Our house nextdoor to theirs

More Yard Updates

2008-06-17T18:09:00.001-07:00

Looking down the row of cranberries. There are four plants total.

One Cranberry up close- if you look carefully you'll see some of the berries are turning red.

The tomatoes are finally starting to grow a little.

The backyard with grass!!!!

The front yard- the spot without grass is the future dry riverbed. The rocks were delivered today, so hopefully we'll be able to start working on that project soon.

Yard Update

2008-06-17T16:48:00.001-07:00

Fruit trees- 2 peach, 2 chinese apricot, 1 bartlet pear, 1 italian prune, 1 nectarine, and 1 aprium. Yes, they are planted close together, we did that on purpose. :)
Two Munger (I think) grape vines. We'll string a line between the two for them to grow together on.

The other grape vine and one of the blueberry bushes (below). Hopefully the grapes will grow the other direction and won't crowd the blueberry bush since they ended up closer than was intented.

4 Red Raspberry plants. One isn't looking so good, but hopefully they'll come back next spring.
The lone black raspberry (below). (I'm hoping it spreads like crazy. My Mr. is not so enthused. (he'll love them next year, I'm sure!)). There's also the second blueberry bush (a different kind than the first) next to the black raspberry. It actually has 3 or 4 little green blueberries on it.

The garden with sod around it. It's amazing what a little sod can do- kind of like carpet.

Saturday Project

2008-04-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

I've been so frustrated about not being able to plant anything outside, so we decided to work on some inside projects instead. We had all three rooms finished in time for bed. It's really easy when you're only painting a stripe around the walls.

Edited to add: We almost finished in time for bed. C was penned in the play room with his brothers while they watched a movie so I could finish C's room. He was a little fussy, but then I didn't hear him and J said he was fine, so I kept painting, and when I came out this is what I found...

Poor Kid, he was really out, and when I picked him up he had carpet imprints on his cheek. Thankfully the paint in his room was VOC free, and it didn't smell so he could go right to sleep.

We used a tape called Frog Tape, which was really nice, we taped the lines, and painted, and there were only a few spots that didn't come off with totally straight lines. I don't think I'll ever go back to blue painters tape again.

J and A picked their own room colors if you were wondering. We just need to find some "superhero" posters, and I want to get big wooden letters to spell their names out on the wall.

C's Room

J's Room

A's Room

Starting to feel like home...

2008-04-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

We've been busy, finally getting some pictures and things hung. Most of these were last night, although a couple have been up longer.

If you can't tell what this is, it's a clothes drying rack. It's on a pulley system so I can lower it to hang clothes on, then raise it to get it out of the way.
This is one of the first things I hung up after we moved in. It was a gift from some family members (Thanks, J, H & Kids), and although it's meant to clip papers to, I'm using it to hang backpacks and things on until we get some real coat hooks installed in the mudroom.
Last saturday my Mr. built the raised bed frames. Now we just have to wait for the builder to grade the lot so we can install and start planting.
This is the half bath, My Mr. built the cupboard for the bathroom at our old house, and even though there wasn't a really useful place for it at our new house, there was no way we would leave it behind. Now we just need to find something to put in it. Maybe a years supply of toothpaste? (The years supply of toilet paper and soap is already in the vanity)
I've been trying to find a good place for this rug, and finally found the perfect spot at the landing on the stairs. It was a wedding gift from friend's of my parents' who have always been like family. I think of them everytime I see the rug.

Clock by the front door. :) I think I can see a clock from nearly anywhere in the downstairs now.

This little candle holder was in the kitchen at our old house, but we discovered it fit perfectly right here in the living room. Now when I walk through that doorway, I can smell the candle and it makes me smile. I've heard that metal scroll home decor is on it's way out, but I don't care. :)
Two small pictures over the couch in the "formal" living room (the room we only look at- there ought to be some sort of use for it...). My Mr. thinks we need something else on the wall, I told him it will be okay once the wall isn't white anymore. We'll see.
This is a frame that my Mr. bought me for christmas. It's just missing a picture of A, but I'm going to pick up his new pictures today.

