It's Too Late to Turn Back Now...

It really is too late to turn back now.  As if by magic, the footings for the house were dug on Saturday morning.  This time I didn't get too excited because of being jerked around so much in the past.
 
After all the waiting and all the red tape and permit nonsense, the crew came out and by 10:45am there was a very intricate maze of ditches dug all over our lot.  It was really quite amazing.

Today the cement people came out and filled in the ditches so that the next set of contractors can build the foundation on top of it with blocks.

Saturday was an exciting day.  We've still not made up our minds about windows exactly.  Our GC thinks we should do a triple window down the wing and double on the adjacent wall.  I'm thinking quadruple and triple at the current moment.

Wednesday we go pick out applicances for the kitchen-- which is a tad early considering we just dug the footings, but our GC's got a friend who can get us a deal... so we are going Wednesday afternoon.  And that is the part I'm really excited about.

I'm also a little obsessed with metallic paint at the moment.  I keep picturing in my head a metallic finish on my dinning room walls and ceiling.  What do you think?

Anyway-- I'll leave you with a few more shots of our footings.

Some of the brick and the block-- were going with Milbrook

The front porch

 

 

The bathroom

The back entry and garage.



What's Up with Windows?...

In the hopes of looking on the bright side and with the mindset that "everything happens for a reason" I've decided to look at this delay in building as the perfect opportunity to obsess a little about the windows that will be in the house, specifically the front, side wing of the house.

This would be so much easier to explain if I could just show you the rendering of the house we intend to build... but due to copyright laws that is not going to happen.  The deal is that a wing of the house, on the front side, the plan calls for a bank of picture windows that wraps around to the adjacent wall to create a sort of sun-filled breakfast area.  However the architect calls for this to be finished in hearty plank instead of brick and that is something we do not want.  On the architect's website there is a house very similar to ours that was finished in brick instead of hearty plank and we hate how it looks.

And I suppose we could just go ahead and do the hearty plank... but that is really not what we want to do.  So now here we are trying to figure out what to do instead.  To the Internet I went.

What do you think...?

This (above) is very similar to what we've got in mind.  I just can't figure out if it will look okay on the front of a house-- its a lot of windows.

I like this because of the transoms.  But this also might look okay centered in the wing and on the side, centered.  Maybe?

Doesn't this look like the house from Home Alone?  It has a lot of windows and it doesn't look bad... Right?

I like the shape of these windows and the brick work around them. I could imagine another one on the wall to the side... maybe? 

I love, love, love how much light is in this space.  But would it look okay on the front of a house?

We've talked about just doing two windows across (maybe double long windows) and picture window on the adjacent wall... and I'm pretty sure it would look good-- but it doesn't seem as unique either.  Choices!!! I hate CHOICES!!!

I really just love this-- But again, this is obviously the back of some one's house.

I'm so confused as what to do and I'm afraid of making a mistake.  I'm going to show these to the Hubster and maybe he can help me make up my mind.

I'll keep you posted.  Enjoy the weekend!

Frustrating Week...

This could possibly be one of the most frustrating weeks of my life, thus far.  All the excitement and nerves I had about starting the house in my last post have now turned in burning anger. 

Wednesday, around lunchtime I was in my office working on the school-wide slide show that airs throughout the lunch period and continuously in the front lobby of the building when my cell phone rang.  I had been expecting a call from the Hubster with news about the house.  If the county had okay'ed the permits, we would be able to start digging the footing the very next day.  I knew when my tired old cell phone began to chirp, that this was the call with the all clear.

As I held the phone up to my ear a flood of words came pouring through the receiver.  It was the Hubster-- I recognized his voice and could tell by the tone and the hurried way he was talking that he didn't have good news for me.  And he didn't.

We are now about a week or possibly two weeks behind and about $1,200 dollars poorer as our plans have to be engineered to meet our county's codes.  Can you believe that?  And just when I thought things couldn't get much worse things got even more complicated.  Mind you, we've already paid about $1,100 dollars for the set of plans we currently own.

Cut to afterwork.

That very afternoon I was coming home from work, still mad about the news about the house.  As soon as work is over I generally make two phone calls, maybe three-- it all depends on how my day was and considering that my day was pretty craptastic...

