Sunday, July 13, 2014

Playing In The Dirt

We got word this weekend that the wait is soon to be over! Yay!!! They are scheduled to beginning digging the footer early Monday morning. We are all so crazy excited!

Tonight, before all the crazy begins early tomorrow morning, we made a trip over to the lot.




We are all so excited about experiencing every aspect of them building "our new home" I thought it would be fun to let the kids collect a jar of dirt from right under the middle of where the house is soon to be sitting.



We chose the spot right under where the family room is going to be.




And each one of us took a turn collecting a scoop of dirt.




One "family jar" of dirt simply wasn't enough for Gracie Girl.




She insisted on collecting a little bottle of dirt all her own for her "special box."

We are so excited to finally be "home!" The opportunity to build this house is such a blessing. It is such a gift to our family and our sincere prayer is that it will be a haven to all who enter... beginning with the man who digs the first hole. Our prayer is that the builders will sense that something is very different about this house. After we collected the dirt we gathered around in prayer thanking God for this special opportunity and for each person involved in making it a reality.




Saturday, July 12, 2014

Our Future Home Sweet Home

 We're building a house! Yay!!! I'm so crazy excited. We have waited and waited and searched and searched for what seems like forever and finally we've made a decision. We signed the papers on the lot way back in March and chose our plan.


Then the fun stuff began!  First, I poured over the plans for hours and hours tweaking this and that making the plans fit our family exactly (at least I hope). We took out closets here and added walls there. We also added a third floor! Yeah, isn't that crazy? For those of you from the deep south this was definitely something for us to get used to up here. There aren't a lot of basements here and if you happen to find a lot where you can have one they are CRAZY EXPENSIVE! Thus, the 3rd floor. We absolutely ADORE having guests in our home so one of the biggest things we were considering when choosing a plan was not only does it have plenty of room for our family but does it have plenty of room to entertain. Adding a 3rd floor was a huge deal to us so we would have that extra place for the kiddos to run off to play or for the guys to hang out to watch a game. Basically, it's a basement on the 3rd floor. Although we aren't going to finish the 3rd floor immediately it is my favorite addition to the plans because the added floor totally changed the pitch of the roof which really added to the over all look of the house. I've always loved the farmhouse look and I think this is pretty close.


Another major priority for this "Southern Belle" was a front porch! Why sugar, what proper southern home is complete without one? I absolutely can't wait to spend my mornings out there rocking and sipping my coffee and my evenings having "porch time" with my hubby,  sipping a tall glass of ice cold sweet tea, as we talk about our day. Simply dreamy!


The next step was my absolute FAVORITE part so far!!! I had my 4 hour long selections meeting where I picked out all the details. Y'all know me, there are NEVER enough details in anything I do! It was so much crazy fun! I truly felt like a kid in a candy store...except for having to stay within budget. UGH! We joked all morning during the meeting as I borrowed from Peter to pay Paul that Peter was flat broke and in the poor house by the time I finished. It all worked out beautifully and by eliminating this and that I was able to add other things that made me CRAZY EXCITED....like a farmhouse sink!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! It became such a big deal me saying "no I can't add that because I have to have the sink" that the joke is now every time someone rings my doorbell my first greeting to them is going to be  "Do you want to see my sink?"It has been so great! We are so, so, so very blessed to have this opportunity. I'm not sure if this is our forever home but I'm doing my very best to build it like it is.

They've cleared the lot and slowly but surely things are beginning to happen.  You see those trees back there...we fought for everyone of them. Well, not really, but I'll tell you I was more than willing to chain myself to one and I had a few friends willing to help me if the threat of those big ole dozers taking them all down arose! You know builders, they like to wipe the slate clean, but I wanted my trees! We so missed having trees while we were in Texas. Being surrounded by trees once again is a dream come true. We still have a lot of cleaning up to do back there but hopefully the beautiful huge oak trees will continue to stand strong!


As of right now this is where we are. All cleared and ready and waiting.


The wait is supposed to be over first thing Monday morning when things are scheduled to begin! Yay!!! I honestly have butterflies in my stomach I am so excited! We've lived in several new homes over the years but this is the first time we have built one from the ground up. In my mind it's completely finished and is absolutely gorgeous. Now,  I just have to wait and see if it all turns out as I have planned.