Here is a picture of the picture frame/calendar that my Mister bought me for christmas.
This is a picture of our entertainment center. I love how much space there is for all the books and things. It does make our TV look tiny, but no, we're not getting a big screen. The picture to the right is our Proclamation on the Family, and I want to get one of those wooden family home evening job board thingys to go under it

Wild Life

2008-02-20T15:54:00.000-08:00

Our neighbors saw a deer a few weeks ago, and today I saw what I think was a zone tailed hawk. It was a little more brown looking than pictures of zone tailed hawks I've seen online, but it had the band across the tail and I can't find any other hawks with the same stripe. If anyone knows what else it could have been let me know, since it doesn't look like zone tailed hawks actually live in northern utah.

The Zone-tailed Hawk is a slender bodied buteo with long wings and tail. It is in appearance much like the Common Blackhawk and nests in the same habitat but is much different in habits.

The Zone-tail is 19-22 inches long and has a wingspan of 48-55 inches. The plumage is a dark black except for a gray ring around the eye, and the tail which is banded black and white alternately; tail ends with a broad black band and a narrow white tip. The undersides are black. Immatures are similar in appearance to the adults, but differs in color. The plumage overall is more brownish; the undersides are spotted white, as well as the upper sides, which are spotted more sparingly. The tail is brown striped with black.

Nests are built in deciduous and coniferous trees; often the nests are built in the highest tree around. The nests are build of sticks, loosely. The nests are reported to be reused from year to year. 1-3 white to bluish white eggs are laid, sparingly spotted with brown. The eggs are incubated primarily by the female for 35 days. The male hunts for food while the female tends the nestlings. The nestlings will fly in 6-7 weeks.

The Zone-tailed Hawk is at home near mountains, valleys or other "rugged" areas. Hunting usually takes place in open spaces such as desert grasslands or in sparse forests. The Zone-tail soars and glides in circles in search of food, which is primarily birds and lizards. It will also eat large insects and small mammals. The Zone-tail is very much in appearance and in flight similar to the Turkey Vulture, and some claim it uses this resemblance to come closer to prey and catch them unaware.

The Zone-tailed Hawk is found throughout Mexico and Central America, as well as southern and central Baja California, southern California, central and southern Arizona, much of New Mexico and southern Texas.

It's all ours

2008-02-13T22:11:00.001-08:00

I don't have any pictures, but the house is officially ours (as of tuesday around 4:00).

We've been slowly taking loads of boxes over, and I've been washing dishes. The kitchen is set up enough that you can make a pb&h (no jelly yet) and even have dishes to eat off of.

No other furniture yet. My Mr. is working feverishly (even as I type this) to paint as much as possible before saturday when we are moving the big stuff.

Breaking in

2008-01-24T08:27:00.000-08:00

Last night, after I had cleaned out the old house, and I decided to see if the new house was open. To my dismay it was locked. They have usually been leaving it open as of late. I tried to open the garage door but to no avail. I then went around back and looked through the windows - DARN - they had installed the screens on the windows. Anyway, I saw that one of the bay windows in the dining area was open so I took the screen off and helped myself to wander the house.

I had thought of some excuses if I were to be caught by the police because of the nosy neighbors or something. But I didn't get caught. I even tried sending them some bat-signals through the windows to show them I was there but to no avail.

I did find that the carpet layers were finished. Here are a couple of pictures of their work:

The appliances also came and I was well pleased with what he had chosen. I think that the white appliances look really good along the dark cabinets and counter tops.

The picture site is updated with all of the pictures that I took last night.

More Brick and Cabinets

2008-01-15T12:18:00.001-08:00

On my run this afternoon, the bricklayers - let's just call them the St. Louis Billikens - were eating lunch in our bedroom. But they had finished laying the brick around the windows. All what is left to do is the brick around the posts. Of course I didn't bring my camera, but this morning, I took a picture of the bricks around the garage:

I also updated the picture page.

The work progresses

2008-01-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

The bricklayers have come this morning. On Saturday, they said that it would take a couple of days. So that is pretty exciting. It would be nice if they would pour our sidewalk and entry so we wouldn't have to walk through the mud. I have also updated our picture site. So take a look at that for other pictures.

Vinyl, cabinets, and concrete - oh my!

2008-01-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

Lots of stuff has happened since the last time I have updated about the house. Since we sold the house, we are getting even more and more excited. As you can see, lots has happened. I will post more pictures on the picture site, but here is a few of what has happened. Note the last picture the stucco.

And there was much rejoicing...yaaay.

