I promise to have Rob let me post some pictures!!

The house is in FULL SWING!!! We have in the last week; had the first floor completely framed, the slab in the garages poured, and the second floor started. It is actually looking like a house!!
It looks a little smaller than what we envisioned, but it isn't. It is right and I am sure when the drywall goes in we will see. When it was just the foundation I swear I could cry. How much money are we spending on this? It is not going to be big enough. But, we are building the same house as the model and I know it is big enough. It is just deceiving with no real frame of reference.

Other exciting news, Several months ago Verizon came through our neighborhood to put in the fiber optic lines so the neighborhood could get FIOS, well, they had to do some digging in our yard. They put one of their boxes in the side yard and they also dug a little through our front yard. ---So yesterday I was having my sprinkler system turned on for the year and one of the zones was not working. The guy was like, "This is strange, I wonder what is going on..............OH! That's IT!!" Point to a huge mound bubbling up in the yard. He hurried to turn off the water and we knew that there was a broken pipe there. ..........Right where Verizon dug in my front yard!
They completely cut through one of the pipes.
The thing that makes me so mad about this is, I went out and told them before they even started digging that we had a sprinkler system and that they were clearly going to be where there were pipes. They guys acted like I was an idiot and said, "We do this all the time! We are not going to hit any of your pipes!!" BIG FAT JERK!!
Well they did!! It was clearly busted right in half and you could see the cute little fiber line going right over it!
Thankfully it was a fairly easy fix and didn't cost too much either. But now I have to decide if I should contact Verizon or not. I am sure they wouldn't do anything about it anyway!

Time to catch up.......again

Well it is time to play catch up again!!!
I just get so caught up in day to day life, that I don't often spend much time on the computer.
(The past couple of weeks I have spent reading the Harry Potter books again) So that is how I have been spending all of my free time.

And......we only have one computer set up right now. A few weeks ago, Alana was trying to push away from the computer table and shoved off with her feet and tipped the entire table over. Two BIG flat screen monitors, two switches and a host of other "network guru items" (that I have no idea how they really work) went crashing toward the window and floor. Thankfully everything fell in such a way that nothing was broken. I cannot tell you how relieved I was....... Rob thinking he must go out and spend thousands of dollars on new computer equipment is enough to send me over the edge!!
He has been so busy with work he has only taken the time to set back up the things he needs and one of the computers. (I think this is a bit of a punishment for the rest of us. He doesn't like me or the kids using his stuff or being in his way when he is working or studying. (Which is most of the time!!))

So there are my excuses for not posting more.............pretty lame I know! ;)

Well the house is in full swing.
They dug about two weeks ago. We have foundation walls and they have hooked us up the the water and sewer at the street and they are busy plumbing the basement for the bathroom and wet bar and sump pump, drains, etc. before pouring the basement floor. They are moving quickly in spite of the near tropical rainstorms we seem to be having at least 4 days a week! But the good news with that is, I haven't had to water my lawn yet, and it is the middle of June already!!
Thank heaven for that little money saver right there.

What is a good title?

I have the hardest time coming up with titles. Why do I need to title things anyway?

Things here are good. In a quiet kind of way. I like it. I like when I don't have huge worries and things to stew about all night long. I have been sleeping great!

The house paperwork is nearly complete. We are waiting on answers from a few of our "non-standard" requests. They have said yes to everything so far, so I am hopefully optimistic.
We have finished picking out all of our interior appointments. Hardwood color, cabinet wood and stain, the granite for the kitchen and master bath and the fireplace surrounds. The lights, faucets, etc. It has been really fun. It is really amazing how quickly everything adds up though! (not in a good way!)

They have yet to break ground, even though we were told it was happening two Tuesdays ago! But I expected this. It will take lots of time and I just need to be patient.

Lazy Day

Rob has been out of town for several days, to his cousins wedding. He has been having a blast hanging out with his friends and going and doing whatever he wants.

