Because we're Stalker-Neighbors

I think the only place that windows overlap is their stairway into our bonus room. Good to know for passing secret flashlight code messages.

Are we really THAT old?

8 years ago, I married my best friend, the woman who I love more than anything in the world. Can it really be THAT long ago? That means that I (we) am getting old. So many things have happened in those 8 years. I am glad she loves me as much as I love her.

Allie - you are my one and only. You mean more to me than anything. I am so glad that you have stuck by me for these past 8 years. I hope that we will be together for another 80 (if we live that long). HET - I LOVE YOU!

eddie

The secret's out

We're not keeping our plans to move a secret anymore. The hardest thing about the whole new-house thing has been leaving our wonderful neighbors. I wish I could take all of them with us.

When we bought our current house nearly 7 years ago, we knew that it wasn't going to be permanent, but that doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye to neighbors who have become family. Maybe we'll have to make more of an effort to maintain relationships, because I can't imagine life without some of those incredible people.

WE FINALLY UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER!

Allie and I had a date on Friday night. It was most exciting - we went to Ikea to look around and have dinner. (man - we are getting old if that is our excitement for Friday night) Ikea is a pretty cool place. We have a list about a mile long of things we would like to buy there - entertainment center, dining table, toy storage, pants hanger for closet, and a corner sofa. We had a good date and the food wasn't that bad - it was actually pretty good. It was a fun date.

On the way home, Allie told me how much she wanted the toy storage bins, and the various closet organizers that they offered. Almost automatically, I rolled my eyes back and shook my head. I have heard all of this about a million times since we have been married (which will be 8 years tomorrow! But then the light finally clicked on. I have been talking to Allie about home automation and zoned audio throughout the house (not necessarily this but something like it like Apple TVs, Mac Minis, etc) and I get almost the same knee jerk reaction that I give her when she talks about home organization. I explained this phenomenon to her and we both just laughed and laughed when we realized how true that was.

We both have things that we want that are extraneous, not necessary, maybe kind of expensive and frivolous (probably mine more than hers), but things that each of us think are just really cool. We are hoping to have a budget set aside for those types of things in the future. But it is so nice to finally understand each other and be understood. Communication. Who woulda thunk it?

Is our house in that pile of dirt?

THE COUNTDOWN HAS STARTED!

We signed our first round of papers, ie. our life, today. We finalized our structural and electrical today with the salesperson there. It seemed like we had been over every single detail about 10 times. So I thought that it should have gone faster than it actually did.

But the choices were not the longest part. Those were really easy. Our salesperson also wanted to postpone the electrical. NO WAY! Let's get this going! So we also did the electrical upgrades. But the longest part was the contracts and all of the gobbledygook that we had to sign. Then we had to have it all explained to us!

All we need now is an appointment with our mortgage guy and then the design center where we do all the rest of the upgrades.

So as we left, we drove by our lot. There were a couple of homes in various stages of being built. We told the kids that we were buying a house right next to our friends, and we pointed to their house. J asked, "Is that the house we are buying?" No, J, we are buying the plot next to that house. "Are we going to have our house in the dirt?" Yup, J, we are going to live in the dirt!

6 MONTHS TO GO!

Our Floor Plan

Here is the floor plan which we have decided to build:

The first floor (with superimposed second floor)


The second floor (with superimposed first floor)


We are really excited. (can you tell?)

Living in the forest

I was just looking at the picture of our house. It's a computer generated picture, and I think it's really funny because the house is shown surrounded in trees. It looks like we're moving to a forest.

We're not. On tuesday I'll get a picture of our dirt (I mean our lot).

Anyone know of any good, fast growing trees?


(EDIT) Hey look! My best friend took a picture our dirt for me!

Our little baby

My how time has flown. It seems like yesterday we first bought this house. We bought it while we were still at USU and didn't have any little ones running amuck. But we have transformed this house into our home. We fully finished the basement. We remodeled the kitchen (even though it isn't COMPLETELY finished - stay tune in the near future for that to be finished). We put in a wonderful garden that produces plenty of tomatoes each year. We put in a little playground for the grommets to play on. We even put in a small covered patio/deck.

But the time has come to sell our home. It doesn't seem right. My brother just moved from his house nearby, and every time we drive by it, we get the odd sense that something just doesn't seem right. But the time has come. If anyone knows anyone who wants a great house, here is our add in the KSL Classified section.

I do hope our home gets sold to a wonderful family. But I also realize that you really can't be choosers when you are beggars. We hope that it sells fast.

eddie

The next few days

We are in a rush to get the house sold. This means getting a last few things that needed to be done around the house. I have to finish the kitchen cabinets, install them, install the back splash, paint the kitchen, finish the molding, fix a few drywall spots, and redo the bathroom tile around the tub. So there is kind of a lot to do, but if I do a little each day, I can get it finished. I am sure there are other things that need to be done, but those are the major ones.

We qualified for the 5/1 ARM loan. I called the mortgage broker and he said that it was just a pre-approval for a loan. We can be qualified for basically any mortgage that we want. That will happen on Tuesday when we have a construction meeting. We have to decide most of the options that we want. The project manager told us it would be 6 months from then. Wow - not that much time.

eddie

The first few days

Well, it has come so suddenly that I really don't know where to start. Our friends invited us to see their house being built nearby. While touring their home, they often kidded about which lot we wanted - the one on the North or on the South.

After leaving their house (and inviting us to the grand opening party that Woodside Homes was offering), Allie and I talked amongst ourselves and the topic was building a home. After reviewing their website and talking ourselves into thinking that we could do this, we went to the grand opening with 20 questions. A couple of weird things about this homebuilder:

- NO SWEAT EQUITY!!! (What is up with that? - to be explained in a future post, I guess)

- We don't get a copy of the house plans

Anyway, we sent in our pre-loan application and we were approved later in the day. We have decided to build this house (plan to be posted later):



Ours will have a 3rd car garage, but we aren't quite sure what color it will be. We are really excited about this, although there is much work to be done on our current house to get it ready to be sold. Too much to do and not enough time to do it in.