still just dirt.

Well not too much going on here on the "Home Front" :( sadly we are still waiting on the bank to get back to us, we heard from a little birdy that the appraisal was to be turned in by tomorrow... so we might just bug our friend at the bank.

The land is finally cleared... a 4 day job took about 2 weeks to be complete.... yes I am making this face right now { :|  } 

Some damage was done to the neighbors fence.... This is not entirely our land clearing people fault. These trees have been growing wild for years and when they went to take out the trees next to it on our side of the fence the roots were tangled and took down the fence.... when I went out there today all of this was on the ground, I'm thinking we have had some visitors out there lately being hoodlums. Grrreeeaat. 

Had to do a little land owner up-keep myself while I was out there. We lost our some of our property lines with all the dust and dirt flying around so I picked up this cute little can of spray paint (at the craft store) and made my lines appear again! 

The Hubs assigned me the task of finding quotes for our fencing we need to have while we build and afterwards for the pups... I lined up about 5 quotes and met with 2 of them in person. Since Todd gave me all the measurements we needed and told me the lingo I needed to use when talking to these guys I thought that it was going to be a walk in the park. 

No. Not true. Clearly some of these men take me for a fool... or just a typical woman. Not happy. I told one guy that I needed 450ft of fence and 20 of that was going to be a large gate (which is do-able) he called me back and told me that I actually needed 554ft of fence and that didnt include the gate.... where in the world did he get over 100ft MORE than what I was asking for?! I had to go over everything with him and he was pulling some huge numbers out of his ass and I decided to just let him talk and then threw out his quote. 

Another one of my quotes I got was WAAAY too low... but he was a nice man and just did it over the phone... I think he might have missed some numbers and I cant fault him for that. 

The quote I got today I think I told the guy probably 20 times that I needed 8ft high fence in the back and I needed a quote for temporary fencing and also a separate one for the repairs on the neighbors fence (we will only be paying half) when I got the quote today it didnt have any of this included. 

Are you kidding me?! Maybe I am not speaking clearly... nope that cant be it I went to speech therapy for 3 years! 

As for our rental.... oh man. This place is a hot mess fo-real. So currently we have at least 4 outlets that do not work. This includes the one and only outlet in the master bath... and the guest bath. I have been curling my hair while sitting on the floor in the middle of the bedroom. <heavy blinks> I also had to blow some leaves with this miniature leaf blower that our landlord left us and found out that the only outlet outside doesnt work either. 

Being born and raaaised (say it with a southern accent) in Florida, I know that there is a very likely chance I will encounter bugs from time to time... more specifically roaches and I have recently taught myself to not scream bloody murder and now have resorted to calling The Hubs. When I am alone depending on the size of the bug I will sometimes sacrifice one of my dogs and use a paw. The larger ones sometimes get hairspray or windex.... or the tried and true shoe if it is around. This house though.... ((shivvers))  when we moved in I saw no signs of bugs at all... now its like a breeding ground. Okay so with the help of Todd's son and a trip to Lowes we have controlled the masses. I can now walk into the kitchen at midnight and not have to worry about anything under my feet but a dog or two. :) The kitchen sink is leaking... seems to have been like this for a while and our landlord doesnt really care so I have decided to throw an air freshener under there and call it a day. Rot or not I dont care enough to try and get this fixed. 

We still are not using any of the cabinets or drawers, I have my pots and pans I use on the daily out and on a shelf that used to live in my craft room this is also my make-shift pantry. Its working for me for now. I was going to just live out of boxes till the house was complete but The Hubs wanted some artwork on the walls. 

so I gave him this option.... I think its actually going to stick around. :) 

We got busy at work and I packed up at the end of the day and didnt complete this post so I will give you this mornings updates:

The bank called us and we were sent to underwriting! YAY! We asked what our timeframe was looking like and she said it was looking good for being done soon! Yes.... I almost cried. Its like music to our ears right now! We want this sooo bad! 

I also got an email back from the fence guy I met with yesterday... he thinks I just dont understand his email.... uh hello. yes I did and clearly you weren't listening to me when I was talking to you! Stupid men! 

On a good note we found a beaut of a path to take the dogs to the park. This park is amazing too! So many pathways to bike the dogs! We headed out on sunday and did our first treck with them and then biked through the local art show afterwards... We are quite a site too haha I think one day we are going to cause an accident. 

Back to work I go... I'll keep you updated on what happens :) 

Fence Companies Used: Arrow, H&Y, Johns Fencing, some other guy, and USA Fence. 