Most of the time I call the Hubster and then I call my mom to see how things are going for her.  Sometimes I call my sister to see what she is doing.  And depending on the crap factor I might call my friend Olivia-- but Olivia is on a fabulous 9 day crusie with her husband's family. 

Yesterday my sister had called while I was at work and I decided to return her call.  At this time I was also trying to carry the mail in the house along with my coat, my purse and lunch bag, and a cup from earlier in the day all while talking on my cell phone.

I had the phone wedged between my ear and my shoulder and as I walked I began to feel the phone slip.  I screamed out, "hold on" to my sister repeatedly as I walked to the door.  At this point the phone had fell down around my stomach but I was holding it pretty steady by pushing the phone up against myself with the back of my wrist as I continued to carry all the aforementioned items.  "Hold on" I kept saying and then as I opened our door I felt the phone fall away from my grip and I watched it land, face first on the brick steps.

The phone had met its end. 

It had been a good phone.  It never went swiming in the toliet like the last one I had or tried to wash itself in the washer machine like the one before the toliet phone did.  And when I had dropped this phone in the past, it had always snapped back... but yesterday was just one of those days.

I'm now the proud owner of a Blackberry Bold.  I know very little about its finer points but I intend to learn them.  Today was my first appointment at the Reproductive Endrocrinologists office and while I waited for the Doctor to call me back I read TMZ.com and checked emails.

I've decided that this week can't get any worse.  So Friday is tomorrow and I'm hopeful that it will be a good, good day.

I'll keep you posted on the home front.  And for any of you that are thinking of building-- before you buy plans, make sure that the company you get them from has had them engineered properly!

Oh-- by the way--- which brick do you like best?

This brick is called Milbrook

And this called Mesa Verde

News on the House Front...

For all those months with no news to report on the house front, suddenly we are in business.  Let me bring you up to speed...

On Wednesday of last week we closed on the house at the lawyers offices.  We forked over 3 years worth of savings and signed/initialed about a trillion legal documents and in exchange we were given a very measly looking check book and a folder full of those signed/initialed documents (copies) and told to get started.

We called our General Contractor, Clay and he immediately wanted to come over to the house to discuss getting started. An hour later he was sitting in our present kitchen talking about permits and brick.  We are slated to start this week, if everything goes as planned.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around this whole house business.  Like I said earlier, we spent months and months encountering one road block after another.  My goal back in the summer was to have broken ground in the Fall... and a year before that I was hoping to start in the Summer before that Fall.  Confusing?  Yes.  Was I patient-- just barely.  Clay assures us we could be in the house by May.

May.

May 2011.

After all this "hurry up and wait" time I'm not sure I'm able to understand the concept of just "hurry up."

The task at hand-- brick.  Apparently there are various shades and we have to pick one by the end of the week.  The end of the week-- not the end of the month.  By Friday!

Yes, months and months of hurry up and wait... and "be patient Emily!"  Now that I've learnt to be patient they want me to move at warp speed.

Have a good Valentine's Y'all

Back On Track...

Things are getting back on track.  The bank is working with the lawyers' office to get a new closing date set.  I'm waiting to hear back from them, hopefully tomorrow.  And so it is full steam ahead with the building of the dream house.

My period never came and for most women my age that would mean one thing, pregnancy. In my case it means I have to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist or RE if I want to get pregnant any time soon.  Apparently, in my doctor's opinion, there is no need to belabour the issue.  I'm not so sure I'm ready for the RE.

I'm not that stressed out about children--at this time.  Although, just as soon as I figured out that things are working right for my lady parts, I immediately wanted what I can't have.  So I may have that mother instinct after all.... that, or I never matured past the emotional age of a spoiled 14 year old. 

But in light of all the things going on in my life-- the dysfunctional family drama, my sister's wedding, the dream house, and the fact that I'm a defective typewriter coupled with the stress of work I've decided to turn over a new less-stressful leaf.

And so far so good.  I'm working very hard to stop being a procrastinator, and even though it is going to take some practice-- I'm slowly doing a little better.  And I'm going to stop trying to over schedule myself or take on projects when I've not finished the one I started to begin with.  The main thing... I'm making an attitude shift.  I'm a very blessed person.  I have a life filled with great things and most importantly, great people.  I need to stop worrying so much about work and taking on other people's problems (a hazard of the job when you're a counselor) and start enjoying the fun and nice things going on around me.

It's going to be hard, but I'm going to try very hard.