stay on target, and we also built in a couple of extra weeks to the timeline so we won't be homeless if this continues for a bit longer.

There are lots of things going on in my life that are testing my ability to have patience in those things that I can not control, and this is no exception. Serenity now!

Progress!

Last Friday night when we drove by our lot, we saw a sight that I never imagined myself being so excited about....

Port Johnny is in place!

Even with some rain early this week, we have seen a bit more progress to report...we now have a hole! :)

The summer home

We are all moved in to the apartment, and life is good. The apartment has three bedrooms that are all pretty large, along with a big deck, 2 car garage and a closet that puts the closet in our old house to shame. I am in awe of the fact that there is room for all of our clothes to be clean at the same time! Oh the simple pleasures...

The biggest drawback is that we are on the second floor, so taking Zoey out, bringing groceries in and carting kids both ways is a bit of a struggle. The benefit is that Zoey can lounge on the deck and sun herself, something she always has enjoyed about our fenced yard. She is probably having the toughest adjustment but is still doing well with everything.

As nice as it is here, we are looking forward to September and our new house. I am ready to feel settled! We met with our builder this week and were able to see a 3D rendering of our new kitchen, and I am even more excited about everything now. The next step in our process is to get an appraisal done of the plan to ensure that our lender will approve the mortgage for what we are contracted to pay. We don't expect this to be an issue, but as soon as that is done, the contract will be signed and we can get started on construction! Once I have my camera and work gets underway, you can expect lots of progress pictures! I can tell you now that the house is 2 story, with 3 bedrooms, a large bonus room and the laundry all upstairs. Downstairs will be the huge kitchen, dining room, living room and a half bath. The back will have a big deck and our lot borders on a corn field. I know that I will have green siding, and probably a tan stone front on the front of the garage. Very exciting stuff! :)

House stuff

Someday I am going to look back at this time in my blogging existence and be really annoyed that I didn't take and share more pictures. I do have some, but the camera hasn't gotten much love these days, and I have no idea where the card reader is. I have a habit of doing a last minute "clean" before we have a showing, and that cleaning consists of me throwing whatever clutter happens to be around into a Rubbermaid tub that then gets shoved in a closet. There are a lot of missing items that I am sure will someday be unearthed in a Rubbermaid tub.

So I haven't said anything because I really didn't want to jinx it. I still don't want to jinx it, and yet, here I go sharing....

We have accepted an offer on our house. The home inspection is complete, with only a few small known issues that we are going to take care of. No termites. We find out about Radon tomorrow, and all of the wheels are in motion for us to be out of this house on April 23rd. A date chosen by the buyer.

In the meantime, we have a lot. We will close on the lot on March 31st, and construction will begin April 1. We picked out a plan, and we are working on finalizing the details and getting a final price and contract in place.

Saturday morning Cory and I are going to look at an apartment that we would be able to lease on a short term basis (6 months, beginning in April). The apartment is 3 bedrooms and has a two car garage, so really, we aren't going to lose very much space, but we also aren't going to lose much of the monthly cost of living either. Though, given the short term nature of our needs, and the fact that it has three bedrooms, and that our dog is allowed to live with us makes that worth it. We will have a place for the summer that actually fits our family, and we will save money on not having to purchase more storage. Provided we get this lease, which I think we will.

So many blessings and so much good news makes me feel very fortunate, and also makes me worry about what bad thing is going to knock me to my knees. For now, I am basking in the good, and hoping that everything works as it should. September should find us all moved into our new forever (hopefully!) home.