Seeing dirt

We had a meeting this morning with our (hopefully) lending bank... Mary has made the process super easy for us and has really put in a substantial amount of time to make all this work. We were prepared to come out of pocket for some things but she is working on it so we dont have to come out all the way... just peeking :) ha! We also started our account moving process to get the hell out of Dodge (or the bank that needs to suck my.... never mind)  :) I have really surprised myself lately with just letting life happen around us. I want to look back on all this and think 'when can we start the next one'! Besides fighting for my huge kitchen and huge pantry I think I wont need to fight for much more.

Todd has put in some of his own fight lately and thankfully not with us. Our glorious front door:

...has decided to make us jump a few more hurdles than your average door. First you have to take into account that Florida has to have Impact rated doors... due to our below sea level life and our hurricane attraction! This company is out of Georgia and hasnt completed its full range of impact testing but is ALMOST complete and they have all the paperwork in order. Bummer news is that it was denied to begin with but once they sent over their testing info we became a little bit closer to closing the door on this chapter! (you see what I did there?!) 

Why are we fighting for this door you ask?! Well... is your door made of complete steel? Can your door withstand some of the most extreme weather testing? Does your door have impact glass panels that open to let the ocean breeze in? and finally.... does your door need a fork lift to move it from point a to point b? Well... our door is, has, and does. :) (hopefully OUR door, keep your fingers crossed for us) 

Mary said she cant wait to see this door on the house! 

That is our land as of 2 hours ago. I stopped by our PO Box and came to see this in the day time for the first time since saturday. Huge change from this...

We can see the main road from our private road finally! Yes. Scary. Very very scary. Shit just got real. 

Here you can see the man in the bull dozer peeking out. I found out today that this is a husband and wife team and thats pretty cool! I love being able to say that I do that too with The Hubs. 

I havent started my Cupcake bribery to finish faster yet... but I will. I mentioned it today in the bank to Mary and told her to pass the word on to everyone who will look over our paperwork. I know that this is a low tactic but I want my home and I will use all the sugar and cream I can to get moved into this dream house!  I need to go rest my eyes but I will write again in a bit about a few things I have in mind for the inside... I might even show you my completed plans for the house! 

Quick note: My pup decided to get himself and his ball stuck under the couch... when I tried to reach it I pulled something in my neck and have now put myself to bed while I wait for the muscle spasms and shooting pain to go away, and if my entry seems a little disjointed its because I took half of a muscle relaxer and I am a little spacey. See exhibit A. 

Exhibit A:

Good morning from the land of 'I'm only half an iced coffe in and I'm still a little grumpy'!!

This weekend my husband decided to gift me a sunday doing what I wanted to do because we went to the gun show for him... and spent a good 2 hours there (one of which was just waiting in line) So what did I pick to do?! FURNITURE SHOPPING! Yes when we went we didnt know the full size of the room but I am ready to get ideas and see some couches and such now so I can whip it out as soon as we move in!

This pretty baby is from Ashley Furniture. We found it a few weeks ago when we went shopping out of town. This is when we figured out that each couch needs to go through the test... 

((Step 1. Remove all unnecessary pillows. Step 2 Have The Hubs lay down. Step 3 lay down next to The Hubs and close eyes.)) Yes, we do get some strange looks but who really cares! If you invest money into something like furniture you need to know if it will be what you really want! 

This couch is a top contender! 

We found this one this weekend. Sorry for the sucks picture but after searching 45 pages of couches I never found it on the website and just took a picture of a picture. I love this couch its great and even has  my decorative nail heads in it but I think the color is too light. Its also double the price of the couch above. It did pass the test though! As much as I want something with the decorative nail heads in it I think we are going to pass on this one. Sad to say its out since its the only thing so far The Hubs has liked with this detail but oh well! 

Found this little table as well. The sides fold up into it so its a perfect table to have behind a couch. Once you open it up that means you are having a cocktail party... or this is how I feel it would work. :) 

We are IN LOVE with this Ethan Allen coffee table... but as you all know that store most of it starts at like a million dollars... so we will wait on this guy. But the wood and metal together is a beautiful look!

This Chandelier. Oh. M. G. yea! So I originally found this same exact one online months ago and fell in love. I have actually been looking for a table to go under it for our dining room I love it that much. Well The Hubs got to see it first hand and he loved it as well. Of course we didnt even look at that price since we were still at EA but online its about $600 or so. It makes a huge statement and I am in lovvvveeee

We also dabbled in entertainment centers. This we liked (in a dark color) its the tallest and widest we have seen so far. We might have to make a custom piece later on. 

We decided to not make a ton of furniture choices until we are actually in the house for now... maybe its because the shock of using a tape measurer to see things is really hard. ha! A 22ft wall doesnt seem super huge.... till you use a tape measurer in a small-ish room. 