2008-01-12T19:27:00.000-08:00

I have mixed thoughts as I am writing this post. But the majority of those thoughts are good - very good. We received another offer on our house (the people who made the previous offer didn't accept out lowest counter) last night. We countered this morning and then they countered back to us. To make a long story short, we accepted the offer. They put on their offer that they would close on Jan 31 so that would help us out even more. So we actually haven't "sold" the house, but we have an accepted offer.

It was for less than what we were thinking of getting which causes me a little grief. But I do have to admit the grief is lessened quite a bit by the fact that it is going to be sold. Especially lately, as Al and I would go by the new house and see various things happen with it, we would drive away and mutter under our breath, "I hope that we will be able to move in." But that has subsided. I have been excited about this house for a long time - when the framers were working, drywall, etc. But now it has become even more of a reality. We are actually going to move into a new house! And what's more, our old house is sold (knock on wood)!

Again, I am relieved. Don't get me wrong. But I wish that we could have got more out of it.

On a side note, this is my last semester of school. I am only taking one class right now - and it is a negotiations class. We discussed how during a single issue negotiation, it is always a win/lose negotiation. A couple of the people in my class didn't understand that. I can fully understand it now. Although I think that in this negotiation, it wasn't just single issue. We did want to sell the house very quickly. So in that instance, it was a win/win issue (at least that it what I keep trying to tell myself). But I still feel that we kind of lost in the negotiations.

We did end up making quite a bit of money on the house. In that I cannot complain. When we bought the house, we knew that we were buying an "investment" property after we fixed it up and stuff. We did really well.

Hoping

2008-01-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

We have received an offer on our house. It wasn't quite what we were hoping for - actually it was quite less than what we wanted. We countered with what we know is our lowest offer and told them that. We were supposed to receive an answer today by 6:00 but our Realtor called and said that they wanted to think more about it.

I asked him if that was a good sign or not, and he said yes and no. I am not sure if he was feeding me a line or not. How can it be a good sign? If they were willing to accept the offer, shouldn't they have just accepted it? A few of his comments when we signed the counter offer:

"They wanted to replace some of the kitchen cabinets"

"They wanted to replace the carpet"

"They want the projector"

"They want the sandbox" (I am assuming that he is referring to the play area - which is full of wood chips, not sand)

"They want us to pay for 3% of the closing costs"

"They are getting 100% financing - so the closing costs are important to them"

Later last night after we had put the kids to bed, Al and I were thinking about how that really is the lowest we could go. We (she more than I) go back and forth between just selling it at that price, or hoping that the reject the offer and someone else comes along and takes it at a higher price. But the more we think about it, it would just be good to sell it and be done. What a relief that would be.

Meet the Neighbors

2008-01-03T19:36:00.001-08:00

Their house blog.

Meet Us

2007-12-17T11:59:00.000-08:00

Mud and Tape

2007-12-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

What a difference a little mud and tape can make. The rest of the pictures can be found here. We have decided that J and A are going to have their own bedrooms. Spoiled kids. I think that that term may as well be spoiled parents! Right now, it is hard to put the kids to bed because they just like to play with each other so much. So now, we will be able to tell if they get out of their bedrooms to play. Ha ha! Take that! Parents 1, kids 0!

Wait a minute, they are going to have their won bedrooms. Hmmmm, parents 1, kids 1. And I wasn't able to have my own bedroom until my older brothers moved out. Kids 2. and they are going to be able to paint it the way that they want - kids 3. And each have huge windows - 4, and ... 5, and ... 6.

But HEY! Who's counting? It is a win-win situation. Everyone is happy!

--- --- grumble, grumble --- ---

Cabinets & Tile

2007-12-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

The last major projects of our old house are really in the final stages of completion. The tile went on pretty nicely. I have to fix a couple of spots that I missed with the grout and then seal it up and caulk. It looks really nice. And with the cabinets, I have the drawer faces to finish and attach. Other than that, they are done. That is a good feeling to have. Here are a few pictures but I also posted a lot more here.

The drywall is what?

2007-12-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

Yup - it is done. At least it is hung. They still have to mud and tape, and for the most part, they did a pretty good job. They did mess up on my wiring a little bit, but I hope that what they did will be salvageable. I will have to post some pictures later on that. But here are a couple of pictures, and as usual, the rest are on my picture site.

