So I know nobody cares.... but I do!!!

There is a backhoe out at the property! They are going to "skim" off a layer of grass at the property to make it easier for the surveyor to work and put in the stakes for the house. I am leaving town on Sunday and the builder wants to be sure they have the house location approved before we go. Lloyd did promise Nicholas he would give him a room with no dog poop. That is where the 5 year old doesn't get it --- he sees the stakes, I tell him he might get this room or that room, pointing at the general area of the rooms. He inspects for dog poop before making his decision about which one he wants. Other than the room with no dog poop, the other major requirements from the kids are a trap door with voice recognition and a slide into the basement, and a secret door. Hmmm, we'll see if we can do anything at all to impress them!

Hopefully, the building department will approve everything while we're gone and when we get back in July, there will be a foundation poured.

Before pictures of the lot

In anticipation of a little bit of clearing and dirt moving, I thought it would be a good idea to take some "before" pictures.

Here they are...the first is a picture of where the house is going to go --- behind the sweet gum tree. We are going to try to save it, because a tree, especially a large tree is nice to have. But, those little spiky balls and 3 boys..... anyway, we'll see how it looks after the foundation is poured. The grading might not look very natural if we keep the tree, so we'll see once we get to that point.

Ready, Set....

Here we are, June of 2010, getting ready to build a house....When we bought the property in 2008, I never thought it would actually take this long to get this project started. But, that is another story.

We have "completed" our house plans, though I think they will continue to evolve as we go through this process. Just a few days ago we noticed a space under the porch that could be a "perfect" wine room. We'll see about that.... We have selected our builder, Lloyd, whom we are really excited to work with. Right now we are waiting on the permits to be issued and then we'll get started. I am anticipating breaking ground by the end of the month. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Lloyd is going to build us a sample board of our chosen materials. That will be really helpful to see if what we like in isolation will look good on the entire house. We're hoping to get that done next week, as well as the house staked.

We expect this house to take about 11 months to build. Let's get started.....