Land Clearing Time

Well its time for us to start clearing the land! After finding out that we have 15 more feet on the side of the property its just that much more for us to clear! yuck! Just kidding! We are actually super excited about this revelation! Since we are fencing off the whole property and adding a gate up front I have been super worried about looking out of the windows on the sides of the house and seeing... fence. Ew. Nope, not anymore we get to have actual plants and such now! Everything with a pink flag around it is set to be removed... this is a total of 20 trees. Todd told us that this was going to cost us anywhere from $12,000 to $2,000 and we needed to keep our fingers crossed. Who knew that cutting down trees was so expensive!? Not only do they need to cut down these trees but they need to grind and remove the stumps as well... needless to say we will be selling firewood for the next few years to make some of this money back! haha! Kinda joking... kinda not...

Again, dont worry we will be more than compensating down the road with new plants, trees, flowers, and other misc landscaping. Thanks to my father I learned a lot over the years and cant wait to hit up the local growers and get to planting! I also have plans for a garden... my lovely garden box that The Hubs made for me when we first started dating is sadly sitting empty in the garage. :( 

Back to what I was saying, we did get quite a few quotes for the land clearing and all I can say is thankfully we did not hit the 12k mark! Woo! Mini celebration! 

With a construction mortgage you have to come out of pocket on about 25% of what you would like to get a loan on... this can include: Land clearing, Contractors fees, Architect fees, Survey Fees, Sewage survey, and so on and so forth. Just posting this so that if you decide to build on your own land... you should just know that the land itself probably isnt down payment enough for a bank anymore. Ew and more Ew to this one. Sucks that we have to come out of pocket this much before hand but glad we are prepared. 

On a lighter note! I dropped off the final check to Jason our Architect yesterday! Do you know what this means?! Do you?! THIS MEANS WE GET TO FILE FOR OUR BUILDING PERMITS! <insert happy dance> 

Yes Ladies and Gents, if all goes as planned we will be breaking ground very soon! This puts a swarm of little butterflies in my stomach! This isnt like your normal cookie cutter builders special house that you found in some neighborhood... this is our dream! This is excitement kept me from tearing my neighbors head off with my bare hands after he took a leaf blower to his "yard" and covered my white dog in dirt and leaves while he was peeing. Let me be clear that the word yard is used very loosely... he  has a busted driveway and stupid oak trees. The landlord cut all the branches off before we moved in so we wouldnt have to deal with his leaves... but thankfully he blew them all into our yard! They just drove away so I'm about to bust out the blower myself and give them back to my very giving neighbor. If I knew where his hose hook up was I'd use that and wash my little white dog with his water too! 

6 more months. 6 more months. 6 more months. 

I think the dogs will soon join us in this chant too... they are hating being in this house... 

well dont look at them right now... you couldnt tell. 

Have I mentioned yet how much this oven sucks? I'm sure that my baby chicken that I am cooking right now will take a good 2 1/2 hours... waaaay more than its used to. grr. time to go baste it again.... talk to you soon! 

Kitchen Table

I just can't get past this table! I have tried to find this style in a darker color but not happening! This lovely table seats six when it is folded up and then expands to ten when its needed. All the parts are kept internally and only come out when the 'Pie' is slid out. Its so impressive! Damn you expensive table! We are looking for a round one that can be expanded but not the traditional round to oval expansion and this fits what we need! I know I could always paint it the color that I want but at its current price I want it finished already! 

In other news we are almost completely moved in to the new rental... its... a rental. Just counting my blessings that we didn't have a ton of turn downs because the amount of dogs we have :) 

Had some help from friends and it was complete the same day we trucked over here. The dogs love the fenced in yard, since we have a smaller sqft for them to play and run inside it really helps out! So far I havent gone completely nuts with them in the house. 

Today I had my first 'gate open' scare... oh my so we are outside playing the '3 huskies run as fast as you can' game when they stop and look at the driveway. The garage is still packed so I cant park inside yet, and I noticed a bike tire and the far gate open... then guess who comes from around the corner of the house... the landlord. 

Yep. He biked over and started his creeping. Since I caught him early I gave him the death stare till he claimed to be getting our recycle bin back from the neighbor. I knew this man was a creeper! We had been using the garage opener to get in and out of the house for a few days and when I finally used the key I noticed that he gave us one real one fake... seems odd. I'll be re-programming the openers and we will be getting locks for the doors and gates. Thankfully we hung the blinds the other night. We have nothing to hide but we sure dont want someone all up in our bizznass! 

I have that dirty grimy someone is watching me feeling now that I just cant shake. yuck. 

I did cook in the house for the first time tonight! That was refreshing and I am starting to really feel a little more comfortable, we did eat out of paper bowls. Let me make it clear... I will NOT be unpacking just to pack again in a few months! No way! I will only OCD label these boxes once! 

Time for sleep its 3:36... am.