More progress

2007-11-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

Well, whether I am done or not with what I want to do with the house behind the walls, it is too late. The sheet rock was delivered yesterday. I happened to run into our supervisor again and he said that they would have it all hung by the end of the weekend. Whoa! Oh yah!

The rest of the pictures are at my picture website". You can see that I did all of the telephone, cable, internet, and surround sound. I am excited for that. We have the bonus room, family room and the master bedroom with surround sound built in the walls. That is just too cool, I think. With the speakers as well, I pre-wired speaker wire for two in-ceiling speakers in the kitchen and in the master bedroom. There will be wall switches/control to change the volume for those speakers.

And you can see the insulation between the inner walls of the upstairs. OH YAH! Crank up the Van Halen for the morning shower! I am so looking forward to this house.

So I think that all of what I need to do on the house before we close is just about done. I will have to put on the faceplates for the voice, data and cable, but that is very little. This is just so cool.

"We like to do good work"

2007-11-13T09:02:00.001-08:00

I saw the handrail go in and I thought to myself, without saying anything to the framers, "man - that is pretty wimpy for a handrail." But I caught them talking about it alter - in spanish - and they were discussing how to strengthen it. One of them drew were they would cut out a place for a 2x4 to go through the floor and attach to the joists below.

Their comment about this was this: "Many of the framers don't do this - it isn't written in the plans. But we like to do good work."

Yes, my friends, you do like to do good work. I was really impressed by the work that they did. I hope that they continue to find work in the valley. They said that work was slowing down for them and that there wasn't too much work to do. I hope that other people can see the quality of work that they do as compared with other framers in the valley.

They really like to do good work.

We have Doors!

2007-11-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

We went to check on the progress today and found not only the plumbers there (they were installing tubs and the shower and drain lines (as far as I could tell)) but there were also doors! What a nice surprise to see that we have doors! Even more exciting is that the patio door is the same brand as the between-the-glass blinds I was looking at last night while online.

Here's the front door, it rained really hard yesterday and today the living room and family room are filled with water. It's a little disturbing. It will be nice to get the roof shingled and windows installed so things stay dry inside.

Here I am admiring the mudroom. The plans called for a closet to be in the corner, but I thought there were too many doors for such a small space, so we had them take the closet out. We'll put a nice bench in to sit on, with shoe storage underneath, and coat hooks that the kids can reach. On the far right is the laundry room. You can also see the furnace in the garage. We thought it was going to be in the attic, so this was a nice surprise. I guess the water heater will sit next to it.

This is the master bathroom, with a separate tub and shower.

That's our house! We're hoping to be in sometime in february.

"Some houses just go more smoothly than others"

2007-11-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

Framing is completed. That is a nice feeling to have. I went over yesterday morning and found the HVAC people in there doing their stuff. I was surprised because the framers had just finished the day before. It was a very nice surprise.

This morning when I went over, as I pulled up, the HVAC guys recognized me and called out from the upstairs window, "HEY! I've got a question for you!" I went up and he was about to put our laundry room in the upstairs bathroom. Hmmmm. That would have been interesting. I quickly reminded him that the laundry room is downstairs in the LAUNDRY room.

I was taking some exterior pictures in the back and the superintendent was at our neighbor's house finishing up some stuff and he came over and talked with me for a little bit. He said that it is interesting that some houses go along really smoothly where everything seems to just fit together and go right after the other. And then in other houses run into problem after problem.

Am I (as the owner) the deciding factor? There were a couple of problems with the framing plans that I had the framers fix. The major ones (missing wall, walls where they shouldn't be) I took up with the sales staff - like I was supposed to do. But if I let them do something wrong that I know is wrong, if it was really small, I brought it up with them. To be honest, I think that they appreciated the fact that I took interest in their work. They even asked me a few questions on my preferences on a couple of items. And they were really good. They did high quality work. I was really impressed with them (see a future post on this subject). So if I wasn't in to building my home like I am, would the HVAC people have cut through my bathroom and put in the laundry room there?

As good as we say that the plans are perfect, all of the little details of the house cannot be planned and put on paper. The walls for the house came to the job site pre-assembled. But there were still a few errors with the walls. Four walls weren't built right and the framers had to fix them. Another wall wasn't even built. So why didn't the HVAC guys have a detailed drawing that specified where the laundry room was? They weren't even on the right floor?