He sent me some beautiful flowers for Mother's Day from him and the kids. It was so fun. It has been a long time since I have had flowers.

The girls are off playing with friends in the neighborhood and the boys are watching Cars. The house is so quiet it is a little weird.

The day started super early this morning. Alana was up by 5 AM and was sitting out in my glider pressing on a water bottle. So it was making these loud crinkly popping sounds. It woke all of the rest of us up. By 6:10AM all of the kids were up, dressed and fed. What a great way to start the day!! --And I am actually not irritated at all. I know how hard it is to read tone in a post. But I was a little irritated when I was awakened, but I decided not to let it make it a bad day. So all is well here.

Happy Mother's Day to all!!

We are building a house!

So I have been a huge slacker in updating after the last post.

The phone rang literally before I could hit the "publish post" button. So I hit it quickly and ran for the phone. The builder countered our counter and came down an additional $5000. So not too bad. They are finishing the basement for free. They are paying all of our closing costs. And they came down $90,000 in the price. YAY!!!! Not to mention all the other things we asked for in the offer. Paint that is NOT a flat finish (I hate flat paint with all my heart!!!!) The are finishing the basement bedroom with an egress window. (So it is actually a legal bedroom instead of a "den".) And several other things that I can't seem to think of right this minute!! But you get the idea!

WE are SO excited to finally be moving forward. They have already pulled the building permits and are starting this week. I will be taking pictures and hopefully posting them. I need to figure out the whole downloading and posting pictures thing. (Not to mention Rob is a little weird about me posting photos) So hopefully you can enjoy this ride with us!!

I am waiting.......

I am waiting anxiously for a call from our Real Estate agent. We should be hearing back from the builder this morning. I am sure they will counter. We offered a fairly low amount for all the things we were asking for. So hopefully by tomorrow we will have a ratified contract. And then they can get started.

I was talking to the sales manager yesterday, and she said that everyone is on "High Alert" that we want to get in as quickly as possible. I am so excited!! It seems like everything is coming together!!

A few of you have asked if I could post the floor plan. Here it is. The model is the Emerson, and we are doing elevation one.

We are making a few small changes here and there but that is pretty much it. Instead of a two story open family room, we are doing a fifth bedroom and bath upstairs, I am also moving the laundry to the alcove in the master bedroom closet and turning the old laundry space into a big walk in pantry. We are also doing the sunroom extention on all three levels so it brings the square footage up to 5400. We are also doing a three car garage.

Ring phone ring.........

Are you sick of hearing about my house hunt yet???

Well yesterday we took the plunge. We signed a contract to build a new house!
The other day when I went our with our Real Estate agent one of the houses we went to look at took us to a neighborhood that was great. I didn't really care for that house (or any of the others we saw that night) but the yard of this house was GREAT!!! Huge (for this area) and FLAT!!!
We have search and hunted and begged and pleaded for a big flat yard. We have a big yard with the house we are in now, but we also have a HUGE HILL sloping into the trees. The kids used to like to play ball, but not anymore after chasing it down a ski slope 7956 times.

So we decided to go talk to the builder in huge yard land and see if they could build me something to love. I honestly did not think I was that picky until I started house hunting. I guess that is one problem with having too much choice. So my agent and I toured the model and it is beautiful!!! They can do five bedrooms upstairs and it has 4 baths all upstairs too. I get my laundry upstairs, and a big pantry. What mom of many could ask for more?? But there is more!! We also have a Sun room extension on all three levels and the basement is fully finished with a media room!!
So I was really excited to find a house I was really finally happy about. And I knew that Rob would love the yards. So I took him the next day and he was thrilled!! He says this is what he has been looking for for the last two years.

So off we go!!!

We signed all of the initial contracts yesterday and gave them our deposit. Now there are a few things we asked for that we are waiting for approval on then they will pull permits and we are off and running. I am so excited. They are also going to try and have it done for us by the end of August so we only have to ask for one extra month on the rent and we will hopefully be in by the time school starts!!