Walls.

Good Morning! Please dont hate me for lack of blogging we have had so much going on around here! There have been some great changes since I last wrote... one of which would be our wall! Yes, I know you have seen all the walls in the house but this fancy one is for our outside! 

After an intense day of trenching down through years of roots, they poured the cement deep down in the ground and hauled in all the block needed. 

It honestly was put together very quickly! 

Ah, here she is.

I want it to be known that this is My Husband's Wall. I like it now that its here but it was not something on the top of my "dream house" list. Ha! 

We also got to celebrate our garage door being installed! 

Cuuute!

I could bore you with a ton of pictures going up and down but I wont :) this time at least! I've never heard such a quiet garage door before in my life! This thing is amazing! On the button to open it it tells you the time and temp! These things are so fancy these days haha! 

Its time for us to get ready for our driveway! 

We picked out some really lovely pavers called Deep Sea they have hints of blue and grays but are a beautiful charcoal color! We are still going back and forth on if we should do some stone accents around the front door or to keep it like it is now. Thoughts? 

Our beautiful base boards, crown moulding, and door trim are all installed through out the house! 

The inside has all been painted as well! How exciting! 

Everyday that we go and visit the house I have to take a look at my beautiful bathroom, I just cant help but be super excited about it each and every time! The crown in here is stunning as well! 

We are getting ready for the tile to go in now, we had a meeting with our tile guy yesterday and we were even there when our tile was delivered! I'll update a little bit later tonight with those photos and some of the driveway! 

Oh yea... this baby... going in my master bath! 

I wish I could have these all over the house but sadly this is not a home that has a maid to clean every shiny thing.  :( 

I also have to still pick out some more light fixtures for the rest of the house and watching The Great Gatsby before doing this is not a good idea. Side note: I will be collecting charms and pieces of old or broken chandeliers so I can make a whole dress out of them. I've got quite a few already but probably only enough to cover my lady bits. 

I also picked out and priced a dining room table ((from Pottery Barn)) well... lets just say that I am now allowed to get a table from the local Architectural Salvage because they are more than HALF their price!  

Dear Pottery Barn, I love you but I am as the kids say these days 'Ballin' on a Budget' and I'm going to need you to bring your prices down a few thousand. 

This is how my conversation with The Hubs went about how I want our house to look:

Me: So I want a mixture of new and old!

Him: Right.

Me: So we can pick a few things up from the Salvage and work them into our decor.

Him: Yea, so you want to buy new things that just look old?

Me: No, I want new things and old things. Mixed. 

Him:<makes a scrunchie face> New shit that looks old. Got it. 

*facepalm*

You should have this conversation with your husband or wife before you walk into an Ethan Allen store because thats just overpriced new old looking stuff and thats the prices they will think of when you tell them this. Haha.

I'll try to post more later with some updated pictures of our driveway and any tile work thats done! 

We did it!

Good Morning... or afternoon, I'm not quite sure. I'm just incredibly sleepy. I hope you all are having a day filled with sunshine and bubbles! I sure am!! We are finally getting off that roller coaster ride called "Your First Construction Loan" boy has it had some serious ups and downs and complete flips along the way! We signed our final paperwork yesterday with Mary Lou and Michelle. As we walked into the bigger office they were giggling and saying "Man, we didn't have much luck in this office last time around" so we did hesitate before we entered the room and they eventually clarified what had happened previously on a closing they did. Long story short they thought the last couple should get a divorce, they have higher hopes for us. :)

After signing a small Rain Forest worth of paperwork and handing over a large check we have entered into the first stages of the American Dream... or Debt. TaaDaa! We are the proud parents of a mortgage! I think it might be nice to go over a few things we have learned along this tiring process....

• Money: You need to begin planning and saving to build your dream home by the time you have your first piggy bank. This is no joke. If you want everything in said dream home that you have ever wished for then seriously start saving. 

• Patience: I do not usually have much of this, but I have a little now. "I'll get right back to you" in bankers terms really means 'I'll call you in a few days'. This can possibly be the same with almost every person you will come into contact with until the day your house is finished. The Hubs is the best in this department and so he kept me away from the phone for most of this. 

• Not Waiting: Yes, I know I just touched on patience but this goes for when you begin your dream to build a house. We went through countless (22) floor plans before we came up with the right balance of open areas and functionality. Before you even think to get a pre-approval on a mortgage you need to know the size of your home, the location, the amount of rooms... ect. We had to have completed plans before we even were allowed to talk numbers. (see first bullet point, plans are not cheap) 

• A Box of Tissues: I'm not always an emotional wreck, but when I am its because I'm trying to get a loan. 

• Good Credit: This ladies and gents is a lie! Sure it helps but at the end of the day if you have a crappy appraiser  your credit score doesn't mean shit. We both have watched our credit since day one and have some of the highest scores but even the bank will tell you that it "doesn't matter". (yes, Wells Fargo literally said this) 

• An Outlet: Not the electrical one but something more along the lines of chocolate, the gym, or cooking. For me I used all of these to take out my aggression, sadness, or impatience. 

• A Rock: Mine was The Hubs, and his was me. When he was stressed I took on the role of calm and collected even though I was secretly freaking out myself (a few times this slipped) But again, he is much better at being a rock than I am. I think I would suck at Poker as well, but thats why I dont gamble. 

• Money: Lets just bring this back up. If you want a loan for a house fairly nice sized (Florida sized, not New York sized) home then you need to know that your plans are paid per sqft, your impact fees are based on the sqft, your flooring, drywall, windows, doors, and everything else is all based on sqft. Do not go in over your head on this. Its okay to go smaller! 

• Stay Strong: I think most banks (and lawsuits) use the whole "make em wait" technique to wear someone down. There were the usual "run around" rituals they put us through that we ran off in the gym, but the waiting made us turn to food, chocolate, and eating out because we just didnt feel like cooking. 

• DirectBuy: Do not contact this company. As much as you want to they are going to harass you for months to come. Yes- I wanted to see the showroom, No- I didnt have intentions of buying anything. Fun facts about them: You have to sit through 30 min of mouth flapping before you can see anything, if you dont join after this or decide not to even show up you cannot step foot inside a DB for 5 years! Membership fees are FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. gross. We are going on month 2 of being a no show here and they have called me from all over the country and from blocked numbers. Its getting out of hand. 

We may never do this again, but I may be lying. I think we are going to be much more prepared next time.... ((says Mrs. OCD who has a binder for everything all the time. Ie: 3 years of Tax returns binder, bank statements, credit scores, pre-approvals, and other financial records binder.)) Okay fine... I think we will be much more emotionally prepared next time. 

Now we begin....