I guess I am glad that I can "overlook" the construction process a little bit. The superintendent didn't say anything about me being on the construction site a lot or talking with the subs. Maybe he views me as someone who is helping him with his job? Maybe I shouldn't go that far.

Latest pictures

2007-10-29T22:00:00.001-07:00

I know that it has been a while, but here are a couple of the latest pictures of our house:

I know that I wasn't supposed to talk to the workers, but hey, when they are hispanic and I respond to them in their native tongue, one can't help oneself to talk! It is very interesting as a lot of the walls are built off-site. All of the door frames are built off-site. All they have to do is put things together like a lego set. They said that they would be done in a week. SAY WHAT!?!?! Oh yah - they will be done in a week.

Another interesting observation was made by my better half. She said that there were hardly any other houses near the same stage as our house. I guess the market for new houses has dropped quite a bit - even for our builder. It will be very interesting to see just how long it is going to take to build our house. With no other houses in the stages near ours, there will be more subs to do the work for our house.

So expect another update near the end of the week. You should see a fully constructed house!

Houston, we have a foundation

2007-10-12T15:32:00.001-07:00

The front:

Looking from the left hand side (for the neighbor's view):

Looking from the right hand side:

Cool picture

2007-10-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

The Beginning

2007-10-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

Dig Date

2007-09-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

We have a dig date!

October 9th

Big process

2007-09-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Almost done!

Another step...HUGE step

2007-09-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

What a difference a day makes! I am starting to get really sad about leaving the house. Here is the latest addition:

I feel so bad for Allie in not getting the kitchen done sooner. I hope that she will forgive me in some future time. It is looking really nice. I am really excited with how it is turning out.

A big step

2007-09-14T10:19:00.001-07:00

I went over to the woodshop last night and brought home a cupboard for our kitchen. This one goes to the left of the window above the sink as noted in the picture:

This is just the beginning. I am planning on bringing over quite a few more on Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, we have a friend of a friend coming over and taking a look at the house. We had someone look at the house yesterday. They seemed pretty interested, but it is hard to read people. Even though our house has "been on the market" for 30 days, we have been happy with the response that we have received from just listing it with KSL classifieds.

I am giving us one more week to complete everything that we need to do in order to get it ready to sell. That includes the kitchen and the bathroom. Everything else can be done in the interim while it is "on the larger market."

Our house is still in the dirt

2007-09-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. This hasn't changed too much. I just wanted to say that as our house is progressing, we are going to take pictures from the same angle and put them all into a movie. It will be like the cool fast-motion-documentary-type of a movie that shows things at different stages. Here is the first picture:

Design process finished

2007-09-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

We found an interesting fact yesterday while we were doing the final designs for our home. The design center is not owned by Woodside Homes. We found this out almost near the end or our process so I think that had something to do with some of the pressure that we felt when picking out our stuff.

Our design lady was really nice and really helpful. I could tell that she had a good eye for things (maybe it was that she suggested something, say for instance our house paint color, and I would like it). But she helped us out a lot. I guess my only feeling was that she really tried to upsell everything she could, instead of look after our best interests - getting into a nice house the least expensive way. She really didn't want us to put in the standard grade vinyl flooring. Our refute was that we were going to just replace it with hardwood later on. "Are you going to do it in the near future - like within 6 months? Because if not, I would HIGHLY suggest upgrading." Well, that kind of made us feel stupid, because "we weren't getting the BEST STUFF for our house." I kind of just played along with her through most of the stuff - lighting, plumbing fixtures, etc.

But we survived with our original thoughts on upgrades - and even escaped with lower costs. The fridge was lower cost, and we added a vinyl (not-so-near-future hardwood) walkway through the family and living rooms which lowered our costs by $1! SAWEET!

So even though I thought that the salesperson was just trying to up her commission, I am pleased with what I think is going to be the final version of our house.

How much longer do we have?

One down, how many more to go?

2007-09-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

I finished up one of my many projects around the house this last week. It had been bugging me for quite a while. I cleaned up all of the cables in our media closet and now it looks pretty good. The telephone can cable go into that closet and is distributed throughout the house from there. There is also a DSL filter so instead of having a filter for each phone in the house, there is just one filter for the entire house. It has worked seamlessly while we have had it.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Because we're Stalker-Neighbors

2007-08-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-08-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-08-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

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.